I have a second machine which I use as a web/email server... let's call
it "webserver". (Let's call my first machine "desktop".)
Today I upgraded "webserver" from Lenny to Squeeze, and then to Sid.
This machine was running a custom 2.3.37 kernel throughout the upgrade
process. Once the upgrade to Sid was successful, I installed Debian
kernel 3.2.0-2 and tried to boot to it. That worked, but I had held
back kmod and was using the module-init-tools from Squeeze (3.12-2).
With 3.2.0-2 running, I installed kmod/libmkmod 6-1.1, forced a rebuild
of the initrd (update-initramfs -k all -u), and tried a reboot to
3.2.0-2 again. It worked.
I was not paying careful attention to the sequence of steps, there, and
I got a little overexcited thinking that kmod-6-1.1 resolved this bug.
While in euphoria, I moved my attention from "webserver" back to
"desktop". On that machine, kmod-5-2 builds working initrd's for Debian
kernels (while running my custom 3.2.9 kernel) while kmod-6-1 does not.
I found that rebooting to a Debian kernel (either 3.2.0-2 or 3.3-rc6)
and updating the initrd's with kmod-6-1.1 gave me working Debian
kernels. (My custom kernel is unaffected; it does not use an initrd.)
However, rebooting back to my custom kernel (on "desktop") and updating
the initrd's for the Debian kernels with kmod-6-1.1 installed caused the
Debian kernels to fail again. Downgrading to kmod-5-2, and rebuilding
the Debian initrd's with my custom kernel running, worked fine.
For the sake of completion, I carried out the same testing on
"webserver": I booted the custom 2.3.37 kernel, updated the initrd for
Debian kernel 3.2.0-2 with kmod-6-1.1, and the Debian kernel would not
boot. Downgrading to module-init-tools-3.12-2, and updating the initrd
while running the custom kernel, produced a working initrd for the
Debian kernel.
In summary:
1) if I only use kmod-6* to update initrd's while running a Debian
kernel, then the result is working initrd's for those Debian kernels.
2) if I use a custom kernel which does not need an initrd with kmod-6*,
then updating initrd's for Debian kernels produces bad initrd's.
3) if I use a custom kernel with kmod-5-2 (or module-init-tools-3*)
then good initrd's are produced for the (non-running) Debian kernels.
Something changed in kmod-6.0 so that the modules selected for initrd's
of non-running kernels are determined by the modules being used by the
running kernel. If the currently-running kernel does not need modules
that the non-running kernels _will_ need, then their initrd's are built
without including those essential modules.
Bummer.
HTH,
Dave W.
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