# /boot/vmlinuz symlink

## Konsti

Hi there!

Actually I realize that a "make install" in my /usr/src/linux directory does only copy the config, System.map and vmlinuz to /boot in a fully named manner:

```

-rw-r--r--  1 root root     512 2008-04-05 12:47 boot.0800

-rw-r--r--  1 root root   30455 2008-06-23 14:30 config-2.6.25-gentoo-r3

-rw-r--r--  1 root root       0 2007-04-20 01:54 .keep

-rw-r--r--  1 root root       0 2008-04-05 12:45 .keep_sys-boot_lilo-0

-rw-------  1 root root   44544 2008-06-13 07:21 .map

-rw-r--r--  1 root root  681719 2008-06-23 14:30 System.map-2.6.25-gentoo-r3

-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1483836 2008-06-23 14:30 vmlinuz-2.6.25-gentoo-r3

```

I expected it creates also vmlinuz, System.map and config symlinks to the fully named files, where has this feature gone to?

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## cyrillic

I noticed this too, and I prefer the old behaviour.

/sbin/installkernel is provided by sys-apps/debianutils , and I think there was a recent update.

I have not tried to downgrade debianutils (yet), but I think this would fix it.

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## Konsti

Okay, you are right. I did not know debianutils are involved into that. I did an

```
[ebuild     UD] sys-apps/debianutils-2.28.5 [2.29] USE="-static" 0 kB
```

which restores the old behaviour again - calls lilo and a straight /boot/vmlinuz symlink.

Is this intentional or a bug? Should this be filed agains debianutils?

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## cyrillic

Unfortunately, I think they did this on purpose.

 *debianutils changelog wrote:*   

> debianutils (2.29) unstable; urgency=low
> 
>   * installkernel, installkernel.8: apply patch from Manoj Srivastava
> 
>     to update the installkernel script to be useful on modern
> ...

 

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=485278

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## Konsti

I found this very useful. The debian people are getting very strange...

Why aren't the symlinks useful for grub? And how about lilo?   :Confused: 

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## cyrillic

The symlinks are useful with grub.

One of the reasons I use "make install" is so I won't have to edit grub.conf every time I upgrade the kernel.

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## Konsti

I agree and in this way these smylinks are as usual when using lilo! 

But what he points out is

```

These symlinks are [b]not[/b] useful if you use grub...

```

This is why I am astonished a bit, despite of the fact to figure out how to do this task automagically without debianutils from now on and why gentoolcit and ca-certificates depend on them   :Wink: 

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## slycordinator

 *Konsti wrote:*   

> But what he points out is
> 
> ```
> 
> These symlinks are [b]not[/b] useful if you use grub...
> ...

 You're forgetting that it's a debian bug. And in debian, if you have grub it updates grub.conf (or it's probably menu.lst in debian) for you automatically making the symlink superfluous.

In any case, the updated debianutils still does the symlink updating; it just won't create it. So go to /boot and make the vmlinuz symlink and the next time you do "make install" it'll update that for you.

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## John R. Graham

 *cyrillic wrote:*   

> The symlinks are useful with grub.

 I agree.  I liked the kernel's "make install" behavior so much that I implemented the same behavior in genkernel and got it accepted into Portage.  

- John

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## disi

I noticed this month ago, since a longer time I use Genkernel (reason:lvm) and it does it for me  :Smile: 

Since I control anyway, I thought a broken script or something but not that this was changed on purpose.

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## slycordinator

Again, the symlinks will be updated for you automagically but will not be created if they don't exist.

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