On Mon, 2025-06-23 at 09:19 +0200, Tobias Graemer wrote:
> Package: initramfs-tools
> Version: 0.148.2
> Severity: normal
>
> Dear Maintainer,
>
> When installing a kernel package and a package with a trigger for update-initramfs
> in one go, the update of the initramfs is skipped in some cases.
>
> In a clean chroot, populated with debootstrap for "trixie", I ran
>
> apt install linux-image-amd64 plymouth-theme-mobian
>
> Result:
>
> [...]
> Setting up linux-image-6.12.32-amd64 (6.12.32-1) ...
> I: /vmlinuz.old is now a symlink to boot/vmlinuz-6.12.32-amd64
> I: /initrd.img.old is now a symlink to boot/initrd.img-6.12.32-amd64
> I: /vmlinuz is now a symlink to boot/vmlinuz-6.12.32-amd64
> I: /initrd.img is now a symlink to boot/initrd.img-6.12.32-amd64
> /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools:
> update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.12.32-amd64
> Setting up linux-image-amd64 (6.12.32-1) ...
> Setting up plymouth-theme-mobian (1.1) ...
> update-alternatives: using /usr/share/plymouth/themes/mobian/mobian.plymouth to provide /usr/share/plymouth/themes/default.plymouth (default.plymouth) in auto mode
> Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.41-8) ...
> Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.148.2) ...
> update-initramfs: /boot/initrd.img-6.12.32-amd64 has already been updated since Mon Jun 23 06:07:09 2025.
[...]
I think what happens here is:
1. Another package is installed that calls "update-initramfs -u". This
activates the trigger, and we store a timestamp for it.
2. linux-image-6.12.32-amd64 is installed. This calls the
initramfs-tools hook which synchronously builds the initramfs.
3. plymouth-theme-mobian is installed. This activates the trigger
through a triggers control file.
4. The trigger runs and passes the timestamp from (1) through to
update-initramfs. update-initramfs sees the current image is newer
than that, and skips the update.
I think we correctly handle the case where the trigger is only activated
through "update-initramfs -u", or only through a triggers control file
or direct invocation of dpkg-trigger. But when both methods are used,
this bug is possible because a timestmap file is present and it is
wrong.
I propose to revert the optimised trigger handling until we can address
this. (But I'm afraid that not be possible until dpkg itself records
timestamps for trigger activation.)
Ben.
--
Ben Hutchings
The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere.
- Anne Morrow Lindberg
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