Bug#428783: linux-latest-2.6: Use new Breaks field to avoid installing new kernel image if old packaged modules are installed
Package: linux-latest-2.6
Version: 2.6.21-4
Severity: wishlist
It would be great if we could have a mechanism to avoid installing a newer
kernel if the packaged modules that the user has installed are not yet
available. A simple example: I have 2.6.18-5 with the corresponding
kqemu-modules 2.6.18-5.
Yesterday I upgraded to sid and linux-image-2.6-686 pulled the new 2.6.21
kernel. However there's no kqemu-modules for 2.6.21 and thus I lost
support during the upgrade even though I have kqemu-modules-2.6-686
installed.
My suggestion to solve this is to use the new "Breaks" field as soon as
it's introduced in dpkg (it's planned in the next dpkg upload,
apt does already support it).
linux-image-2.6-686 in version 2.6.21+7 would be marked as breaking
the old versions of packages like kqemu-modules-2.6-686.
Package: linux-image-2.6-686
Breaks: kqemu-modules-2.6-686 (<< 2.6.21+7), unionfs-modules-2.6-686 (<<
2.6.21+7), ...
That way the package manager has a clear hint on when it can safely
proceed with the upgrade.
However when you do this, you must also decide to regularly update the
linux-modules-{contrib,extra} packages. Of course, you should only list in
the Breaks field the packages that are autobuilt. Those that are only created
by the user with modules-assistant shouldn't be listed other the upgrade
will never happen (unless the user is clever enough to do it by himself).
-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.21-1-686 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Reply to: