Bug#1092765: should /etc/initramfs/post-update.d/flash-kernel run flash-kernel with --force?

[Johannes Schauer Marin Rodrigues <josch@debian.org>]

Package: flash-kernel
Version: 3.107+reform1
Severity: normal

Hi,

I'm running "update-initramfs -c -k all" with a /boot that has newer
initrd than the installed kernel. This will result in:

update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.12.6-mnt-reform-arm64
Using DTB: freescale/imx8mq-mnt-reform2.dtb
Installing /usr/lib/linux-image-6.12.6-mnt-reform-arm64/freescale/imx8mq-mnt-reform2.dtb into /boot/dtbs/6.12.6-mnt-reform-arm64/freescale/imx8mq-mnt-reform2.dtb
Taking backup of imx8mq-mnt-reform2.dtb.
Installing new imx8mq-mnt-reform2.dtb.
Ignoring old or unknown version 6.12.6-mnt-reform-arm64 (latest is 6.12.8-mnt-reform-arm64)
Use --force if you want version 6.12.6-mnt-reform-arm64.
Couldn't find DTB imx8mq-mnt-reform2.dtb in /usr/lib/linux-image-6.12.8-mnt-reform-arm64 or /etc/flash-kernel/dtbs
Installing  into /boot/dtbs/6.12.8-mnt-reform-arm64/freescale/imx8mq-mnt-reform2.dtb
cp: cannot stat '': No such file or directory
run-parts: /etc/initramfs/post-update.d//flash-kernel exited with return code 1

Is there a way how i can programmatically convince update-initramfs to *not*
fail in this case?

Would it be bad if flash-kernel was called with --force in
/etc/initramfs/post-update.d/flash-kernel?

Or maybe there could be a new environment variable FK_FORCE=yes which achieves
the same thing such that I can run update-initramfs like this:

    FK_FORCE=yes update-initramfs -c -k all

Do you have other ideas?

This is run from the reform-boot-config utility from reform-tools and as such,
the script should be able to do the right thing without manual intervention. I
want to avoid first having to wipe /boot completely.

What do you think?

Thanks!

cheers, josch