How to cleanup old kernel module files in /lib/modules on Ubuntu system

Question

In the /lib/modules folder, I see several old kernel modules that are taking up space on my system. I do not think those old kernel modules are used by the system. Is there any way to remove them without affecting the system?

Answer 1

I am not sure why Ubuntu and Debian don't remove old kernels when new ones are installed. However, if you want to free up some space on your system without affecting it, you can run the following command in the terminal:

sudo apt autoremove --purge

You can run this command before/after upgrading the kernel to keep disk usage a bit low.