[Users] Issues with kernel upgrade on Debian Wheezy

[Roman Haefeli]

One other thing:
I seem unable to find a changelog reflecting the changes in the new
kernel version. There is:

/usr/share/doc/linux-image-2.6.32-openvz-amd64/changelog.Debian.gz

but it is only a stub. It would be good, if the changelog of the kernel
would be part of the package.

Roman



On Mon, 2014-03-24 at 17:04 +0100, Roman Haefeli wrote:
> Hi all, Ola
> 
> I followed the recent discussion about OpenVZ kernel package management
> for Debian. While I don't really have a qualified opinion on the subject
> matter (personally, I slightly tend towards a new package for each
> release), let me mention problems with the current situation:
> 
> * 'uname -r' does not print the actual version (This already has
>   been mentioned in the other thread)
> 
> * If there is a problem with a kernel update, I cannot easily revert
>   to the previous version. At our institution, we experienced cases
>   where a switch to the previous kernel because of a bug was necessary.
> 
> * I'm trying to upgrade a machine right now from version 042stab084.26
>   to newest 042stab085.17. I do:
>   
>   $ apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade
> 
>   and I'm prompted with the following dialog:
> 
>   $  Configuring linux-image-2.6.32-openvz-amd64
>   $  -------------------------------------------
>   $ 
>   $  You are attempting to install a kernel image (version 2.6.32-openvz-amd64) However, the directory /lib/modules/2.6.32-openvz-amd64/kernel still exists.  If this directory belongs to a previous linux-image-2.6.32-openvz-amd64 
>   $  package, and if you have deselected some modules, or installed standalone modules packages, this could be bad.
>   $
>   $  If /lib/modules/2.6.32-openvz-amd64/kernel belongs to an old install of linux-image-2.6.32-openvz-amd64, then this is your last chance to abort the installation of this kernel image (nothing has been changed yet).
>   $  
>   $  If you know what you are doing, and if you feel that this image should be installed despite this anomaly, Please answer n to the question.
>   $  
>   $  Otherwise, I suggest you move /lib/modules/2.6.32-openvz-amd64/kernel out of the way, perhaps to /lib/modules/2.6.32-openvz-amd64.kernel.old or something, and then try re-installing this image.
>   $  
>   $  Stop install since the kernel-image is already installed? 
> 
>   If Debian does in-place kernel upgrades (a.k.a keeping the package
>   name while upgrading the kernel), they managed to never bother the
>   user with a question like this. I certainly know too little about
>   kernel package management to be of any help,  but to me that dialog
>   indicates that something is still odd.
>  
> 
> Those issues might be solved while sticking to the in-place upgrade
> scheme and are not necessarily an argument against it. I just wanted to
> mention them.
> 
> Ranting aside, I am more than happy to see someone puts the effort into
> making all the great OpenVZ software easily accessible for Debian
> systems. For Debian, the situation has never been better before. Thanks
> a lot for that work. 
> 
> Roman
> 
>