Bug#855094: initramfs-tools-core: Error on upgrade if cryptsetup is installed, but a current busybox isn't

[Jan Echternach <jan@goneko.de>]

Package: initramfs-tools-core
Version: 0.127
Severity: serious
Justification: Policy 3.5

I tried a partial upgrade of initramfs-tools, but it failed, complaining that
busybox was too old, see console messages below. The version of busybox
installed at that time was 1:1.22.0-9+deb8u1. I solved this problem by
upgrading busybox to version 1:1.22.0-19+b1.

I investigated this a bit and found that
/usr/share/initramfs-tools/conf-hooks.d/cryptsetup, which belongs to the
cryptsetup package, sets BUSYBOX=Y (both the current stable and testing
versions of cryptsetup do that).

I think this error could also occur on a complete upgrade if busybox is not
installed because neither initramfs-tools nor cryptsetup depends on busybox.


  # apt-get install initramfs-tools{,-core}/unstable
  Reading package lists... Done
  Building dependency tree       
  Reading state information... Done
  Selected version '0.127' (Debian:testing, Debian:unstable [all]) for 'initramfs-tools'
  Selected version '0.127' (Debian:testing, Debian:unstable [all]) for 'initramfs-tools-core'
  [...]
  Preparing to unpack .../klibc-utils_2.0.4-9_i386.deb ...
  Adding 'diversion of /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/klibc to /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/klibc^i-t by klibc-utils'
  Unpacking klibc-utils (2.0.4-9) over (2.0.4-2) ...
  Preparing to unpack .../libklibc_2.0.4-9_i386.deb ...
  Unpacking libklibc (2.0.4-9) over (2.0.4-2) ...
  Preparing to unpack .../initramfs-tools_0.127_all.deb ...
  '/etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf' -> '/etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf.dpkg-remove'
  Unpacking initramfs-tools (0.127) over (0.120+deb8u2) ...
  dpkg: warning: unable to delete old directory '/var/lib/initramfs-tools': Directory not empty
  Selecting previously unselected package initramfs-tools-core.
  Preparing to unpack .../initramfs-tools-core_0.127_all.deb ...
  Unpacking initramfs-tools-core (0.127) ...
  Setting up libklibc (2.0.4-9) ...
  Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.0.2-5) ...
  Setting up klibc-utils (2.0.4-9) ...
  Setting up initramfs-tools-core (0.127) ...
  removed '/etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf.dpkg-remove'
  Setting up initramfs-tools (0.127) ...
  Installing new version of config file /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools ...
  update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
  Removing obsolete conffile /etc/bash_completion.d/initramfs-tools ...
  Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.127) ...
  update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-amd64
  E: busybox or busybox-static, version 1:1.22.0-17~ or later, is required but not installed
  update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-amd64 with 1.
  dpkg: error processing package initramfs-tools (--configure):
   subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
  Errors were encountered while processing:
   initramfs-tools
  E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 8.7
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (813, 'stable'), (812, 'oldstable'), (600, 'unstable-debug'), (600, 'unstable'), (550, 'testing-debug'), (550, 'testing'), (510, 'experimental-debug'), (510, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: amd64

Kernel: Linux 4.9.0-1-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=de_DE (charmap=ISO-8859-1)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages initramfs-tools-core depends on:
ii  cpio               2.11+dfsg-4.1+deb8u1
ii  klibc-utils        2.0.4-9
ii  kmod               18-3
ii  module-init-tools  18-3
ii  udev               215-17+deb8u6

Versions of packages initramfs-tools-core recommends:
ii  busybox  1:1.22.0-19+b1

Versions of packages initramfs-tools-core suggests:
pn  bash-completion  <none>

-- no debconf information