[SOLVED] What creates /boot/vmlinuz-linux ?

wiktor-k · 2023-05-23 09:21:07

Hi,

I'm looking for information on which exact action writes kernel files into /boot such as /boot/vmlinuz-linux.

Context is: I'm using sbctl to produce EFI binaries that are written to /boot/linux.efi and I actually don't need /boot/vmlinuz-linux there and some laptops (cough, cough, Dell) have a super-tiny EFI partition. I'm *not* looking for moving EFI partition to /boot/efi etc.

The only data point I found is this old announcement: https://archlinux.org/news/new-kernel-p … pio-hooks/

> All our official kernels: linux, linux-lts, linux-zen and linux-hardened, do not install the actual kernel to /boot anymore.
> The installation is done by mkinitcpio hooks and scripts, as well as removals.

But I've browsed mkinitcpio hooks and they seem to only handle building initramfs images (which I successfully moved from /boot to some other location).

Kernel packages indeed don't write to /boot (pacman -Ql linux | grep /boot).

`pacman -F /boot/` also doesn't bring any info on that. I've also browsed libalpm hooks (/usr/share/libalpm/hooks/) and read a bit of mkinitcpio source code but it didn't help.

Thanks for your time!

Last edited by wiktor-k (2023-05-25 07:58:03)

seth · 2023-05-23 11:06:53

/usr/share/libalpm/scripts/mkinitcpio install_kernel, triggered by /usr/share/libalpm/hooks/90-mkinitcpio-install.hook

wiktor-k · 2023-05-25 07:57:46

Thanks seth!

It seems from the source of /usr/share/libalpm/hooks/90-mkinitcpio-install.hook that it runs `install` not `install_kernel` but one is probably triggered by another. From my experience just reinstalling the kernel (pacman -S linux) seems to be the best way to trigger hooks in the right order.

Just for completeness sake here's my mkinitcpio file that completely relocates the kernel from /boot:

$ cat /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset 

ALL_config="/etc/mkinitcpio.conf"
ALL_kver="/var/boot/vmlinuz-linux"

PRESETS=('default')

default_image="/var/boot/initramfs-linux.img"

fallback_image="/var/boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img"
fallback_options="-S autodetect"

And the corresponding sbctl config file:

$ cat /usr/share/secureboot/bundles.db 
{
    "/boot/linux.efi": {
        "output": "/boot/linux.efi",
        "intel_microcode": "",
        "amd_microcode": "/boot/amd-ucode.img",
        "kernel_image": "/var/boot/vmlinuz-linux",
        "initramfs": "/var/boot/initramfs-linux.img",
        "cmdline": "/etc/kernel/cmdline",
        "splash": "/usr/share/systemd/bootctl/splash-arch.bmp",
        "os_release": "/usr/lib/os-release",
        "efi_stub": "/usr/lib/systemd/boot/efi/linuxx64.efi.stub",
        "esp": "/boot"
    }
}

Arch Linux

#1 2023-05-23 09:21:07

[SOLVED] What creates /boot/vmlinuz-linux ?

#2 2023-05-23 11:06:53

Re: [SOLVED] What creates /boot/vmlinuz-linux ?

#3 2023-05-25 07:57:46

Re: [SOLVED] What creates /boot/vmlinuz-linux ?

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