Package: busybox
Version: 1:1.37.0-9
Severity: important
X-Debbugs-Cc: [email protected]
Dear Maintainer,
* What led up to the situation?
- busybox versions 1:1.37.0-8 and 1:1.37.0-9 removed $BUSYBOXDIR
stating that initramfs-tools no longer use it, however initramfs-tools depends
on initramfs-tools-core which still checks for and uses it in
/usr/sbin/mkinitramfs
```shell
busybox (1:1.37.0-8) unstable; urgency=medium
* awk.c-fix-CVE-2023-42366-bug-15874.patch (Closes: #1059053)
* wget-disallow-control-chars-in-URLs-CVE-2025-60876.patch (Closes: #1120795)
* two patches (one from upstream and missing hunk) to fix CVE-2025-46394:
archival-libarchive-sanitize-filenames-on-output-CVE-2025-46394.patch
archival-libarchive-sanitize-filenames-on-output-CVE-2025-46394-2.patch
(Closes: #1104008)
* config: deb,static: enable resize applet
* initramfs-tools/conf-hooks.d/busybox: remove,
initramfs-tools don't use $BUSYBOXDIR anymore
* initramfs-tools/hooks/zz-busybox:
print applets added to initramfs in verbose mode
-- Michael Tokarev <[email protected]> Sun, 01 Feb 2026 19:29:24 +0300
```
```shell
dpkg -l | grep -i initramfs
iF initramfs-tools 0.150
all generic modular initramfs generator (automation)
ii initramfs-tools-bin 0.150
amd64 generic modular initramfs generator (binary tools)
ii initramfs-tools-core 0.150
all generic modular initramfs generator (core tools)
```
```shell
apt-cache depends initramfs-tools
initramfs-tools
Depends: initramfs-tools-core
Depends: linux-base
Conflicts: <linux-initramfs-tool>
dracut
tiny-initramfs
Suggests: bash-completion
```
```shell
apt-file show initramfs-tools-core
initramfs-tools-core: /etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf
initramfs-tools-core: /usr/bin/lsinitramfs
initramfs-tools-core: /usr/sbin/mkinitramfs
initramfs-tools-core: /usr/share/doc/initramfs-tools-core/changelog.gz
initramfs-tools-core: /usr/share/doc/initramfs-tools-core/copyright
initramfs-tools-core: /usr/share/doc/initramfs-tools-core/examples/example_hook
initramfs-tools-core:
/usr/share/doc/initramfs-tools-core/examples/example_script
initramfs-tools-core: /usr/share/doc/initramfs-tools-core/examples/framebuffer
initramfs-tools-core: /usr/share/doc/initramfs-tools-core/examples/modules
initramfs-tools-core: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hook-functions
initramfs-tools-core: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/fsck
initramfs-tools-core: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/keymap
initramfs-tools-core: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/resume
initramfs-tools-core: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/thermal
initramfs-tools-core: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/init
initramfs-tools-core: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/modules
initramfs-tools-core: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/scripts/functions
initramfs-tools-core:
/usr/share/initramfs-tools/scripts/init-top/all_generic_ide
initramfs-tools-core: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/scripts/init-top/blacklist
initramfs-tools-core: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/scripts/init-top/keymap
initramfs-tools-core:
/usr/share/initramfs-tools/scripts/init-top/simple-framebuffer
initramfs-tools-core: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/scripts/local
initramfs-tools-core: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/scripts/local-premount/resume
initramfs-tools-core: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/scripts/nfs
initramfs-tools-core: /usr/share/lintian/overrides/initramfs-tools-core
initramfs-tools-core: /usr/share/man/man5/initramfs.conf.5.gz
initramfs-tools-core: /usr/share/man/man7/initramfs-tools.7.gz
initramfs-tools-core: /usr/share/man/man8/lsinitramfs.8.gz
initramfs-tools-core: /usr/share/man/man8/mkinitramfs.8.gz
```
```shell
sed -n '140,145p' /usr/sbin/mkinitramfs
# Check busybox dependency
if [ "${BUSYBOX}" = "y" ] && [ -z "${BUSYBOXDIR}" ]; then
echo >&2 "E: busybox or busybox-static is required but not installed"
exit 1
fi
```
* What was the outcome of this action?
```shell
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.18.8
E: busybox or busybox-static is required but not installed
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-6.18.8 with 1.
dpkg: error processing package initramfs-tools (--configure):
old initramfs-tools package postinst maintainer script subprocess failed with
exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
initramfs-tools
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
```
* What outcome did you expect instead?
Successfull install / update of initramfs image.
-- System Information:
Debian Release: forky/sid
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 6.18.8 (SMP w/24 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Kernel taint flags: TAINT_USER, TAINT_WARN, TAINT_OOT_MODULE
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) (ignored: LC_ALL
set to en_US.UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled
Versions of packages busybox depends on:
ii libc6 2.42-11
busybox recommends no packages.
busybox suggests no packages.
-- no debconf information
