Turns out the problem for me is updating *while* copying a hard-drive (in another terminal).
The "update-initramfs" script calls "sync" in the "generate_initramfs" function. For me, copying hard-drives at the same time caused "sync" to hang: Then the whole thing hangs.
I CTRL-Z'd (TSTP) my rsync process (doing the copying), and a few seconds later update-initramfs un-hung. Finished without a problem.
Proposed workarounds:
1- stop/pause large disk i/o operations while updating, or
2- edit "/usr/sbin/update-initramfs": comment out the "sync" command in the "generate_initramfs" function
This is why Ubuntu (and other Linux distros) needs a user-space "fsync" command; so instead of trying to sync busy drives that could be busy for days, it can just "fsync ${file}" and get on with the day.
Not sure if this will fix anyone else's problems, but it's all unicorns and rainbows over here, now.
Me too.
Turns out the problem for me is updating *while* copying a hard-drive (in another terminal).
The "update-initramfs" script calls "sync" in the "generate_ initramfs" function. For me, copying hard-drives at the same time caused "sync" to hang: Then the whole thing hangs.
I CTRL-Z'd (TSTP) my rsync process (doing the copying), and a few seconds later update-initramfs un-hung. Finished without a problem.
Proposed workarounds: update- initramfs" : comment out the "sync" command in the "generate_ initramfs" function
1- stop/pause large disk i/o operations while updating, or
2- edit "/usr/sbin/
This is why Ubuntu (and other Linux distros) needs a user-space "fsync" command; so instead of trying to sync busy drives that could be busy for days, it can just "fsync ${file}" and get on with the day.
Not sure if this will fix anyone else's problems, but it's all unicorns and rainbows over here, now.