Package: kexec-tools Severity: wishlist Low-end VPS hosting providers often do not provide a way to run a distribution provided kernel, leaving users stranded with no good way to get security fixes from their distribution. See for example Digital Ocean: https://digitalocean.uservoice.com/forums/136585-digitalocean/suggestions/2814988-give-option-to-use-the-droplet-s-own-bootloader?page=5&per_page=20
kexec is a decent work around, just configure it to USE_GRUB_CONFIG=true and after the VPS boots up using hosting provider's old kernel, reboot and kexec will load the new distro provided kernel. However, this needs a manual reboot step. When the system is power cycled, it'll come up on the old, insecure kernel until an admin reboots it into the new one. It seems that kexec knows which kernel is desired, for USE_GRUB_CONFIG to work. So, why not add another option that makes it reboot immediately on startup if an older kernel is running? Then the manual reboot step could be avoided. -- see shy jo
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