Bug#688794: Circular dependancy after reboot when..

[maximilian attems <max@stro.at>]

On Mon, Oct 08, 2012 at 06:03:20PM -0300, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh wrote:
> 
> Well, I don't mind changing the name of the initramfs-tools helper scripts
> in the *-microcode packages,

please do so.

> but this _really_ needs to be documented in the
> initramfs-tools manpages, AND it needs to generate an warning on
> update-initramfs time.  It is really non-obvious.

The corner case infact involves a noexec /var/tmp, which is why allmost
no one sees it.
 
> However, I do propose that instead of changing intel-microcode,
> amd64-microcode, and any other packages present and future that might run
> afoul of this restriction, the initramfs scripts should suitably transform
> all valid script names so that they can be valid variable names.

well oh well progress, we did issue a warning, but it went away,
because in the common cases it does work.
 
> Maybe it could internally replace all characters that are valid for package
> names but not for variables with "_", or just skip any characters outside of
> [a-zA-Z0-9_].  This has the advantage of being a central fix, and also
> avoiding a very nasty breakage on a fallback mode of the initramfs that is
> rarely exercised.

This is a good suggestion postfreeze if that path doesn't go away on
it's own.
 
> Also, I suggest that initramfs-tools should either provide tsort inside the
> initramfs, or drop the code that conditionally uses it.  That codepath could
> be hiding landmines as well.

The landmines are that this codepath is real crap, still dating jbailey.
No way we going to touch that at this point of the release.

Best,

-- 
maks