Bug#587608: Sorted out this bug
Package: initramfs-tools
Version: 0.97
Severity: normal
Hello, Dear Maks,
It's a long time since we last talked together.
I've sorted out the bug, thought I can't explain why my system was broken in
such a way to explose this bug.
Please, read on.
The only thing I did was to upgrade initramfs-tools from version 0.94.4 to
version 0.97 , as the following dpkg.log line shows:
2010-06-30 12:51:11 upgrade initramfs-tools 0.94.4 0.97
All went good, and triggers went right.
I made this update the usual way, through aptitude.
I've investigated and reached the following conclusion:
For some reason, there was no "COMPRESS=..." stanza in my
"/etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf" configuration file.
It is very strange, because I've never ever tried to modify this.
Creating an initrd with initramfs-tools 0.94.4 succeeded because this
version is resilient to the missing "COMPRESS=..." stanza.
In the contrary, creating an initrd with initramfs-tools 0.97 failed because
this version relies on the stanza "COMPRESS=..." which was missing on my
system.
That explains why the bug triggered on upgrade from version 0.94.4 to
version 0.97 of the initramfs-tools package.
Here folows my interpretation of why my system was missing the
"COMPRESS=..." stanza in the "initramfs.conf" configuration file:
Ages ago, I was in need of modifying this coniguration file, just the
"MODULES=..." stanza in fact.
I often swapped from "MODULES=most" to "MODULES=dep", and vice versa,
because either I had trouble to make lilo boot with large initrds, or I
didn't get the good set of modules in to boot. (both happened alternatively)
I believe, thought, it is quite some time now, that my "initramfs.conf"
configuration file has returned to a sane state WRT this "MODULES=..."
stanza, because it was monthes ago that I last needed such trickery.
It appears very likely that some older version of initramfs-tools didn't
have a "COMPRESS=..." stanza in its configuration file. And for some reason,
APT/DPKG messed things up on successive upgrades of initramfs-tools, and did
not replace the "initramfs.conf" configuration file with its updated
version.
I believe that APT/DPKG didn't warn me that I had a modified local version
of the "initramfs.conf" configuration file.
I remember clearly, however, that APT/DPKG warned me that I had a modified
"update-initramfs.conf" configuration file, and I directed it to keep my
local version which only differed from the official version by the modified
"update_initramfs=no" stanza, instead of "update_initramfs=yes".
So, I still can't explain why my "initramfs.conf" configuration file was
still missing the "COMPRESS=..." stanza.
Even more strange is that reportbug warned me that I had a modified
"update-initramfs.conf" file, but didn't talk about my then modified
"initramfs.conf" file either.
This missing stanza has survived at least two upgrades of initramfs-tools :
from pre- 0.94.4 to 0.94.4 , and from 0.94.4 to 0.97 ; without me being
warned, and the bug only triggered when using the 0.97 version because this
particular version depends on the COMPRESS variable to be set properly, as I
said above.
I can't figure out why APT/DPKG didn't warn me that I had a modified local
version of "initramfs.conf" .
All that I know is that NOW, APT/DPKG warns me if I modify
"/etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf" before upgrading initramfs-tools from
version 0.94.4 to version 0.97 .
Note that it is strange that initramfs-tools 0.97 depends on the COMPRESS
variable to be set properly in "/etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf", while
the 0.94.4 version does not, especially that both versions embed a
"COMPRESS=gzip" stanza.
That's all.
In hope my report will prove useful.
Sincerely,
Valentin QUEQUET
-- Package-specific info:
-- initramfs sizes
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 51 Feb 16 12:09 /boot/initrd.img-2.6.29.4-reiser4-um-custom-0001 -> /usr/bin/initrd.img-2.6.29.4-reiser4-um-custom-0001
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 79 Feb 16 12:09 /boot/initrd.img-2.6.29.4-reiser4-um-custom-0001.udev_and_cryptsetup_updated -> /usr/bin/initrd.img-2.6.29.4-reiser4-um-custom-0001.udev_and_cryptsetup_updated
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 13M Jun 8 18:07 /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-5-686
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 13M Jun 8 18:08 /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-5-686-bigmem
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 14M May 21 02:22 /boot/initrd.img-2.6.33-2-686
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 14M May 21 02:23 /boot/initrd.img-2.6.33-2-686-bigmem
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 14M May 6 01:43 /boot/initrd.img-2.6.33-3.dmz.2-liquorix-686
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 14M Feb 19 16:10 /boot/initrd.img-2.6.33-rc8-git1-custom-0001
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 45 Feb 16 12:04 /boot/initrd.img-2.6.33-rc8-um-custom-0001 -> /usr/bin/initrd.img-2.6.33-rc8-um-custom-0001
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 15M May 30 10:36 /boot/initrd.img-2.6.34-0.dmz.5-liquorix-686
-rw------- 1 root root 14M Jul 2 10:17 /boot/initrd.img-2.6.34-1-686
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 46K Jun 30 14:01 /boot/initrd.img-2.6.34-1-686-bigmem.list
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 14M Jun 8 17:46 /boot/initrd.img-2.6.34-1-686-bigmem.previous
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 14M Jun 8 17:46 /boot/initrd.img-2.6.34-1-686-bigmem.previous2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 14M Jun 30 14:11 /boot/initrd.img-2.6.34-1-686-bigmem.safe
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 31M Jun 30 13:59 /boot/initrd.img-2.6.34-1-686-bigmem_plain
-rw------- 1 root root 14M Jul 1 00:07 /boot/initrd.img-2.6.34-1-686.functional
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 42K Jun 30 14:00 /boot/initrd.img-2.6.34-1-686.list
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 14M Jun 8 17:45 /boot/initrd.img-2.6.34-1-686.previous
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 14M Jun 8 17:45 /boot/initrd.img-2.6.34-1-686.previous2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 14M Jun 30 14:10 /boot/initrd.img-2.6.34-1-686.safe
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 31M Jun 30 13:56 /boot/initrd.img-2.6.34-1-686_plain
-- /proc/cmdline
ro root=/dev/sda7 bootkbd=fr
-- resume
RESUME=/dev/dm-0
-- /proc/filesystems
btrfs
reiserfs
ext2
fuseblk
-- lsmod
Module Size Used by
radeon 538129 2
ttm 32433 1 radeon
drm_kms_helper 18331 1 radeon
drm 112550 5 radeon,ttm,drm_kms_helper
i2c_algo_bit 3537 1 radeon
ipt_ULOG 4605 1
x_tables 8637 1 ipt_ULOG
powernow_k7 3462 0
cpufreq_powersave 606 0
cpufreq_stats 1934 0
cpufreq_userspace 1492 0
cpufreq_conservative 6246 0
ppdev 4475 0
lp 5798 0
cn 3677 1
binfmt_misc 4958 1
uinput 4854 1
deflate 1291 0
ctr 2671 0
twofish 5353 0
twofish_common 12668 1 twofish
camellia 17361 0
serpent 17103 0
blowfish 7148 0
cast5 15109 0
des_generic 15127 0
xcbc 1809 0
rmd160 6208 0
sha512_generic 7245 0
sha1_generic 1363 0
hmac 2001 0
crypto_null 1864 0
af_key 21731 0
fuse 43631 3
loop 10008 6
ext2 45679 1
mbcache 3840 1 ext2
sha256_generic 9069 4
aes_i586 6820 4
aes_generic 25758 1 aes_i586
cbc 1967 2
dm_crypt 8987 2
ndiswrapper 132238 0
snd_ali5451 11566 0
pcmcia 26619 0
snd_ac97_codec 76621 1 snd_ali5451
ac97_bus 714 1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm_oss 27474 0
snd_mixer_oss 10335 1 snd_pcm_oss
yenta_socket 16044 0
rsrc_nonstatic 6786 1 yenta_socket
pcmcia_core 8992 3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
snd_pcm 46860 3 snd_ali5451,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_midi 3602 0
joydev 6840 0
snd_rawmidi 12621 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event 3742 1 snd_seq_midi
i2c_ali15x3 4130 0
i2c_ali1535 3938 0
snd_seq 34704 2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer 12489 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 3651 3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
alim1535_wdt 2110 0
video 14925 0
output 1200 1 video
serio_raw 2894 0
parport_pc 15685 1
tpm_tis 5469 0
shpchp 20507 0
pcspkr 1211 0
i2c_core 12616 6 radeon,drm_kms_helper,drm,i2c_algo_bit,i2c_ali15x3,i2c_ali1535
snd 34020 9 snd_ali5451,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
parport 21194 3 ppdev,lp,parport_pc
tpm 8071 1 tpm_tis
tpm_bios 3569 1 tpm
psmouse 38431 0
battery 4078 0
ac 1636 0
button 3618 0
container 1845 0
soundcore 3630 1 snd
pci_hotplug 17059 1 shpchp
evdev 5627 18
processor 25019 2 powernow_k7
snd_page_alloc 5037 1 snd_pcm
reiserfs 172773 6
dm_mod 46914 5 dm_crypt
nbd 6673 0
btrfs 368203 1
zlib_deflate 15658 2 deflate,btrfs
crc32c 2172 1
libcrc32c 782 1 btrfs
sg 15825 0
sr_mod 10845 0
ohci_hcd 16501 0
sd_mod 26321 7
crc_t10dif 1012 1 sd_mod
cdrom 25848 1 sr_mod
ata_generic 1943 0
ehci_hcd 27417 0
pata_ali 6259 6
libata 114832 2 ata_generic,pata_ali
thermal 9502 0
usbcore 99297 4 ndiswrapper,ohci_hcd,ehci_hcd
scsi_mod 103087 4 sg,sr_mod,sd_mod,libata
floppy 41681 0
thermal_sys 9436 3 video,processor,thermal
nls_base 4521 1 usbcore
natsemi 19009 0
-- /etc/kernel-img.conf
# Kernel Image management overrides
# See kernel-img.conf(5) for details
do_symlinks = Yes
warn_initrd = No # <==> [deprecated] do_initrd = Yes
-- /etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf
MODULES=most
BUSYBOX=y
KEYMAP=n
COMPRESS=gzip
BOOT=local
DEVICE=
NFSROOT=auto
-- /etc/initramfs-tools/update-initramfs.conf
update_initramfs=no
backup_initramfs=no
-- /etc/crypttab
# <target name> <source device> <key file> <options>
# Each device has an offset of 8 sectors = 1 SWAP page of 4Kb so
# that its fake SWAP header, and thus its UUID, could be kept
# amongst reboots, and thus never overwritten.
crswap_c3bc698e-7dc2-43f5-b94d-fcac4b27a59d UUID=c3bc698e-7dc2-43f5-b94d-fcac4b27a59d /dev/urandom swap,offset=8,cipher=aes-cbc-essiv:sha256
crtmp_1df57ad7-cd89-4610-b71e-5cdd8771d151 UUID=1df57ad7-cd89-4610-b71e-5cdd8771d151 /dev/urandom tmp,offset=8,cipher=aes-cbc-essiv:sha256
-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
APT prefers testing
APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.34-1-686 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=fr_FR@euro, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR@euro (charmap=ISO-8859-15)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Versions of packages initramfs-tools depends on:
hi cpio 2.11-4 GNU cpio -- a program to manage ar
hi findutils 4.4.2-1 utilities for finding files--find,
hi klibc-utils 1.5.18-1 small utilities built with klibc f
hi module-init-tools 3.12~pre2-3 tools for managing Linux kernel mo
hi udev 157-1 /dev/ and hotplug management daemo
Versions of packages initramfs-tools recommends:
pn busybox | busybox-initramfs <none> (no description available)
Versions of packages initramfs-tools suggests:
hi bash-completion 1:1.1-3 programmable completion for the ba
-- Configuration Files:
/etc/initramfs-tools/update-initramfs.conf changed:
update_initramfs=no
backup_initramfs=no
-- no debconf information
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