Do not remove old kernel-qubes-vm packages when new kernels are installed

[marmarek]

Reported by joanna on 7 May 2014 09:59 UTC
Currently the limit is 3 and it causes some annoyances -- e.g. some VMs are tested to work with some older kernels only (such as the VMs with devices assigned), but then the user does qubes-dom0-update and this one-and-only-good-kernel suddenly... disappears!

Migrated-From: https://wiki.qubes-os.org/ticket/848

[marmarek]

Comment by marmarek on 10 May 2014 18:31 UTC
So what limit do you propose? 15? Note that the same limit is for dom0 kernels. Yum requires to have some limit for simultaneously installed kernels (you can only set the limit value and select which packages contains kernel).

[marmarek]

Comment by marmarek on 10 May 2014 18:31 UTC
So what limit do you propose? 15? Note that the same limit is for dom0 kernels. Yum requires to have some limit for simultaneously installed kernels (you can only set the limit value and select which packages contains kernel).

[marmarek]

Modified by marmarek on 10 May 2014 18:31 UTC

[marmarek]

Modified by marmarek on 10 May 2014 18:31 UTC

[marmarek]

Comment by joanna on 11 May 2014 09:10 UTC
So, what's the limit for the limit? :) Seriously, what do we gain by making the limit small?

[marmarek]

Comment by joanna on 11 May 2014 09:10 UTC
So, what's the limit for the limit? :) Seriously, what do we gain by making the limit small?

[marmarek]

Comment by marmarek on 11 May 2014 10:06 UTC
Not filling up the whole disk (or at least /boot)? Every kernel package (both dom0 and VM) use 150-200MB.
Normally the system needs 1 (one) kernel to run, possibility to install multiple simultaneously is to:
a) not remove running kernel (especially modules) while that kernel is still running (i.e. before reboot to new one)
b) give a chance to rollback to old kernel if new one crashes during startup

I don't see why one would want to have much more than 3 kernels installed (indeed one additional is reasonable for some specific VM with PCI devices). Maybe solution to our problem is to block uninstall action while that kernel used used by some VM? Currently yum prevents from removing the running (in dom0) kernel only.

[marmarek]

Comment by marmarek on 11 May 2014 10:06 UTC
Not filling up the whole disk (or at least /boot)? Every kernel package (both dom0 and VM) use 150-200MB.
Normally the system needs 1 (one) kernel to run, possibility to install multiple simultaneously is to:
a) not remove running kernel (especially modules) while that kernel is still running (i.e. before reboot to new one)
b) give a chance to rollback to old kernel if new one crashes during startup

I don't see why one would want to have much more than 3 kernels installed (indeed one additional is reasonable for some specific VM with PCI devices). Maybe solution to our problem is to block uninstall action while that kernel used used by some VM? Currently yum prevents from removing the running (in dom0) kernel only.

[marmarek]

Comment by marmarek on 12 May 2014 19:30 UTC
http://git.qubes-os.org/?p=marmarek/linux-kernel.git;a=commit;h=2270b57f16f32de838923da213f8fe980be5ae9e
Note that this will work only for newly built packages.

[marmarek]

Comment by marmarek on 12 May 2014 19:30 UTC
http://git.qubes-os.org/?p=marmarek/linux-kernel.git;a=commit;h=2270b57f16f32de838923da213f8fe980be5ae9e
Note that this will work only for newly built packages.