No it didn't: $ sudo aptitude reinstall linux-image-2.6.24-11-generic [sudo] password for czigola: Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Reading extended state information Initializing package states... Done Building tag database... Done The following packages will be REINSTALLED: linux-image-2.6.24-11-generic 0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 reinstalled, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 0B/19,9MB of archives. After unpacking 0B will be used. Writing extended state information... Done (Reading database ... 200045 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to replace linux-image-2.6.24-11-generic 2.6.24-11.17 (using .../linux-image-2.6.24-11-generic_2.6.24-11.17_i386.deb) ... Done. Unpacking replacement linux-image-2.6.24-11-generic ... Running postrm hook script /sbin/update-grub. Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub Searching for default file ... found: /boot/grub/default Testing for an existing GRUB menu.lst file ... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst Searching for splash image ... none found, skipping ... Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.24-11-generic Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.24-8-generic Found kernel: /memtest86+.bin Updating /boot/grub/menu.lst ... done Setting up linux-image-2.6.24-11-generic (2.6.24-11.17) ... Running depmod. WARNING: /boot is ro mounted. update-initramfs: Not updating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-11-generic Not updating initrd symbolic links since we are being updated/reinstalled (2.6.24-11.17 was configured last, according to dpkg) Not updating image symbolic links since we are being updated/reinstalled (2.6.24-11.17 was configured last, according to dpkg) Running postinst hook script /sbin/update-grub. Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub Searching for default file ... found: /boot/grub/default Testing for an existing GRUB menu.lst file ... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst Searching for splash image ... none found, skipping ... Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.24-11-generic Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.24-8-generic Found kernel: /memtest86+.bin Updating /boot/grub/menu.lst ... done Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Reading extended state information Initializing package states... Done Building tag database... Done Indeed /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-11-generic is present, but was not touched. I moved /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-11-generic to /tmp , and tried to reinstall the package again, now I got an error: Preparing to replace linux-image-2.6.24-11-generic 2.6.24-11.17 (using .../linux-image-2.6.24-11-generic_2.6.24-11.17_i386.deb) ... Done. Unpacking replacement linux-image-2.6.24-11-generic ... Running postrm hook script /sbin/update-grub. Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub Searching for default file ... found: /boot/grub/default Testing for an existing GRUB menu.lst file ... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst Searching for splash image ... none found, skipping ... Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.24-11-generic Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.24-8-generic Found kernel: /memtest86+.bin Replacing config file /var/run/grub/menu.lst with new version Updating /boot/grub/menu.lst ... done Setting up linux-image-2.6.24-11-generic (2.6.24-11.17) ... Running depmod. WARNING: /boot is ro mounted. update-initramfs: Not updating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-11-generic Failed to symbolic-link /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-11-generic to initrd.img. dpkg: error processing linux-image-2.6.24-11-generic (--configure): subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 17 Errors were encountered while processing: linux-image-2.6.24-11-generic E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) A package failed to install. Trying to recover: Setting up linux-image-2.6.24-11-generic (2.6.24-11.17) ... Running depmod. WARNING: /boot is ro mounted. update-initramfs: Not updating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-11-generic Failed to symbolic-link /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-11-generic to initrd.img. dpkg: error processing linux-image-2.6.24-11-generic (--configure): subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 17 Errors were encountered while processing: linux-image-2.6.24-11-generic I copied this file back to /boot and issued $ sudo dpkg --force-all --purge linux-image-2.6.24-11-generic The initrd image was gone. I installed the package again: Setting up linux-image-2.6.24-11-generic (2.6.24-11.17) ... Running depmod. update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-11-generic Running postinst hook script /sbin/update-grub. Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub Searching for default file ... found: /boot/grub/default Testing for an existing GRUB menu.lst file ... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst Searching for splash image ... none found, skipping ... Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.24-11-generic Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.24-8-generic Found kernel: /memtest86+.bin Replacing config file /var/run/grub/menu.lst with new version Updating /boot/grub/menu.lst ... done And the generation of the new image was well done. I see no major impact of this warning. Fresh install has no problems, but if the initrd image is deleted by accident, reinstalling of the package would fail. (In this particular case remove and install is not that easy because of the dependencies, the easiest way is to use dpkg --force-all for the removal.)