Bug#816096: initramfs-tools: Error reporting false missing dependancy on busybox

[Christophe <christophe.curis@free.fr>]

----- Ben Hutchings <ben@decadent.org.uk> a écrit :
> On Sun, 2016-02-28 at 12:47 +0100, Christophe wrote:
> > ----- Ben Hutchings <ben@decadent.org.uk> a écrit :
> > > 
> > > On Sat, 2016-02-27 at 13:04 +0100, Christophe wrote:
> > > > Package: initramfs-tools
> > > > Version: 0.123
> > > > Severity: important
> > > > 
> > > > [...]
> > > > 
> > > > Let me know if there is some info you'd need to debug the issue.
> > > 
> > > I wonder if busybox got upgraded too late.  Is this reproducible if you
> > > run 'update-initramfs -u' now?
> > > 
> > > Ben.
> > 
> > Hi Ben,
> > 
> > Unfortunately running this command still gives me the error.
> > Out of curiosity I have started some investigations, and the message comes from the script "mkinitramfs" from this check:
> > 
> > if [ "${BUSYBOX}" = "y" ] && [ -z "${BUSYBOXDIR}" ]; then
> > 
> > I have seen this:
> >  - BUSYBOX is properly set to "y" from /etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf
> >  - BUSYBOXDIR, however, is prepared empty at the beginning of mkinitramfs, but never given a value afterwards... Any idea how it is supposed to be defined?
> 
> It's done by /usr/share/initramfs-tools/conf-hooks.d/busybox, which is
> installed by busybox.  Does that file exist?
> 
> You originally said:
> 
> > This is strange because I seem to have this:
> >   busybox => 1:1.22.0-18
> >   busybox-static => 1:1.22.0-18
> 
> That's impossible because these packages conflict with each other.
> 
> What does "debsums busybox busybox-static" report?  (You might need to
> install the debsums package.)

Hi,
Sorry for the delay. I re-checked, and both packages were *not* installed! I gave a try with busybox-static and it does fix the problem. I also gave a try setting BUSYBOX=n in the initramfs.conf file, which also works.

So this makes me wonder:
 - if it is a (new) design choice to use Busybox, shouldn't it be added as a dependency?
 - if not, shouldn't the variable be automatically set, with something like:

if [ -x /bin/busybox ]; then
  BUSYBOX=y
else
  BUSYBOX=n
fi