Re: Bug#571255: Please fix this
Hi *,
2010/5/7 Raphael Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org>:
> Dear APT developers, the udev preinst tries to detect if a newer kernel is
> going to be installed by analyzing the dpkg command line. Unfortunately
> the kernel package can be installed by APT in a different dpkg run
> than the one where udev is installed and thus not be aware of the
> planned installation.
>
> Is there a (reliable) way for udev's preinst to check if a new kernel is
> being installed?
In short: No.
It would be really cool if udev could depend on the new kernel - or
at least say that it Breaks the old (= the old metapackage version)
so the package manager can handle this as he is supposed to do.
Long:
udev is an important package so it will get APTs (special and unique)
Immediate-Configuration handling APT performs on important/essential
packages so it is pretty likely that udev is unpacked (and configured)
before the kernel is even touched - but even if the handling wouldn't be
special were would be enough possibilities to have a divided unpack:
APT needs to split calls to dpkg at some point to avoid too long commandline
calls for example which is pretty common in big stable-to-next-stable
upgrades. Also a maintainer-script failure of an unrelated package could
cause that the rest of the schedule is dropped (which is why we have the
special handling) - or simple stuff like power outages and so on…
If udev really can't depend on the kernel i can only think of a note in the
Releasenotes and a debconf message displaying a warning if no
supported kernel is installed (= the user hasn't followed the Releasenotes).
This means a lot of people (not following the Releasenotes) will see this
warning but doesn't need to do anything about it later as the newer kernel
is installed for them later on in the dist-upgrade - but that is the only sane
way i can see so far (beside a proper depends/breaks).
And if it is not already done i guess udev should display a nice message
if used with a too old kernel as a installed kernel is by far no guarantee
that it is the default or if that it is the kernel the user will use for the
next boot…
Best regards,
David Kalnischkies
Reply to: