Comment 11 for bug 148586

On Wednesday, October 10, 2007 6:57:27 pm Mathias Gug wrote:
> You mean -generic ?
Nope. I mean 386. The upgrade to Gutsy installed the 386 kernel on my server.
The only reason I can see was the dependency issue to apparmor.

> apparmor doesn't depend on linux-ubuntu-modules. It recommends
> apparmor-modules | apparmor-modules-2.1, which is provided by
> linux-ubuntu-modules.
>
Whatever. The net result is that the 386 kernel got installed on the server
and was placed in the first position in the grub boot list. Consequently,
when I rebooted the server (thinking I was going to get the latest-greatest
server kernel), the 386 kernel was loaded. The only package that had a
dependency on linux-ubuntu-modules-386 was apparmor. I myself had trouble
accepting that such a thing would happen, but there you have it.

It is the general philosophy of Ubuntu that packages have sensible defaults.
Per Debian policy manual, "The Recommends field should list packages that
would be found together with this one in all but unusual installations."
Installing the 386 module, which depends on the kernel, is exactly the
opposite: It should NOT be installed except in unusual installations.

The solution should be figured out ASAP to prevent the problem from arising
when Gutsy is rolled out. Many, if not most, server implementations are
command-line only, which means that the users will be using a command-line
package manager instead of Synaptic. The admins of servers are also likely to
be aware of the definitions of "Recommends" and "Suggests" and thus will
normally be installing Recommends, which is the default for aptitude.

If we roll out Gutsy as a production server platform and leave this
unresolved, there will be enterprise-class users who will be . .
uh . . . "disaapointed" about getting a 386 kernel when they were expecting
an upgraded server kernel.

Loye Young
Isaac & Young Computer Company
Laredo, Texas
http://www.iycc.biz

>
> status incomplete
> importance medium
>
>
> ** Changed in: apparmor (Ubuntu)
> Importance: Undecided => Medium
> Status: New => Incomplete