Package: initramfs-tools Version: 0.148.3 * summary
update-initramfs no longer includes /lib/modules/<kver>/updates directory, this means out of tree drivers are not loaded during boot. I could not find reference to this behaviour change in release notes * update-initramfs in debian 12 (initramfs-tools 0.142) includes the updates directory when building initrd.img, example: root@testhost:~# update-initramfs -u -v 2>&1 > /root/update.1 root@testhost:~# grep sfc /root/update.1 Adding module /lib/modules/6.12.51-u1-amd64/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/sfc/falcon/sfc-falcon.ko.xz Adding module /lib/modules/6.12.51-u1-amd64/updates/dkms/sfc.ko.xz root@testhost:~# lsinitramfs /boot/initrd.img-6.12.51-u1-amd64 | grep sfc usr/lib/modules/6.12.51-u1-amd64/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/sfc usr/lib/modules/6.12.51-u1-amd64/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/sfc/falcon usr/lib/modules/6.12.51-u1-amd64/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/sfc/falcon/sfc-falcon.ko usr/lib/modules/6.12.51-u1-amd64/updates/dkms/sfc.ko Reference : https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/depmod.d.5.html Behaviour aligns to: By default, depmod will give a higher priority to a directory with the name updates * update-initramfs in debian 13 (initramfs-tools 0.148.3) does not include the updates directory, this means the dkms modules are not loaded correctly at boot. # modules are present root@testhost:~# find /lib/modules/6.12.51-u1-amd64/ -type f | grep sfc /lib/modules/6.12.51-u1-amd64/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/sfc/falcon/sfc-falcon.ko.xz /lib/modules/6.12.51-u1-amd64/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/sfc/sfc.ko.xz /lib/modules/6.12.51-u1-amd64/updates/dkms/sfc_char.ko.xz /lib/modules/6.12.51-u1-amd64/updates/dkms/sfc_resource.ko.xz /lib/modules/6.12.51-u1-amd64/updates/dkms/sfc.ko.xz root@testhost:~# update-initramfs -uv 2>&1 > /root/update.1 root@testhost:~# grep sfc /root/update.1 <nothing> # eventual initrd.img does not include the modules root@testhost:~# lsinitramfs /boot/initrd.img-6.12.51-u1-amd64 | grep sfc usr/lib/modules/6.12.51-u1-amd64/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/sfc usr/lib/modules/6.12.51-u1-amd64/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/sfc/falcon usr/lib/modules/6.12.51-u1-amd64/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/sfc/falcon/sfc-falcon.ko.xz usr/lib/modules/6.12.51-u1-amd64/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/sfc/sfc.ko.xz * other A very similar issue was reported here on ubutnu 24.02 ( I believe deb13 based) https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/update-initramfs-ignores-dkms-module/63923 * workaround My current workaround is to install dracut fully.
