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Re: How is "keep two last kernels" policy implemented?

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On Fri, 2026-03-27 at 06:15 +0100, Thibi wrote:
> Hello team,
> 
> I can't find any technical documentation about how Debian decides to keep two kernels, and which ones. I am particularly interested in understanding how the "manual" or "automatic" package installation flag may, or may not, influence the policy? 
> 
> Long story: something happened on my Trixie 13.4 which resulted in both current and previous kernels to become unusable. I asked apt to install the N-2 kernel and it worked, I can boot on it. Now I have:
> 
> * Kernel N (last) - automatic - broken 
> * Kernel N-1 (before last) - automatic - broken
> * Kernel N-2 - manual - working 
> 
> I wonder what will happen when a new kernel becomes available, and how I can have some influence on the automatic selection. 
> 
> Please could you point me to some documentation explaining the details? 
[...]

APT has a special case for kernel packages, which is configurable. 
Search for "kernel" on
<https://manpages.debian.org/trixie/apt/apt.conf.5.en.html>.

Ben.

-- 
Ben Hutchings
Life would be so much easier if we could look at the source code.

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How is "keep two last kernels" policy implemented? Thibi <thierry.bissler@gmail.com> - 2026-03-27 06:20 +0100
  Re: How is "keep two last kernels" policy implemented? Ben Hutchings <ben@decadent.org.uk> - 2026-03-30 16:20 +0200

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