Bug#701953: initramfs-tools: Missing modules prevent passphrase entry with usb keyboard

[Bjørn Mork <bjorn@mork.no>]

Ben Caradoc-Davies <Ben.Caradoc-Davies@csiro.au> writes:

> Package: initramfs-tools
> Version: 0.109
> Severity: critical
> Justification: breaks the whole system

Others will have to decide on that, but it seems a bit high to me. This
is an experimental kernel and you do hopefully not try to install it
without keeping a working version as well?


> I have a usb keyboard attached to a system with an unencrypted /boot and a
> LUKS-encrypted partition (LVM physical volume) containing the other
> filesystems. Today I installed linux-image-3.8-trunk-amd64
> (3.8-1~experimental.1). initramfs-tools created a corresponding initrd, as
> expected. Booting this kernel/initrd in grub2 resulted in a plymouth passphrase
> entry screen, but a usb keyboard that did not work in any port. All keyboard
> lights were off. The system was thus unbootable without a non-usb keyboard
> (hence critical severity). Without a non-usb keyboard or backup grub entry (3.7
> kernel with working initrd), I would have been unable to access my system
> without rescue media.
>
> This is a regression from the behaviour of initramfs-tools with linux-image-3.7
> -trunk-amd64 (3.7.8-1~experimental.1).
>
> The failure appears identical to this:
> http://linux-kernel.2935.n7.nabble.com/PROBLEM-3-8-0-rc4-keyboard-failure-at-
> boot-tp585937p587518.html
>
> Workaround is to add the following modules to /etc/initramfs-tools/modules, as
> described in the link above:
>
> ehci_pci

Right.  This is quite possibly a result of this bug:
http://bugs.debian.org/700572


Bjørn