Subject: Does kernel-package assume /etc/psdatabase -> /boot/psdatabase?

From: Douglas Bates <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 17 Aug 96 08:11 CDT

Package: kernel-package
Status: install ok installed
Priority: optional
Section: misc
Maintainer: Manoj Srivastava <[email-masked]>
Source: kernel-package
Version: 2.03
Depends: perl (>= 5.002-8)
Recommends: libc-dev, gcc
Suggests: kernel-source

I am installing a custom kernel using kernel-package.  Whenever it
tries to build the new psdatabase I get an error message.  The
relevant portion of /var/lib/dpkg/info/kernel-image-2.0.12.postinst is

 if ( -x "/sbin/psupdate" && -f "/boot/vmlinux-$version" ) {
   unlink("/boot/psdatabase");
   symlink("/boot/psdatabase-$version", "/boot/psdatabase");
   system("/sbin/psupdate /boot/vmlinux-$version");
   if ( -f "/boot/psdatabase-$version" ) {
     unlink("/boot/vmlinux-$version");
   }
   else {
     print "\nAn error seems to have ocurred while generating the\n";
     print "psdatabase file /boot/psdatabase.  NOT deleting the\n";
     print "/boot/vmlinux-$version so that the database may be \n";
     print "created manually\n";
   }
 }

so after running /sbin/psupdate there is an attempt to find if
/boot/psdatabase-2.0.12 exists.  The documentation for psupdate
indicates that it writes a new version of /etc/psdatabase.  I checked
and indeed that file was updated.  Am I supposed to have a link from
/etc/psdatabase to /boot/psdatabase?  This sequence would make sense
to me if that was the case.

-- 
Douglas Bates                            [email-masked]
Statistics Department                    608/262-2598
University of Wisconsin - Madison        http://www.stat.wisc.edu/~bates/

---

From: Michael Alan Dorman <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 17 Aug 1996 12:07:14 -0400

>to me if that was the case.

This has been brought up a couple of times in as many weeks.

It looks like what we're seeing is a change in behavior in psupdate.

Here's a patch to be applied to
/usr/lib/kernel-package/debian/image.postinst:

--- image.postinst.~1~	Thu Jul 18 02:16:18 1996
+++ image.postinst	Wed Aug 14 11:53:45 1996
@@ -69,8 +69,9 @@
   unlink("/boot/psdatabase");
   symlink("/boot/psdatabase-$version", "/boot/psdatabase");
   system("/sbin/psupdate /boot/vmlinux-$version");
-  if ( -f "/boot/psdatabase-$version" ) {
+  if ( -f "/etc/psdatabase" ) {
     unlink("/boot/vmlinux-$version");
+    system("mv /etc/psdatabase /boot/psdatabase-$version" );
   }
   else {
     print "\nAn error seems to have ocurred while generating the\n";

I'm still waiting for someone to let me know if psupdate was working
before and is now broken so the bug can be refiled against it, or
whether it was broken and is now working, in which case I'll release a
new kernel-package.

Mike.
--
"Don't let me make you unhappy by failing to be contrary enough...."