On Sun 23 Nov 2025 at 09:57:51 (+0100), [email protected] wrote: > On 2025-11-16 21:38:38 -0800, Matthew Todd wrote: > > upgrading to Trixie [...] "linux-headers-amd64" package being > > uninstalled > > https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1091428 > triggered by > https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/release-notes/upgrading.html#cleaning-up-automatically-installed-packages > > > on which package I should submit a bug > > This known issue should have been mentioned at prominent place in the > release notes so IMO it's worth a bug report against those.
Ironically, there's a recommendation in §4.6.1 that, if it were applied to linux-headers-amd64 when appropriate, could avoid this problem. But what seems to be the main cause of it occurring is the new addition of §4.8, which doesn't give any warning of an undesired removal of linux-headers-amd64 in this case and potentially many others. I think that mention of autoremove should always be accompanied by a recommendation to check its list of intended removals carefully; so this paragraph could be expanded to include that. As the graphical failure is quite likely to be hit when first rebooting into an upgraded trixie, a hint could be added at §5.1.30 about dkms's possible role, and the need to manually install linux-headers-amd64 if headers were required previously. In fact, a note about the change in dkms's Recommendations could be added as a subsection just above. (For example, I see that a subsection on tzdata-legacy has been inserted here since early September.) That bug #1091428 looks pretty serious. (As section numbers have changed with updates to the manual, those above refer to: 4.6.1. Installing a kernel metapackage 4.8. Cleaning up automatically installed packages 5.1.30. Things to do before rebooting) Cheers, David.
