Some kernel installation issues
Hi,
some oberservations on (de-)installing and upgrading kernels
(Debian/unstable, but valid also for stable and testing and to some
extend for other distributions):
- If needed a kernel package installation will generate and
install a /boot/initrd.img-<kernel-version> automatically.
However, this file is not part of package kernel-image-<version>
and therefore it will not be removed when the kernel package is
removed - it must be deleted manually. If you forget this a small
/boot partition will be filled up pretty soon (2.6.x kernels have
~ 4MB of initrd.img on my box!). Wouldn't it be better to remove
this initrd.img automatically while uninstalling a kernel package?
- /etc/modules.conf and /etc/modules depend on the kernel version.
Both files are not owned by any package but it seems to me that
they are modified by package modutils (also module-init-tools?).
At least they have their man-pages in these packages.
Despite their kernel dependency their filenames do not carry
any indication of a version like, e.g., /boot/System.map-<...>
and other files in /boot. This can be very nasty if you switch
back and forth between 2.4 and 2.6 kernels: Modules and their
names have changed considerably, so these files can usually not
be used for both kernel series.
At least for /etc/modules it would be cleaner to have multiple
files with their names indicating the corresponding kernel
version - I would even like to see them in the /boot directory
instead of /etc.
Similarly for /etc/modules.conf: Although, I do not know enough
about the changes from 2.4 to 2.6 where for the latter there is
a new modprobe.conf file or a modprobe.d directory. Do these
new file/directory interfere with an old modules.conf?
Nevertheless, if you want to boot different kernels with
different modules some versioning of mod(ules|probe).(conf|d)
would be helpful. (A nice hack in this direction can be found in
http://www.dhaller.de/linux/multikernel.html (in German - sorry).
Any objections, agreements, comments?
Rudolf
--
Rudolf Lohner - Universitaet Karlsruhe (TH)
Rechenzentrum, Zirkel 2, D-76128 Karlsruhe
Phone: +49-721-608-6958, Fax: +49-721-32550
E-Mail: Rudolf.Lohner@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de
http://www.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/~Rudolf.Lohner
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