Felix Miata composed on 2022-11-12 01:57 (UTC-0500): > # grep MODULES= /etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf > MODULES=dep > # ls -Ggh /boot/initrd.img-[5,6]* > -rw-r--r-- 1 6.8M May 8 2022 /boot/initrd.img-5.17.0-1-686 > -rw-r--r-- 1 31M Aug 2 03:06 /boot/initrd.img-5.18.0-3-686 > -rw-r--r-- 1 31M Sep 30 15:43 /boot/initrd.img-5.19.0-2-686 > -rw-r--r-- 1 36M Nov 12 01:36 /boot/initrd.img-6.0.0-3-686
> Does anyone here have an explanation for the mega-change in size of initrds > after > kernel 5.17? My initramfs.conf has had MODULES=dep since before > testing/bullseye > became testing/bookworm. That was on host 32bit host gx28b with ATI RV516 [Radeon X1300/X1550 Series], and the rest of the follow-up in the past few days was with host gx78b with AMD HD6450 (Caicos; Terascale 2). On host fi965 with AMD HD8570 (Oland; GCN1), where all was roughly similar other than specific GPU to gx78b I just did: 1-Installed dracut, and copied /etc/dracut.conf.d/* from TW to Bullseye's /etc/dracut.conf.d/, which installation left empty: # ls -gG /etc/dracut.conf.d/ total 3 -rw-r--r-- 1 894 Jan 26 08:01 10-persistent_policy.conf -rw-r--r-- 1 29 Nov 10 01:35 13-persistent-local.conf -rw-rw-r-- 1 200 Feb 4 00:25 dmodules.conf # cat /etc/dracut.conf.d/*f | grep -v ^# persistent_policy="by-uuid" persistent_policy="by-label" compress="zstd" hostonly="yes" omit_drivers+=" btrfs dmraid encryptfs i18n iscsi lvm lvm2 plymouth resume sata_sil uefi-lib usb_storage " --no-kernel --no-early-microcode The installation tried to rebuild all existing initrds, but failed on account of my symlinks in /boot/ that it wasn't prepared to deal with. 2-prepended . to all symlink names in /boot/. 3-apt update 4-time apt-get upgrade This did not add a new kernel. Dracut rebuilt all existing initrds. I noticed no activity from update-initramfs. 5-rebooted successfully using 6.0x's new initrd. 6-apt-get full-upgrade ... 34 upgraded, 21 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded, including 6.1x kernel. 7-rebooted successfully using 6.1x's new initrd. This is the current state of all initrds. Newest of each exists without leading . or last digit: # ls -gGh /boot/.ini* -rw-r--r-- 1 7.3M Apr 20 2022 /boot/.initrd.img-5.16.0-6-amd641 -rw-r--r-- 1 14M Feb 4 00:17 /boot/.initrd.img-5.16.0-6-amd642 # dracut -rw-r--r-- 1 8.3M Aug 4 2022 /boot/.initrd.img-5.18.0-3-amd641 -rw-r--r-- 1 15M Feb 4 00:18 /boot/.initrd.img-5.18.0-3-amd642 # dracut -rw-r--r-- 1 33M Sep 13 01:26 /boot/.initrd.img-5.19.0-1-amd641 -rw-r--r-- 1 15M Feb 4 00:18 /boot/.initrd.img-5.19.0-1-amd642 # dracut -rw-r--r-- 1 33M Oct 20 02:29 /boot/.initrd.img-5.19.0-2-amd641 -rw-r--r-- 1 15M Feb 4 00:19 /boot/.initrd.img-5.19.0-2-amd642 # dracut -rw-r--r-- 1 27M Dec 27 04:54 /boot/.initrd.img-6.0.0-6-amd641 -rw-r--r-- 1 15M Feb 4 00:20 /boot/.initrd.img-6.0.0-6-amd642 # dracut -rw------- 1 15M Feb 4 00:46 /boot/.initrd.img-6.1.0-2-amd641 # dracut # lsinitramfs .initrd.img-6.0.0-6-amd641 | wc -l 1208 # lsinitramfs .initrd.img-6.0.0-6-amd642 | wc -l 881 # lsinitramfs .initrd.img-6.0.0-6-amd641 | grep mwar | wc -l 728 # lsinitramfs .initrd.img-6.0.0-6-amd642 | grep mwar | wc -l 1 # lsinitramfs .initrd.img-6.1.0-2-amd641 | grep box # lsinitramfs .initrd.img-6.1.0-2-amd641 | wc -l 882 # So, dracut is building considerably smaller by leaving out firmware, and leaving out radeon.ko and amdgpu.ko, but adding other things TBD once I have ideas what to look for. I suspect it could be a lot of individual tools instead of (absent) busybox. -- Evolution as taught in public schools is, like religion, based on faith, not based on science. Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata