Problem

/boot partition is too small to include a new initrd file. A Linux kernel installation from soruce code fails as below.

make -j`nproc`
sudo make modules_install
sudo make install <-- it fails.

Error messages are like below.

$ sudo make install
sh ./arch/x86/boot/install.sh 5.3.11 arch/x86/boot/bzImage \
        System.map "/boot"
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/apt-auto-removal 5.3.11 /boot/vmlinuz-5.3.11
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools 5.3.11 /boot/vmlinuz-5.3.11
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-5.3.11
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/ast_dp501_fw.bin for module ast

gzip: stdout: No space left on device
E: mkinitramfs failure cpio 141 gzip 1
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-5.3.11 with 1.
run-parts: /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools exited with return code 1
arch/x86/boot/Makefile:155: recipe for target 'install' failed
make[1]: *** [install] Error 1
arch/x86/Makefile:293: recipe for target 'install' failed
make: *** [install] Error 2

Solution

In Ubuntu 18.04, when kernel installation (make install) is failed.

cd /lib/modules/<kernel_version>
sudo find . -name "*.ko" -exec strip --strip-unneeded {} +
cd /<path>/<to>/<linux-kernel_src>
sudo make install

Reference

• https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/270394