Comment 1 for bug 348382

Pasting the IRC log about why this was required. We should reconsider it for KK.

19:44 < ogra> hmm, uubuntu-bug tags armel ... not arm
19:48 < ogra> lool, the funny stuff is that we dont actually need that in-target call for the current install
19:49 * ogra starts his 7th install today hacking out that line from the script
19:50 < amitk> lool: ogra: guys I don't think we understand your need for the flash-kernel dependency. I've added to patch to git though
19:50 * ogra dd's again ... indeed it rewrote the cmdline already
19:50 < ogra> amitk, do you understand the need for the grub dependency on -generic ?
19:51 < amitk> not really, no. Since it doesn't really pull in grub
19:52 < ogra> well, you need update.grub on x86 systems
19:52 < ogra> s/\./-/
19:52 < ogra> flash-kernel fulfills the same purpose
19:53 < lool> amitk: I think you're like me: you don't understand why it's there, but you're safer with it and armel being like i386/lpia/amd64 than without ;)
19:53 < ogra> if you debootstrap a system and install the linux metapackage you want it bootable, no ?
19:54 < amitk> lool: it is confusing because it doesn't fit into my (little) knowledge about debian packaging. It isn't pulled in a depends, not required by build-depends. So why should it be there? :)
19:55 < amitk> ogra: but this dependency is NOT going to pull in flash-kernel AFAICT
19:55 < amitk> nor does it pull grub on x86
19:55 < amitk> something else does that
19:56 < lool> amitk: It's just not a rational dependency but a historical one; I wish I knew why they are here, one thing I mentionned earlier is that it could be for the benefit of people who debootstrap and apt-get install the kernel image
19:56 < lool> amitk: I'm happy if the kernel team drops these deps in karmic
19:57 * lool doesn't want to do any experiment at this point though
19:57 < ogra> i think it is to make sure that the postinst doesnt break if kernel-img.conf is set up with the defaults for a specific arch
19:57 < ogra> on x86 the default postinst command is update-grub
19:59 < ogra> ogra@osiris:~/Devel/seeds/ubuntu.jaunty$ apt-cache show linux-image-2.6.28-11-generic|grep grub
19:59 < ogra> Recommends: grub | lilo (>= 19.1)
20:00 < ogra> i dont know what makes you think it doesnt get pulled inm
20:00 < ogra> *in
20:00 < amitk> ogra: but it is recommends
20:00 < ogra> which we install by default
20:00 < ogra> recommends just means you can remove it safely
20:01 < ogra> but apt in the default setup will pull it in
20:02 < ogra> apt-get will only omit installing recommends if you call it with the --no-install-recommends switch