Thank you for your report this feature is already available in Ubuntu you should have a file called initrd.bak. I had a similar experience with Feisty and just replaced the initrd's and set the old kernel image as default and everything worked.
** Changed in: initramfs-tools (Ubuntu) Assignee: (unassigned) => davmor2 Status: Unconfirmed => Rejected -- mkinitramfs should back up old initrd.img https://launchpad.net/bugs/51671 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs