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Re: What's the purpose of initrd.img{,.old} and vmlinuz{,.old} symlinks in the root dir?

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On Sat 29 Feb 2020 at 19:17:39 (+0100), Mikhail Morfikov wrote:
> I have an encrypted (LUKSv2) LVM setup with a separate unencrypted /boot/
> partition. When I install a new kenrel in the system, the following symlinks are
> created in the root directory (/):
> 
> 	# ls -al /
> 	...
> 	lrwxrwxrwx   1 root   root           29 2020-02-14 17:22:18 initrd.img -> boot/initrd.img-5.4.0-4-amd64
> 	lrwxrwxrwx   1 root   root           27 2020-02-24 00:37:53 initrd.img.old -> boot/initrd.img-5.5.4-amd64
> 	...
> 	lrwxrwxrwx   1 root   root           26 2020-02-14 17:22:18 vmlinuz -> boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-4-amd64
> 	lrwxrwxrwx   1 root   root           24 2020-02-24 00:37:53 vmlinuz.old -> boot/vmlinuz-5.5.4-amd64
> 
> So I have a question here: what's the purpose of the links?

They're a convenience. If you want them kept in /boot, then edit
/etc/kernel-img.conf and linux-update-symlinks will recreate them
there when the kernel is updated. Ditto if you want them removed.

> Also, I'm trying to configure refind EFI boot manager, and basically I don't
> want to change its config file with each kernel update (the numbers in the file
> names change).

I'm not familiar with that, but one of the reasons there are links in
root is for that very reason: their names don't change.

The links are of no particular use to me, because I always boot linux
with Grub, and /boot/grub/grub.cfg gets updated with the actual
filenames (in /boot) whenever the kernel is upgraded.

But if you boot using software that's *not* maintained by Debian and
therefore isn't updated with the name of the new kernel, then the
symlinks in root are more useful: any software can find them there,
and with names that never change.

> Wouldn't be better to create the links under /boot/ dir instead (or in addition
> to the already existing ones, if they serve any purpose)? 

It's up to you. Not having links at all means that you might, in the
absence of filename completion, have to remember strings like
boot/vmlinuz-4.19.0-8-amd64 if booting doesn't go smoothly.

You don't say why *you* think it's better to create links in /boot,
so I'm not sure why we're expected to think so too. But if you want
them in both places, I think you have to maintain them in the other
location yourself.

Cheers,
David.

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Thread

What's the purpose of initrd.img{,.old} and vmlinuz{,.old} symlinks  in the root dir? Mikhail Morfikov <mmorfikov@gmail.com> - 2020-02-29 19:30 +0100
  Re: What's the purpose of initrd.img{,.old} and vmlinuz{,.old}  symlinks in the root dir? David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2020-03-01 02:20 +0100
    Re: What's the purpose of initrd.img{,.old} and vmlinuz{,.old}  symlinks in the root dir? Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2020-03-01 14:30 +0100
      Re: What's the purpose of initrd.img{,.old} and vmlinuz{,.old}  symlinks in the root dir? Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2020-03-01 14:50 +0100
        Re: What's the purpose of initrd.img{,.old} and vmlinuz{,.old}  symlinks in the root dir? Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2020-03-01 17:20 +0100
          Re: What's the purpose of initrd.img{,.old} and vmlinuz{,.old}  symlinks in the root dir? Cindy Sue Causey <butterflybytes@gmail.com> - 2020-03-01 17:40 +0100
          Re: What's the purpose of initrd.img{,.old} and vmlinuz{,.old}  symlinks in the root dir? Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2020-03-01 19:10 +0100
    Re: What's the purpose of initrd.img{,.old} and vmlinuz{,.old}  symlinks in the root dir? Mikhail Morfikov <mmorfikov@gmail.com> - 2020-03-01 15:20 +0100
      Re: What's the purpose of initrd.img{,.old} and vmlinuz{,.old}  symlinks in the root dir? David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2020-03-01 17:10 +0100
        Re: What's the purpose of initrd.img{,.old} and vmlinuz{,.old}  symlinks in the root dir? Mikhail Morfikov <mmorfikov@gmail.com> - 2020-03-01 18:00 +0100
  Re: What's the purpose of initrd.img{,.old} and vmlinuz{,.old}  symlinks in the root dir? mick crane <mick.crane@gmail.com> - 2020-03-01 17:20 +0100
    Re: What's the purpose of initrd.img{,.old} and vmlinuz{,.old}  symlinks in the root dir? Mikhail Morfikov <mmorfikov@gmail.com> - 2020-03-01 18:20 +0100
      Re: What's the purpose of initrd.img{,.old} and vmlinuz{,.old}  symlinks in the root dir? David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2020-03-05 18:40 +0100
  Re: What's the purpose of initrd.img{,.old} and vmlinuz{,.old}  symlinks in the root dir? songbird <songbird@anthive.com> - 2020-03-01 20:40 +0100

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