On Sun 26 Jul 2020 at 22:22:54 (-0700), David Christensen wrote: > On 2020-07-26 20:39, David Wright wrote: > > On Sun 26 Jul 2020 at 16:46:48 (-0700), David Christensen wrote: > > > > 2020-07-26 16:35:36 root@po ~ > > > # lsinitramfs -l /boot/initrd.img-4.9.0-9-amd64 > > > > lsinitramfs-l-initrd.img-4.9.0-9-amd64.out > > > > > > 2020-07-26 16:35:57 root@po ~ > > > # lsinitramfs -l /boot/initrd.img-4.9.0-11-amd64 > > > > lsinitramfs-l-initrd.img-4.9.0-11-amd64.out > > > > 2020-07-26 16:40:52 root@po ~ > > > # diff lsinitramfs-l-initrd.img-4.9.0-9-amd64.out > > > lsinitramfs-l-initrd.img-4.9.0-11-amd64.out | grep '>' | head > > > > drwxr-xr-x 10 root root 0 Jul 26 15:46 . > > > > drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 0 Jul 26 15:46 conf > > > > drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Jul 26 15:46 conf/conf.d > > > > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 76 Jul 26 15:46 > > > conf/conf.d/cryptroot > > > > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16 Jul 26 15:46 conf/arch.conf > > > > drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Jul 26 15:46 sbin > > > < lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Jan 9 2020 > > > sbin/mount.ntfs -> /bin/ntfs-3g > > > > lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Jul 26 15:46 > > > sbin/mount.ntfs -> /bin/ntfs-3g > > > < lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Jan 9 2020 > > > sbin/mount.ntfs-3g -> /bin/ntfs-3g > > > > lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Jul 26 15:46 > > > sbin/mount.ntfs-3g -> /bin/ntfs-3g > > > > If you're going to diff listings like that, you at least need to pipe > > the output through something like > > > > cut --complement -b 43-54 /tmp/initrd.img-4.19.0-9-amd64.out | sed -e > > 's/4.19.0.9/4.19.0.X/' > > > > to strip the dates and kernel version. This will leave you with the > > sizes. If you're looking for missing files, drop the -l, the cut, and > > leave the sed. > > Thanks for pointing out potential errors. > > Yes, I should have nerfed the kernel version. But, I believe date and > time should be retained. I think we can also remove items with size > 0: > > 2020-07-26 22:06:40 root@po ~ > # perl -ane 's/4.9.0-\d+/4.9.0-xxx/; print if $F[4]' > lsinitramfs-l-initrd.img-4.9.0-9-amd64.out > > lsinitramfs-l-initrd.img-4.9.0-9-amd64.out2 > > 2020-07-26 22:06:57 root@po ~ > # perl -ane 's/4.9.0-\d+/4.9.0-xxx/; print if $F[4]' > lsinitramfs-l-initrd.img-4.9.0-11-amd64.out > > lsinitramfs-l-initrd.img-4.9.0-11-amd64.out2 > > My previous diff was outputting links in error. I believe these are > the files that have been added or changed: > > 2020-07-26 22:09:01 root@po ~ > # diff lsinitramfs-l-initrd.img-4.9.0-9-amd64.out2 > lsinitramfs-l-initrd.img-4.9.0-11-amd64.out2 | egrep '^>' | wc > 705 7104 84072 > > Stripping of everything except the file or link name: > > 2020-07-26 22:11:53 root@po ~ > # perl -ae 'print $F[8], "\n" if $F[8]' > lsinitramfs-l-initrd.img-4.9.0-9-amd64.out2 | sort > > lsinitramfs-l-initrd.img-4.9.0-9-amd64.out3 > > 2020-07-26 22:12:13 root@po ~ > # perl -ae 'print $F[8], "\n" if $F[8]' > lsinitramfs-l-initrd.img-4.9.0-11-amd64.out2 | sort > > lsinitramfs-l-initrd.img-4.9.0-11-amd64.out3 > > It appears that no files have been added or removed: > > 2020-07-26 22:14:30 root@po ~ > # diff -s lsinitramfs-l-initrd.img-4.9.0-9-amd64.out3 > lsinitramfs-l-initrd.img-4.9.0-11-amd64.out3 > Files lsinitramfs-l-initrd.img-4.9.0-9-amd64.out3 and > lsinitramfs-l-initrd.img-4.9.0-11-amd64.out3 are identical
As you have several working machines, another approach to checking the initramfs is to unmkinitramfs two files, one from the problem machine, and check the trees are identical with md5sum. > At this point, I need to put my efforts into a newer desktop distribution. Fair enough. But it's a very worrying story, and it would be nice to eliminate some sources of the problem, and possibly determine where the cause lies. I recall the relief when I found out why I was having problems unlocking my own laptop. (Null characters were being injected into the keyboard input every 20 secs from, I believe, the battery/AC power controller. This last facility is now defunct.) Cheers, David.
