System Updater Not Creating initramfs every time it updates the kernel

Ask Fedora
1

Hey all,

I’ve run into a rather infuriating issue with my fedora installation. Every time the software updater updates my kernel, my system ends up failing to boot. The new kernel complains that it cannot find initramfs, so I need to reboot, go to grub, open an older kernel, then enter an elevated terminal session and run “dracut -f --regenerate-all” to force initramfs to generate.

This happens every single time an automated system update installs a newer version of my kernel.

Has anyone else experienced this? Does anyone have any idea why the updater might not be creating the new initramfs for me?

I’m running Fedora 41. This has been happening for all 6.11 and 6.12 kernels.

2

In the cases that I know about this failing, user has a dkms build that fails.
For dkms case I filed this bug report 2333757 – initrd is not created if a dkms build fails leaving system boot to fail

Is this also the case for you?

3

Hey Barry,
I am wondering if this happens when updates are run via the software/package kit updater vs running dnf manually from the command line. I have had the dkms fail, Nividia drivers …, and I still get good kernel builds/bootable updates (I am currently on 6.12.5-200.fc41.x86_64) …
The only times where this has been an issue for me is when I don’t make a conscious effort to make certain that the dracut actually finishes before a reboot …
… Just a thought …

4

Dracut runs synchronously which means once dnf finishes you can reboot. But the issue with dkms is a new failure mode it seems.
The only place I have dkms is with my arm VMs and since f39 always could reboot.

5

I’ve been having the same issue since jumping from 6.11.10 to 6.12.4 and now 6.12.5, having had to manually invoke dracut to create the initramfs image for the new kernel.
Now that i’m looking at the journal, i can see the following:

Dec 24 14:06:37 fedora packagekitd[22921]: Failed command:
Dec 24 14:06:37 fedora packagekitd[22921]: 'make' KDIR=/lib/modules/6.12.5-200.fc41.x86_64/build
Dec 24 14:06:37 fedora packagekitd[23574]: Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 6.12.5-200.fc41.x86_64 (x86_64)
Dec 24 14:06:37 fedora packagekitd[23574]: Consult /var/lib/dkms/hid-tmff2/0.83/build/make.log for more information.
Dec 24 14:06:37 fedora packagekitd[22614]: Autoinstall on 6.12.5-200.fc41.x86_64 failed for module(s) hid-tmff2(10).
Dec 24 14:06:37 fedora packagekitd[23575]: Error! One or more modules failed to install during autoinstall.
Dec 24 14:06:37 fedora packagekitd[23575]: Refer to previous errors for more information.
Dec 24 14:06:37 fedora packagekitd[22575]: /usr/lib/kernel/install.d/40-dkms.install failed with exit status 11.
Dec 24 14:06:37 fedora packagekitd[1113]: warning: %posttrans(kernel-core-6.12.5-200.fc41.x86_64) scriptlet failed, exit status 11

So, it appears my issue is DKMS related as well.

6

Can you add your logs to my bug report?

7

I am also having this issue for the last two kernel updates.

Updating from kernel.x86_64 6.11.10-300.fc41 to kernel.x86_64 6.11.11-300.fc41 failed to generate the file.
And updating from kernel.x86_64 6.11.11-300.fc41 to kernel.x86_64 6.12.7-200.fc41 also failed to generate the file.

8

To find out what is going on you can run

sudo kernel-install -v add 6.12.7-200.fc41.x86_64 /lib/modules/6.12.7-200.fc41.x86_64/vmlinuz

which will display all the steps taken and whether they were successful or not.

1 Like
9

A fixed dkms is in testing repos. If you enable the testing repos you could installed the fixed dkms.

10

My issue was that the following modules were failing to build:

> Autoinstall on 6.12.9-200.fc41.x86_64 failed for module(s) hid-xpadneo(10) xone(10).
>>> 
>>> Error! One or more modules failed to install during autoinstall.
>>> Refer to previous errors for more information.

Removing those with dkms fixed my problem.