Don't duplicate initrd and kernel files
Metadata
Current evaluation
Closed as stale after snapcore/snapcraft#1207 was abandoned unmerged because symlinks broke the Snapdragon snap; the kernel plugin has since changed substantially.
Resolution: closed stale
Reason: Maintainer mr-cal closed the item as stale, noting that the kernel plugin had changed significantly. The linked PR snapcore/snapcraft#1207 was closed unmerged after its symlink change broke the Snapdragon snap.
Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot
No scores available.
Issue body
Stop duplicating kernel and initrd files in the kernel snap, use symlinks instead - as a side effect we trim +10MB from the kernel snap:
Before:
$ ls -la squashfs-root/
total 27604
drwxrwxr-x 5 flag flag 4096 mar 22 12:20 .
drwxr-xr-x 29 flag flag 4096 mar 22 12:21 ..
-rw-rw-r-- 2 flag flag 6531440 mar 22 12:20 bzImage-4.9.0+
drwxrwxr-x 36 flag flag 4096 mar 22 12:20 firmware
-rw-rw-r-- 2 flag flag 5807334 mar 22 12:20 initrd-4.9.0+.img
-rw-rw-r-- 2 flag flag 5807334 mar 22 12:20 initrd.img
-rw-rw-r-- 2 flag flag 6531440 mar 22 12:20 kernel.img
drwxrwxr-x 2 flag flag 4096 mar 22 12:20 meta
drwxrwxr-x 3 flag flag 4096 mar 22 12:20 modules
-rw-rw-r-- 1 flag flag 3559958 mar 22 12:20 System.map-4.9.0+
With this change:
$ ls -la squashfs-root/
total 15552
drwxrwxr-x 5 flag flag 4096 mar 22 12:12 .
drwxr-xr-x 29 flag flag 4096 mar 22 12:13 ..
-rw-rw-r-- 1 flag flag 6531216 mar 22 12:12 bzImage-4.9.0+
drwxrwxr-x 36 flag flag 4096 mar 22 12:12 firmware
-rw-rw-r-- 1 flag flag 5806664 mar 22 12:12 initrd-4.9.0+.img
lrwxrwxrwx 1 flag flag 17 mar 22 12:13 initrd.img -> initrd-4.9.0+.img
lrwxrwxrwx 1 flag flag 14 mar 22 12:13 kernel.img -> bzImage-4.9.0+
drwxrwxr-x 2 flag flag 4096 mar 22 12:12 meta
drwxrwxr-x 3 flag flag 4096 mar 22 12:12 modules
-rw-rw-r-- 1 flag flag 3559958 mar 22 12:12 System.map-4.9.0+
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed stale | Closed as stale after snapcore/snapcraft#1207 was abandoned unmerged because symlinks broke the Snapdragon snap; the kernel plugin has since changed substantially. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed stale | Closed as stale; symlink proposal PR #1207 was closed unmerged after breaking the Snapdragon snap, and the kernel plugin has since changed significantly. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 | — | — | Proposed replacing hardlinks with symlinks for kernel and initrd files to save space. Closed as stale after significant kernel plugin changes made the request obsolete. No merge occurred. | |
| qwen/qwen3.8-27b |
Impact:
25
Quick Win:
11
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
55
Confidence:
60
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Request to replace duplicated kernel/initrd files in the kernel snap with symlinks to save ~10MB. 9+ years old with no labels or maintainer interaction; the only fix attempt (PR #1207) was abandoned because symlinks broke the Snapdragon snap. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
15
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Request to replace duplicate kernel and initrd files with symlinks in the kernel snap to reduce size by ~10MB. Unlabeled, no maintainer interaction, and inactive for over 8 years. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
15
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
5
|
close stale | Suggests replacing duplicated kernel and initrd files in the kernel snap with symlinks to save ~10MB. Issue is 9 years old with no maintainer interaction or labels. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
15
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
5
|
close stale | Suggests replacing duplicated kernel and initrd files in the kernel snap with symlinks to reduce package size. Untriaged and inactive for nearly 9 years. |
Update history
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| created |
Related work
-
Blocked By:
snapcore/snapcraft#1207
(confidence 99%)
Implemented the proposed symlinks but was closed unmerged because the change broke the Snapdragon snap.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1207 kernel plugin: stop duplicating initrd and image file, use symlinks f… | snapcraft | closed | Closed unmerged: PR #1207's symlink change broke the snapdragon snap; the author had no time to debug it and deferred the work. | |
| #1676806 Make snapcraft smarter wrt .config and initrd modules | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Closed as stale after major kernel-plugin changes; the requested config/initrd checks had already merged in canonical/snapcraft#1223 via commit fda091f50. | |
| #1816379 snapcraft kernel plugin includes always the uc16 initramfs | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Closed as stale after no progress since 2019. Later, snapcraft#5814 (8f56d299d) added replacement post-core18 kernel and initrd plugins. | |
| #1611435 kernel plugin: hard link vmlinuz to kernel.img | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Closed as stale after the kernel plugin was reworked; the requested vmlinuz-to-kernel.img change had already merged in canonical/snapcraft#748 via commit f77341d72. | |
| #1627923 kernel plugin initrd packaging fails when kernel modules have common dependencies | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Fixed by snapcore/snapcraft PR #837, which allowed initrd packaging to handle common kernel-module dependencies without duplicate-copy failures. | |
| #747 kernel plugin: vmlinuz -> kernel.img hard link | snapcraft | closed | Closed unmerged and superseded by canonical/snapcraft#748, which merged the kernel.img naming change in commit f77341d72. | |
| #4302 plugins: kernel: split kernel plugin into kernel and initrd plugins | snapcraft | closed | PR #4302 (split kernel plugin into kernel + initrd plugins) was closed unmerged on 2025-10-14 by author kubiko as superseded by canonical/snapcraft#5814, merged in commit 8f56d299d. |