[Bug 591207] Re: Casper's USB update-initramfs shim should look for initrd.img in /boot

[Alan Hoyle]

I am still having this problem with a 12.04 live USB install.  I
installed a basic system to a USB drive and whenever it tries to update
the kernel, dpkg gives errors.

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Title:
  Casper's USB update-initramfs shim should look for initrd.img in /boot

Status in “casper” package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in “casper” source package in Lucid:
  Fix Released
Status in “casper” source package in Maverick:
  Fix Released

Bug description:
  When upgrading a live USB stick, we use a diverted version of update-
  initramfs installed by casper which arranges for /casper/vmlinuz and
  /casper/initrd.lz at the top level of the CD to be updated.
  Unfortunately this script does not quite operate correctly; it assumes
  that there will be vmlinuz and initrd.gz links in the root directory,
  when in fact they are often (although not exclusively) in /boot.  It
  needs to try both.

  Stable update justification:

  Impact: USB stick upgrades fail with obscure errors when upgrading the
  kernel.  This results in very large numbers of duplicate bug reports.

  Development branch: Fixed in casper 1.237/1.253/1.254 by making the
  writable-USB-stick update-initramfs shim handle vmlinuz and initrd.img
  being in /boot rather than /, making it more robust against the bits
  it's copying not existing for various reasons, and making it be a
  separate executable which can be upgraded in ways that don't involve
  regenerating the USB stick.

  Patch:
   http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-branches/ubuntu/lucid/casper/lucid/revision/818?compare_revid=812
   http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-branches/ubuntu/maverick/casper/maverick/revision/843?compare_revid=841

  TEST CASE: Create an Ubuntu USB stick, making sure that you do *not*
  drag the "Stored in reserved extra space" slider all the way to the
  right in usb-creator (see bug 562312), and upgrade the kernel to the
  current version in lucid-proposed or maverick-proposed as applicable.
  10.04.1 and 10.10 as released should fail.  A lucid daily build dating
  from after this SRU is accepted should succeed (we're unlikely to do
  more daily builds of maverick), although this only applies if you find
  a daily build which contains this fixed version of casper but doesn't
  have the newest version of the kernel in the archive, so don't worry
  if you can't test this case.  Also, if you start from 10.04.1 or 10.10
  as released, upgrade the casper package to the current version in
  lucid-proposed or maverick-proposed after this SRU is accepted, and
  then run 'sudo update-initramfs -u', that should succeed.

  Regression potential: I don't think update-initramfs will fail in any
  more situations due to this change.  Possible sources of regression
  are problems upgrading the casper package, and testers should also
  make sure that the upgraded image actually still boots correctly into
  the new kernel version following this change.

  Please note the similar bug 557023, which we're fixing along with this
  bug, and the related bug 591202 in grub2, which you may run into along
  the way.

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