Bug#883089: udev: on alpha architecture, /dev/disk/by-XXX nodes not created

[Bob Tracy]

On Wed, Nov 29, 2017 at 05:12:58PM +0100, Michael Biebl wrote:
> Please check all other kernel config options as well that are listed in
>  /usr/share/doc/systemd/README.gz

A few of the listed config options do not exist, at least in 4.14:
CONFIG_DMIID
CONFIG_DEVPTS_MULTIPLE_INSTANCES

There were a few namespace and crypto config settings that were
configured as modules rather than built-in, so I fixed those and am
in the process of rebuilding the 4.14 kernel.

> Please test the kernel that is provided by Debian and report back if it
> works with that one.

The Debian-supplied kernels for alpha have been problematic in the past,
to the point I've been building my own from the mainline kernel.org
source tree for several years now.

On a possibly related note, three years ago bug #652459 was opened
because systemd and udev failed to work properly with "/usr" being
a separate partition from "/".  Has anything happened with systemd
and/or initramfs development that broke the resolution of that bug?

Thanks for the assist!  I *do* appreciate your time and trouble.

--Bob