id,summary,reporter,owner,description,type,status,priority,milestone,component,resolution,keywords,cc,fix_version,see_also 257,Consider bumping priority of openafs-modules metapackages from extra to optional,mitchb,,"Despite having openafs-modules-foo metapackages installed, machines that don't update via debathena-auto-update (i.e any machine below the new debathena-workstation) can take a new kernel before the new AFS modules are ready. Sometimes apt[itude] will choose to remove the AFS metapackage instead of holding back the kernel. Greg says that the autoupdate infrastructure avoids the problem by aborting any update where the proposed actions include removal of important debathena metapackages. Tim says that increasing the priority of the metapackage will make apt less likely to prefer its removal. dkms support exists in Jaunty, and ticket #243 is about figuring out how to use it, but it sounds like this may be very unlikely to end up in Hardy and Intrepid, so we're still stuck with an issue for many machines. Evan requested this ticket so that we can first get a sense of whether bumping the priority will actually work. Some background e-mails from a debathena@ thread below: ************************************************************* To: debathena@MIT.EDU Subject: How does the kernel/openafs version sync thing work again? Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 21:30:16 -0400 From: Mitchell E Berger This afternoon, I tried to take updates on a machine I maintain, only to find that it wanted to upgrade the kernel and punt the openafs metapackages. I was pretty sure we had something in place to avoid upgrading the kernel until the new modules were ready, but I didn't recall the details, so I asked Evan to refresh me on it. After briefly looking at the machine with me, he concluded that the machine's setup looked right and perhaps something is wrong with the infrastructure that's supposed to avoid this problem. So, he suggested I send mail in the hopes that Greg or someone else will know what's amiss. When he initially saw the changes that apt-get and aptitude were proposing, Evan asked if this machine had not been updated in a while. In fact, it's updated pretty much daily, via 'apt-get dist-upgrade'. Any ideas? Thanks, Mitch Vital stats: ============ # athinfo localhost version debathena-login on Ubuntu 8.04.2 # uname -a Linux ____ 2.6.24-23-xen #1 SMP Wed Apr 1 23:47:10 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux (Note: This machine generally lives as a ParaVM under the -xen kernel, but it also has the -generic kernel installed) ========================================================================== # apt-get dist-upgrade Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Calculating upgrade... Done The following packages will be REMOVED: openafs-modules-generic openafs-modules-xen The following NEW packages will be installed: linux-image-2.6.24-24-generic linux-image-2.6.24-24-xen linux-ubuntu-modules-2 .6.24-24-generic linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-24-xen The following packages have been kept back: debathena-alpine-config The following packages will be upgraded: libwmf0.2-7 linux-image-generic linux-image-xen linux-libc-dev 4 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 2 to remove and 1 not upgraded. Need to get 47.5MB of archives. After this operation, 189MB of additional disk space will be used. =========================================================================== =========================================================================== # aptitude dist-upgrade Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Reading extended state information Initializing package states... Done Building tag database... Done The following packages are BROKEN: debathena-alpine-config openafs-modules-generic openafs-modules-xen The following packages are unused and will be REMOVED: alpine debootstrap The following NEW packages will be installed: linux-image-2.6.24-24-generic linux-image-2.6.24-24-xen linux-ubuntu-modules-2 .6.24-24-generic linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-24-xen The following packages will be upgraded: libwmf0.2-7 linux-image-generic linux-image-xen linux-libc-dev 5 packages upgraded, 4 newly installed, 2 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 47.5MB of archives. After unpacking 182MB will be used. The following packages have unmet dependencies: openafs-modules-generic: Depends: linux-image-generic (= 2.6.24.23.25) but 2.6 .24.24.26 is to be installed. openafs-modules-xen: Depends: linux-image-xen (= 2.6.24.23.25) but 2.6.24.24.2 6 is to be installed. debathena-alpine-config: Depends: debathena-alpine which is a virtual package. Resolving dependencies... The following actions will resolve these dependencies: Remove the following packages: openafs-modules-generic openafs-modules-xen Downgrade the following packages: alpine [2.00+dfsg-1~hardy1 (hardy-backports, now) -> 1.0+dfsg-3ubuntu0.1debathen a1~ubuntu8.04 (hardy)] Score is 223 ============================================================================= ============================================================================ # dpkg -l|grep openafs- ii openafs-client 1.4.6.dfsg1-2+ubuntu0.1 ii openafs-krb5 1.4.6.dfsg1-2+ubuntu0.1 ii openafs-modules-2.6.24-22-xen 1.4.6.dfsg1-2+2.6.24-22.45 ii openafs-modules-2.6.24-23-generic 1.4.6.dfsg1-2+ubuntu0.1+2.6.24-23 .52 ii openafs-modules-2.6.24-23-xen 1.4.6.dfsg1-2+ubuntu0.1+2.6.24-23 .52 ii openafs-modules-generic 2.6.24.23.25~ubuntu8.04 ii openafs-modules-xen 2.6.24.23.25~ubuntu8.04 ============================================================================ ============================================================================ # aptitude why openafs-modules-2.6.24-23-xen i openafs-modules-xen Depends openafs-modules-2.6.24-23-xen # aptitude why openafs-modules-xen The package ""openafs-modules-xen"" is manually installed. # aptitude why openafs-modules-2.6.24-23-generic i openafs-modules-generic Depends openafs-modules-2.6.24-23-generic # aptitude why openafs-modules-generic The package ""openafs-modules-generic"" is manually installed. ============================================================================ ============================================================================ # dpkg -l|grep linux-image ii linux-image-2.6.24-22-xen 2.6.24-22.45 ii linux-image-2.6.24-23-generic 2.6.24-23.52 ii linux-image-2.6.24-23-xen 2.6.24-23.52 ii linux-image-generic 2.6.24.23.25 ii linux-image-xen 2.6.24.23.25 ============================================================================ *************************************************************** Subject: Re: How does the kernel/openafs version sync thing work again? From: Greg Hudson To: Mitchell E Berger Cc: debathena@mit.edu Date: Tue, 05 May 2009 11:27:23 -0400 On Mon, 2009-05-04 at 21:30 -0400, Mitchell E Berger wrote: > Any ideas? The mechanism really only works in combination with a check like athena-auto-update's, which aborts the update if it sees aptitude proposing to remove certain Debathena metapackages. I don't know by what mechanism apt-get is deciding that updating a kernel is more important than keeping a manually selected package, and if there's any way to override that. *************************************************************** Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 11:58:50 -0400 (EDT) From: Tim Abbott To: Greg Hudson cc: Mitchell E Berger , debathena@mit.edu Subject: Re: How does the kernel/openafs version sync thing work again? On Tue, 5 May 2009, Greg Hudson wrote: > On Mon, 2009-05-04 at 21:30 -0400, Mitchell E Berger wrote: > > Any ideas? > > The mechanism really only works in combination with a check like > athena-auto-update's, which aborts the update if it sees aptitude > proposing to remove certain Debathena metapackages. > > I don't know by what mechanism apt-get is deciding that updating a > kernel is more important than keeping a manually selected package, and > if there's any way to override that. Package priority is one thing that goes into this decision. Our modules package is priority: extra. If we were to raise that, aptitude would be more reluctant to remove it. -Tim Abbott ",defect,closed,normal,Summer 2010 (Lucid Deploy),--,wontfix,,,,