Obsolete /boot/initrd.img symlink causes package upgrade failure

[Jo Shields]

Binary package hint: initramfs-tools

If you have an obsolete initrd.img symlink in /boot, then upgrading the initramfs-tools package will fail. This occurred to me when I migrated from lilo to grub (where the lymlinks were no longer maintained), then later removed the kernel image to which the symlinks still pointed. Worse, it appears other kernels (i.e. correct, installed ones) are not updated as update-initramfs bails out at this point.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Create an incorrect initrd.img symlink (e.g. "ln -s /boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-8-generic /boot/initrd.img")
2. Run "update-initramfs -u" (this action is triggered during a package upgrade/reinstall too

Results:
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-8-generic
Cannot find /lib/modules/2.6.20-8-generic
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-8-generic

update-initramfs should not try and use initrd.img as its basis for updating if that version is no longer installed (i.e. missing from /lib/modules) - and should probably either remove or update the symlink during the process.

[Andrea Corbellini (andrea.corbellini)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. You reported this bug a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue for you. Can you try with the latest Ubuntu release? Thanks in advance.

[Ralph Janke (txwikinger)]

We'd like to figure out what's causing this bug for you, but we haven't heard back from you in a while. Could you please provide the requested information? Thanks!

[rusivi2 (rusivi2-deactivatedaccount)]

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks again!