Comment 4 for bug 636181

The temporary fix to my trouble was to copy /usr/sbin/update-initramfs.distrib without the .distrib Then I was able to upgrade from 10.04 to 10.10 and boot without problems. No errors reported during the upgrade. I do not know if/when the problem will recur.

Looking at old backups the problem went at least back to 9.04. Rerunning installs and updates the number of errors grew - but none were fatal - until the only kernel was affected in 10.10 and grub could not boot.

The problem, IMHO comes from 43disable_updateinitramfs which blows away the real needed file with no downstream consideration. OTOH the script/program smart enough to discover update-initramfs is not there could look for the .distrib file.

The problem is compounded since initramfs-tools requires itself in good order for a repair/reinstall - and the man page does not suggest or provide an alternate procedure. At the least man mkinitramfs could detail a reconstruct procedure.