vmlinuz and initrd symlinks within /boot in SLES15 are not updated

This document (000021175) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP4

Situation

When installing an old kernel with "zypper" and using "yast bootloader" (or any other method) to use that specific kernel, the symlinks of vmlinuz and initrd within /boot are not updated. Similarly, when removing an old kernel, the same behavior is observed.

Resolution

The links in /boot are obsolete, e.g. they are not used anymore as all boot options are now configured in /boot/grub2/grub.cfg during installation or removal of a kernel rpm.

Those links can/should be safely ignored.

Additional Information

The example below demonstrates the removal of an old kernel with zypper. Upon reboot, the symbolic links will still point to the removed kernel:

# zypper rm kernel-default-5.14.21-150400.24.38.1.x86_64
Reading installed packages...
Resolving package dependencies...

The following package is going to be REMOVED:
 kernel-default-5.14.21-150400.24.38.1

1 package to remove.
After the operation, 192.4 MiB will be freed.
Continue? [y/n/v/...? shows all options] (y):  
(1/1) Removing kernel-default-5.14.21-150400.24.38.1.x86_64 .................................................................[done]
 
# ll /boot
total 50588
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     1725 Jun  1  2022 boot.readme
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   250978 Jul  5 09:12 config-5.14.21-150400.24.69-default
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root      140 Aug  1 11:00 grub2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root       35 Aug  1 10:20 initrd -> initrd-5.14.21-150400.24.38-default
-rw------- 1 root root 21965793 Aug  1 08:50 initrd-5.14.21-150400.24.69-default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   457031 Jul  5 09:36 symvers-5.14.21-150400.24.69-default.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root      484 Jul  5 09:36 sysctl.conf-5.14.21-150400.24.69-default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  5060810 Jul  5 09:33 System.map-5.14.21-150400.24.69-default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12569865 Jul  5 09:39 vmlinux-5.14.21-150400.24.69-default.gz
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root       36 Aug  1 10:20 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-5.14.21-150400.24.38-default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 11468512 Jul  5 10:28 vmlinuz-5.14.21-150400.24.69-default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root       65 Jul  5 10:28 .vmlinuz-5.14.21-150400.24.69-default.hmac

# reboot

# cd /boot
/boot # l
total 50588
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root      668 Aug  1 11:00 ./
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root      156 Aug  1 08:45 ../
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     1725 Jun  1  2022 boot.readme
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   250978 Jul  5 09:12 config-5.14.21-150400.24.69-default
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root      140 Aug  1 11:00 grub2/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root       35 Aug  1 10:20 initrd -> initrd-5.14.21-150400.24.38-default
-rw------- 1 root root 21965793 Aug  1 08:50 initrd-5.14.21-150400.24.69-default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   457031 Jul  5 09:36 symvers-5.14.21-150400.24.69-default.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root      484 Jul  5 09:36 sysctl.conf-5.14.21-150400.24.69-default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  5060810 Jul  5 09:33 System.map-5.14.21-150400.24.69-default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12569865 Jul  5 09:39 vmlinux-5.14.21-150400.24.69-default.gz
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root       36 Aug  1 10:20 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-5.14.21-150400.24.38-default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 11468512 Jul  5 10:28 vmlinuz-5.14.21-150400.24.69-default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root       65 Jul  5 10:28 .vmlinuz-5.14.21-150400.24.69-default.hmac
/boot # uname -a
Linux xxxxxxxxxxx 5.14.21-150400.24.69-default #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Tue Jul 4 13:36:11 UTC 2023 (28b65ec) x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

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