How to avoid creating /boot/vmlinuz-X.Y.Z.old files?

mattemod · n00b Joined: 23 Nov 2008 Posts: 19 Location: Italy

Hello,
I currently use sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel and I'd like to know how I can avoid copying/generating the .old files in /boot (vmlinuz, initramfs, System.map) when I either (re)install a kernel or emerge --configure it.

I know perfectly well that it'd be better to keep them as a fallback in case something goes wrong, but - without going into details - I'm currently in a situation where I need the newly generated files to overwrite the old ones without the .old files being copied/created at all.

I don't know if it's related to Installkernel or Dracut or /etc/kernel/ or what else: I tried to search for it but couldn't find anything definitive, maybe I don't know the right keywords.

Some info:

I don't use Systemd.
sys-kernel/installkernel and sys-kernel/dracut are installed, while sys-kernel/genkernel isn't.
(After reading man 8 installkernel) /usr/lib/kernel/install.conf obviously exists, while /etc/kernel/install.conf doesn't. I can't find a list of possible options anywhere to see if there's one about .old files.
/etc/kernel/ doesn't contain any files, it only contains the directories install.d, postinst.d and preinst.d with the .keep_sys-kernel_installkernel-0 files.
grep -Ri .old /usr/lib/kernel/ doesn't give me any related results, so I don't know where the copy is performed.

Tell me if you need to know anything else.

Could you help me and maybe also give me some reference link(s) to read/study?

Thanks
_________________
Matteo
Drago Bianco

AndrewAmmerlaan · Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2024 4:03 pm Post subject:

Install sys-kernel/installkernel with the systemd flag enabled, that implementation does not create .old files (this does not require systemd itself, the dependency is available via sys-apps/systemd-utils).

Traditional installkernel (USE=-systemd) always creates the .old backup files.