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[Bug Watch Updater <2115490@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

** Changed in: initramfs-tools (Debian)
       Status: Unknown => New

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2115490

Title:
  update-initramfs trigger does not update the initramfs in some cases

Status in dracut package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Committed
Status in initramfs-tools package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged
Status in initramfs-tools package in Debian:
  New

Bug description:
  When installing a kernel package and a package with a trigger for
  update-initramfs in one go, the update of the initramfs is skipped in
  some cases.

  In a clean chroot, populated with debootstrap for "trixie", run

  ```
  apt install linux-image-amd64 plymouth-theme-mobian
  ```

  Result:

  ```
  [...]
  Setting up linux-image-6.12.32-amd64 (6.12.32-1) ...
  I: /vmlinuz.old is now a symlink to boot/vmlinuz-6.12.32-amd64
  I: /initrd.img.old is now a symlink to boot/initrd.img-6.12.32-amd64
  I: /vmlinuz is now a symlink to boot/vmlinuz-6.12.32-amd64
  I: /initrd.img is now a symlink to boot/initrd.img-6.12.32-amd64
  /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools:
  update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.12.32-amd64
  Setting up linux-image-amd64 (6.12.32-1) ...
  Setting up plymouth-theme-mobian (1.1) ...
  update-alternatives: using /usr/share/plymouth/themes/mobian/mobian.plymouth to provide /usr/share/plymouth/themes/default.plymouth (default.plymouth) in auto mode
  Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.41-8) ...
  Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.148.2) ...
  update-initramfs: /boot/initrd.img-6.12.32-amd64 has already been updated since Mon Jun 23 06:07:09 2025.
  ```

  The initramfs is updated after setup of the kernel package. It is NOT
  updated again after setup of package plymouth-theme-mobian, which is
  wrong. The files that are installed by package plymouth-theme-mobian are
  missing in the initramfs (and the plymouth splash screen will not work).

  This is what happens here:

  1. Another package is installed that calls "update-initramfs -u".  This
     activates the trigger, and we store a timestamp for it.
  2. linux-image-6.12.32-amd64 is installed.  This calls the
     initramfs-tools hook which synchronously builds the initramfs.
  3. plymouth-theme-mobian is installed.  This activates the trigger
     through a triggers control file.
  4. The trigger runs and passes the timestamp from (1) through to
     update-initramfs.  update-initramfs sees the current image is newer
     than that, and skips the update.

  We correctly handle the case where the trigger is only activated through
  `update-initramfs -u`, or only through a triggers control file or direct
  invocation of dpkg-trigger.  But when both methods are used, this bug is
  possible because a timestmap file is present and it is wrong.

  So revert the optimised trigger handling until dpkg itself records
  timestamps for trigger activation (see https://bugs.debian.org/1099136).

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