Bug#396331: upgrade-reports: sarge to etch removes kernels

["Ryan Finnie" <ryan@finnie.org>]

On 10/31/06, Kevin B. McCarty <kmccarty@princeton.edu> wrote:
> Steve Langasek wrote:
> > On Tue, Oct 31, 2006 at 08:57:25AM -0800, Kevin B. McCarty wrote:
>
> >> This problem (automatic removal of old kernel packages) is apparently
> >> fixed in the version of aptitude in Sid, 0.4.4-1.  If this version was
> >> allowed to pass into Etch (currently aptitude in Etch is only one
> >> version behind Sid, at 0.4.3-1), then the release notes would only have
> >> to say something to the effect of "Install the aptitude from Etch
> >> *before* dist-upgrading."  (The Sarge release notes contained a similar
> >> instruction, BTW.)
> >
> > Wow, what?  First of all, how is there anything buggy in the current
> > aptitude removal to justify "fixing"?  If the old kernel-image package is
> > marked in aptitude as auto-installed, aptitude is *supposed* to remove it,
> > this is a feature not a bug!  (It's a feature which has non-obvious
> > consequences to many users, but I don't believe there's any sane way to
> > "fix" it.)
>
> Sorry, maybe I didn't make myself understood well, or else I didn't
> understand the bug report.  If I read correctly, the submitter is
> complaining that his dist-upgrade wanted to remove the package
> containing the **currently running** kernel.  Wouldn't that be a problem??

Correct, but at this point, aptitude wants to delete ALL kernels.  I
did some digging, and this seems to be why (aptitude -D):

The following packages will be automatically REMOVED:
 base-config (C: locales) initrd-tools (C: libc6)
 kernel-image-2.6.8-3-686-smp (D: initrd-tools)

The etch libc6 Conflicts: initrd-tools (<< 0.1.84.1), however the etch
initrd-tools *IS* 0.1.84.1.  So yeah, there is a problem (supposedly
fixed in sid) with conflict resolution.  As it turns out, you can
continue to use 2.6.8 on an etch machine, as long as you keep hotplug
and don't install udev.

HOWEVER, how do we get this new aptitude?  "aptitude -f install
aptitude" still wants to remove all of your kernels, so it's a
chicken/egg problem.  Could aptitude be fixed in sarge and pushed in
3.1r4 prior to an etch release?

Ryan Finnie