[xubuntu-users] A 'friendly-recovery' issue and an 'update-initramfs' issue + [update] Supposedly essential Microsoft-signed binary

[Ralf Mardorf]

Hi,

before I contiue to complain about some annyoances. Some things that
can't be taken for granted are good OOTB.
For example, on Arch Linux the reported scaling_max_freq is 5800000.
This isn't correct for the CPU in my machine, see
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/docs/processors/core/13th-gen-core-desktop-brief.html ,
while 4500000 as reported by the default Xubuntu install is correct.
For the Xubuntu install I might lower the base_frequency to 3400000, but
maybe this doesn't matter at all.

  root at xubu:~# hwinfo --cpu | grep Model | sort -u
    Model: 6.191.5 "13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-13100"
  root at xubu:~# cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/*driver
  intel_pstate
  root at xubu:~# cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq
  4500000
  4500000
  4500000
  4500000
  root at xubu:~# cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/base_frequency
  4400000
  4400000
  4400000
  4400000
  root at xubu:~# cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_min_freq
  800000
  800000
  800000
  800000

Now for a few annyoances, before I finish with good news.
The package "shim-signed" was not removed by an update that I run
manually, it was removed without a warning by the automated update.
Fortunately booting still works without it.
With grub and kernel packages hold still "friendly-recovery" auto-
generated a new, but broken grub.cfg.
Why does this happen? Neither grub nor a kernel was updated.

  root at xubu:~# apt update && apt full-upgrade; apt autoremove
  [...]
  Setting up friendly-recovery (0.2.41ubuntu0.20.04.1) ...
  Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub'
  Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub.d/init-select.cfg'
  Generating grub configuration file ...
  Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-42-generic
  Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-5.4.0-42-generic
  Found Arch Linux (rolling) on /dev/sda1
  Adding boot menu entry for UEFI Firmware Settings
  done
  [...]

Fortunately I was prepared to restore it from a good grub.cfg copy.

  root at xubu:~# ls -hl /boot/grub/grub.cf*
  -r--r--r-- 1 root root 13K Apr  3 08:38 /boot/grub/grub.cfg
  -r--r--r-- 1 root root 12K Mär 26 23:29 /boot/grub/grub.cfg-2023-03-26
  -r--r--r-- 1 root root 12K Apr  2 11:51 /boot/grub/grub.cfg-2023-04-02
  -r--r--r-- 1 root root 12K Apr  2 17:04 /boot/grub/grub.cfg-2023-04-02.2
  -r--r--r-- 1 root root 12K Apr  2 18:07 /boot/grub/grub.cfg-2023-04-02.3
  root at xubu:~# cp -ai /boot/grub/grub.cfg-2023-04-02.3 /boot/grub/grub.cfg
  cp: overwrite '/boot/grub/grub.cfg'? y
  root at xubu:~# ls -hl /boot/grub/grub.cf*
  -r--r--r-- 1 root root 12K Apr  2 18:07 /boot/grub/grub.cfg
  -r--r--r-- 1 root root 12K Mär 26 23:29 /boot/grub/grub.cfg-2023-03-26
  -r--r--r-- 1 root root 12K Apr  2 11:51 /boot/grub/grub.cfg-2023-04-02
  -r--r--r-- 1 root root 12K Apr  2 17:04 /boot/grub/grub.cfg-2023-04-02.2
  -r--r--r-- 1 root root 12K Apr  2 18:07 /boot/grub/grub.cfg-2023-04-02.3

Why do I need to tell update-initramfs to not use a swap that is
commented out by /etc/fstab?

  root at xubu:~# cat /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/resume
  root at xubu:~# grep swap /etc/fstab
  # swap was on /dev/nvme0n1p4 during installation
  UUID=bc0419de-6a38-4907-bb46-d2e0398228f6 none            swap    sw              0       0
  # swap was on /dev/sda4 during installation
  #UUID=671cd0ff-0428-4a17-aa63-208d41bdf5c6 none            swap    sw              0       0
  root at xubu:~# update-initramfs -u -k all
  update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-5.4.0-42-generic
  I: The initramfs will attempt to resume from /dev/sda4
  I: (UUID=671cd0ff-0428-4a17-aa63-208d41bdf5c6)
  I: Set the RESUME variable to override this.
  root at xubu:~# cp -a /usr/src/etc_initramfs-tools_conf.d_resume /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/resume
  root at xubu:~# cat /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/resume
  RESUME=UUID=bc0419de-6a38-4907-bb46-d2e0398228f6
  root at xubu:~# update-initramfs -u -k all
  update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-5.4.0-42-generic
  root at xubu:~#

I hope "RESUME=UUID=bc0419de-6a38-4907-bb46-d2e0398228f6" is correct. Is
it?

I'll finish with good news.
Building the module to get Internet access worked without issues:

  [...]
  Warning: modules_install: missing 'System.map' file. Skipping depmod.
  Backup r8169.ko
  rename r8169.ko to r8169.bak
  DEPMOD 5.4.0-42-generic
  load module r8125
  Updating initramfs. Please wait.
  update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-5.4.0-42-generic
  Completed.

Regards,
Ralf