Quoting zlinew9@virginbroadband.com.au (zlinew9@virginbroadband.com.au):
Now it actually works OK, the ramdisk image was installed correctly. What it has done though it prevents the kernel from being upgraded. I have sort of got around this by compiling my own kernel (I do this as a matter of course anyway), this of course required me to dump systemd as it WILL NOT work with a standard kernel from kernel.org.
If you wish to retain the freedom to compile a kernel _your_ way without special bespoke requirements being imposed on you by systemd, you can do so on Debian systems -- through the simple expedient of apt-get installing one of the other packaged init systems. In Debian 9 'Stretch', those are: openrc, runit, upstart, sysvinit. I installed Debian 8 'Jessie' and documented easy conversion to use the 'Jessie' openrc package, here: http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Debian/openrc-conversion.html Please note carefully the caveats about certain DEs (the kitchen-sink metapackages for GNOME, MATE, Cinnamon, KDE, and Razor-qt) and a couple of other packages with overly large dependency trees (e.g., hplip) and what to do about that. I strongly recommend testing using a VM before taking any such steps on a real system. That is what I did to write the referenced Web page. FYI, I switched that Debian 8 'Jessie' test system to track debian-unstable ('sid'), and it continues to work beautifully, so I expect you would have very good results on Debian 9 'Stretch', the current debian-stable branch. When I have time, I'll probably repeat the VM experiment using a fresh ISO image of Official Debian 9 'stretch', to reconfirm the data on that page. P.S.: If you're compiling your own kernel anyway, and would consider putting systemd in the dustbin, then you can further simplify by compiling monolithically into the kernel binary all drivers essential to early boot and root FS mounting on your hardware. That having been done, you can dispense with the initrd (initial RAMdisk), further simplifying your system. -- Cheers, "The crows seemed to be calling his name, thought Caw." Rick Moen -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey rick@linuxmafia.com McQ! (4x80)