[Bug 2077490] Re: Error: out of memory while booting after installing the linux-firmware in proposed

[Mario Limonciello]

Perhaps a dumb question - but why even bother to put any of the GPU
binaries in the initramfs?  There should be a good enough display from
the pre-boot framebuffer that none of them should be needed with
simpledrm.

Punt i915.ko, xe.ko, amdgpu.ko, nvidia.ko out of the initramfs and let
them get loaded later in boot.  It should solve this problem I would
expect.  Furthermore this gets you a lot "closer" to server built and
signed initrd images.

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Title:
  Error: out of memory while booting after installing the linux-firmware
  in proposed

Status in initramfs-tools package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid
Status in linux-firmware package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  [Impact]

  I found that there are some machines in cert lab can't boot after
  installing the linux-frimware in proposed with 6.8.0-40 kernel.

  After selecting booting with the 6.8.0-40 kernel, it shows error: out
  of memory on the screen then freeze.

  There aren't any journal logs available, since they froze at very
  early stage.

  Following are the machines got impacted for now
  https://certification.canonical.com/hardware/202306-31695/
  https://certification.canonical.com/hardware/202306-31696/

  Problem details:

  The linux-firmware package provides new (gigantic) firmware blobs and
  symlinks to directories that contain those. initramfs-tools can't
  handle the directory symlinks and puts multiple copies of the same
  blobs into the initrd blowing it up to a size where it becomes
  problematic on some machines.

  [Test Case]

  Verify the affected machine boots again with the updated firmware
  package.

  Install updated linux-firmware package and confirm that there are no
  duplicate firmware files in /lib/firmware and inside the initrd. Also
  verify that there are no broken symlinks.

  [Where Problems Could Occur]

  If the new symlinks are broken, we end up with drivers not finding
  their firmwares which results in non-functional HW components.

  [Notes]

  This is not a general solution for the problem of the ever growing
  size of the initrd. It just alleviate it some.

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