[01:28] <cjwatson> hm, I forgot to rebase netcfg for some reason
[12:41] <Jemt> Hello again, folks.
[12:43] <Jemt> A quick question regarding initrd. As mentioned earlier, I use the Live CD to boot Ubuntu installations on USB sticks. The USB stick, however, may be upgraded over the months, resulting in a new Initrd being created. Will Ubuntu always work if I boot it using an older version of Initrd? The kernel is hold back, so that's never upgraded
[12:44] <Jemt> I fear that packages somehow may depend on new functionality in the newly created initrd. This probably won't be available if the system is booted using an older version of initrd
[12:44] <cjwatson> packages other than the kernel may cause the initramfs to be regenerated
[12:44] <Jemt> Yes, I know - e.g. udev
[12:45] <cjwatson> if you're talking about just a stable release though, and forcibly hold the initramfs back (e.g. by never copying it out to the top level of the USB stick), you should be OKK
[12:45] <cjwatson> OK
[12:45] <cjwatson> just don't try to do that across updates between releases
[12:46] <Jemt> But as you mentioned, any package may force initrd to be re-generated. Don't you think that's because they require changes to initrd to work properly ?
[12:55] <Jemt> I was also considering holding back changes to initrd somehow, but really, almost any package could have it regenerate. I would probably have to disable the update manager to keep that from happening
[13:19] <Jemt> cjwatson: Is it possible to have a custom script run after package installations? I need something to trigger my "restore" script which will do "ln -s /boot/old-initrd /initrd.img"
[13:27] <Jemt> Nonsens... I just realized something. Holding it back on the USB stick is not the solution, since the older initrd on the Live CD is still used to boot the USB stick
[13:28] <Jemt> What I need, is to make sure the USB stick will always boot with the "old" kernel and initrd on the Live CD, even though the USB stick is up-to-date
[13:58] <Jemt> cjwatson: I found evidence to support what you said (not that I don't trust you :-)). /etc/initramfs-tools/update-initramfs.conf contains an option to disable updates to initrd. So it is unlikely that packages will break if the "old" initrd is used.
[13:59] <Jemt> Option is called "update_initramfs={yes/all/no}