Always kexecs on shutdown/reboot

Targeting for intrepid, as this makes linux-crashdump unusable

This bug was fixed in the package kexec-tools - 20070330-4ubuntu6

---------------
kexec-tools (20070330-4ubuntu6) intrepid; urgency=low

  * Do no load kernel for kexec by default. People who install this package
    don't always want this feature automatically. LP: #251242

 -- Ben Collins <email address hidden> Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:24:45 -0400

This also happens with

kexec-tools:
  Installed: 20090000-2.0.0ubuntu2
  Candidate: 20090000-2.0.0ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** 20090000-2.0.0ubuntu2 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

I'm seeing this also with 20090000-2.0.0ubuntu3. Is there a workaround I can apply?

Replace "KEXEC_LOAD=true" with "KEXEC_LOAD=false" in /etc/default/kexec.

This does appear to have been fixed in the Intrepid code base but not fixed in Jaunty and later. Attached is debdiff for Jaunty to change the default there also.

i am looking for a main-sponsor for this upload to jaunty-proposed.

Sponsorship in progress.

This bug was fixed in the package kexec-tools - 20090000-2.0.0ubuntu4

---------------
kexec-tools (20090000-2.0.0ubuntu4) karmic; urgency=low

  * kexec based reboot triggers a number of semantic changes which
    are visible to the user, it should be opt-in by default. Adjust
    kexec.default to disable kexec by default. LP: #251242

 -- Andy Whitcroft <email address hidden> Mon, 27 Apr 2009 10:32:46 +0100

Please disregard this jaunty-proposed upload for the moment. As discussed on #ubuntu-devel, this needs some more work.

Discussed this upload with Colin Watson, he indicates there policy violation in the handling of the configuration files which will lead to different behaviour from dpkg and apt-get installs of the package, I have filed a new bug for that issue, bug #368745. It was also felt appropriate that we should update older installs to disable the kexec reboot. I will prepare new debdiffs for this.

This patch is a second debdiff for Karmic applying the default on upgrade and fixing the policy violation from bug #368745.

(Updated to include the correct bug numbers). This patch is a second debdiff for Karmic applying the default on upgrade and fixing the policy violation from bug #368745.

(... and the right patch, whimper). This patch is a second debdiff for Karmic applying the default on upgrade and fixing the policy violation from bug #368745.

This should be the combined patch biringng all of the changes above for Jaunty.

Rejected the first upload. Colin, since you discussed that with Andy, would you mind reviewing and sponsoring the followup patch? Thanks!

Yes, I think this is fine now (sorry for the delay). I'll upload these.

This bug was fixed in the package kexec-tools - 20090000-2.0.0ubuntu5

---------------
kexec-tools (20090000-2.0.0ubuntu5) karmic; urgency=low

  * debian policy forbids dpkg conffile handling and maintainer script
    configuration in the same package as this leads to inconsistant behaviour
    between apt-get install and dpkg -i installs of the same package. Switch
    wholy to the maintainer script. LP: #368745
  * kexec reboot has been enabled by default whereas it should have been
    opt-in, it is therefore appropriate to force this off for upgrades from
    older versions. LP: #251242

 -- Andy Whitcroft <email address hidden> Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:21:30 +0100

Accepted kexec-tools into jaunty-proposed, the package will build now and be available in a few hours. Please test and give feedback here. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you in advance!

Thank you - I've installed the latest jaunty-proposed update for this package (20090000-2.0.0ubuntu3.1) and rebooting works normally again, as before the intrepid-to-jaunty upgrade.

This bug was fixed in the package kexec-tools - 20090000-2.0.0ubuntu3.1

---------------
kexec-tools (20090000-2.0.0ubuntu3.1) jaunty-proposed; urgency=low

  * debian policy forbids dpkg conffile handling and maintainer script
    configuration in the same package as this leads to inconsistant behaviour
    between apt-get install and dpkg -i installs of the same package. Switch
    wholy to the maintainer script. LP: #368745
  * kexec reboot has been enabled by default whereas it should have been
    opt-in, it is therefore appropriate to force this off for upgrades from
    older versions. LP: #251242
  * kexec based reboot triggers a number of semanatic changes which
    are visible to the user, it should be opt-in by default. Adjust
    kexec.default to disable kexec by default. LP: #251242

 -- Andy Whitcroft <email address hidden> Mon, 27 Apr 2009 10:32:46 +0100

I've just been bitten by this interesting feature on a current Jaunty system.

I installed linux-crashdump, and now all my alterations to /boot/grub/menu.lst are ignored.
I spent ages trying to discover why /proc/cmdline was an old version that didn't exist any more in my menu.lst
[I didn't see that the system wasn't going via grub, because this is a remote server.]

May I recommend:

 (1) If linux boots via a kexec, please, please put something in dmesg (or /var/log/messages) to that effect.

 (2) /etc/rc6.d/S85kexec should do a kexec reboot of the default kernel and kernel-commandline by parsing
     /boot/grub/menu.lst. In many cases, this will be equivalent to "reboot the current kernel, with the current
     cmdline", but if the user has edited menu.lst, then that is what the user wants to get. In other words:
        * parse menu.lst [or possibly lilo.conf?] , to pull out the user's current preference for default kernel and cmdline
        * if they are the same as we're currently running, do a kexec -e
        * otherwise, use kexec -l... and/or kexec --command-line=... before the kexec -e.

  (3) I know about /etc/default/kexec, but it's simply not right to have a different configuration in two places.

I expect the system to come up in _exactly_ the same state, whether I started it with "shutdown -r now"
or "shutdown -h now" followed by pressing the power button. At the moment, wildly different things happen!

(I do really like the increased reboot speed though :-) ).

@Richard --- if you installed linux-crashdump and it turned on kexec by default that sounds wrong. We would expect you to have to opt in to the automatic kexec behaviour on reboot. Please file a bug on linux-crashdump and reference this one in the description. Thanks.

This bug seems to be back in Karmic since a few days. Normal reboot has been replaced by kexec, which is counter-intuitive, because it doesn't allow e.g. selecting a different kernel via GRUB's boot menu if needed.

Not for me. I just installed kexec-tools (20090000-2.0.0ubuntu12) and /etc/default/kexec stills says "KEXEC_LOAD=false".