end Kernel panic - not syncing

Question

Few days ago, after I did an apt upgrade, I got something like this in the log, multiple times

Error 24 : Write error : cannot write compressed block
E: mkinitramfs failure cpio 141 lz4 -9 -I 24
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-5.4.0-52-generic with 1.
dpkg: error processing package initramfs-tools (--configure):

This is not the exact message I was getting cause I already reboot my computer.

After I got the message, I tried to search for solution, and I ran this code, after the upgrade: sudo dpkg -P `dpkg --list | grep linux-image | grep ^rc | awk {'print $2'}`

Then after reboot I got this

I can't boot from the "linux mint 20" option in boot manager, though I could still use recovery options in "Advanced option for linux Mint", but not the first one, which is "linux 5.4.0-65-generic".

I tried to login to my system, with different version of linux image, recovery mode other than 5.4.0-65, and reinstall the linux-image(I think that command was for deleting linux image right?) with sudo apt install --reinstall linux-image-5.4.0-65-generic 5.4.0-65.73, but I'm getting errors

E: Unable to locate package 5.4.0-65.73
E: Couldn't find any package by glob '5.4.0-65.73'

Sorry I'm pretty bad at this, what should I do... I'm using linux mint distro

This is my linux-image list with dpkg --list | grep linux-image

ii  linux-image-5.4.0-26-generic                                5.4.0-26.30                                amd64        Signed kernel image generic
ii  linux-image-5.4.0-59-generic                                5.4.0-59.65                                amd64        Signed kernel image generic
ii  linux-image-5.4.0-60-generic                                5.4.0-60.67                                amd64        Signed kernel image generic
ii  linux-image-5.4.0-62-generic                                5.4.0-62.70                                amd64        Signed kernel image generic
iF  linux-image-5.4.0-65-generic                                5.4.0-65.73                                amd64        Signed kernel image generic
iU  linux-image-generic                                         5.4.0.65.68                                amd64        Generic Linux kernel image

Also, Im wondering what does this do grep ^rc | awk {'print $2'}

#####################################################

I ran into the same error again, when I was removing old kernels.

Error 24 : Write error : cannot write compressed block 
E: mkinitramfs failure cpio 141 lz4 -9 -l 24
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-5.4.0-65-generic with 1.
dpkg: error processing package initramfs-tools (--configure):
 installed initramfs-tools package post-installation script subprocess returne
d error exit status 1

and I think the below part is new

Errors were encountered while processing:
 initramfs-tools
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

And somehow removing linux-image ver 5.4.0-26 only free up 8mb of space on /boot

By checking apt-cache policy intel-microcode, it says installed

intel-microcode:
  Installed: 3.20201110.0ubuntu0.20.04.2
  Candidate: 3.20201110.0ubuntu0.20.04.2
  Version table:
 *** 3.20201110.0ubuntu0.20.04.2 500
        500 http://mirror.0x.sg/ubuntu focal-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     3.20191115.1ubuntu3 500
        500 http://mirror.0x.sg/ubuntu focal/main amd64 Packages

##############################################

This is the message I got by running apt-cache policy linux-image-5.4.0.65:

linux-image-5.4.0-65-lowlatency:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 5.4.0-65.73
  Version table:
     5.4.0-65.73 500
        500 http://mirror.0x.sg/ubuntu focal-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security/main amd64 Packages
linux-image-5.4.0-65-generic:
  Installed: 5.4.0-65.73
  Candidate: 5.4.0-65.73
  Version table:
 *** 5.4.0-65.73 500
        500 http://mirror.0x.sg/ubuntu focal-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Now that I have enough space on my /boot, I'll try to change source and do sudo apt install --reinstall linux-image-5.4.0-65-generic 5.4.0-65.73

---

(My CPU is Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590 CPU @ 3.30GHz if relevant.)

Answer 1

First let's have a look at:

I just checked my /boot, it seems that there's no more available space left...

So, now you could basically run the Mint Update manager, and uninstall the oldest kernel(s) in order to install a new one:

Also, please check if you have intel-microcode package installed for your Haswell CPU, a simple check could be with:

apt-cache policy intel-microcode

The grep ^rc filters out uninstalled packages with remained configuration.

There could be data not exactly in sync in your source mirror too, which would explain why you got the message about:

Unable to locate package 5.4.0-65.73

which is in central archive:

apt-cache policy linux-image-5.4.0.65

linux-image-5.4.0-65-lowlatency:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 5.4.0-65.73
  Version table:
     5.4.0-65.73 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security/main amd64 Packages
linux-image-5.4.0-65-generic:
  Installed: 5.4.0-65.73
  Candidate: 5.4.0-65.73
  Version table:
 *** 5.4.0-65.73 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Please remove one more old kernel and reset sources: