diff --git a/debian/openvswitch-switch.init b/debian/openvswitch-switch.init
index d84c1b671ca..84aa4503530 100755
--- a/debian/openvswitch-switch.init
+++ b/debian/openvswitch-switch.init
@@ -75,10 +75,35 @@ stop () {
 }
 
 restart () {
-    # OVS_RESTART_SAVE_FLOWS can be set by package postinst script.
-    if [ "$OVS_RESTART_SAVE_FLOWS" = "yes" ] || \
-       [ "$1" = "--save-flows=yes" ]; then
+    # OVS_FORCE_RELOAD_KMOD can be set by package postinst script.
+    if [ "$1" = "--save-flows=yes" ] || \
+        [ "${OVS_FORCE_RELOAD_KMOD}" = "no" ]; then
         start restart
+    elif [ "${OVS_FORCE_RELOAD_KMOD}" = "yes" ]; then
+        depmod -a
+
+        if [ -e /sys/module/openvswitch ]; then
+            LOADED_SRCVERSION=`cat /sys/module/openvswitch/srcversion`
+            LOADED_VERSION=`cat /sys/module/openvswitch/version`
+        elif [ -e /sys/module/openvswitch_mod ]; then
+            LOADED_SRCVERSION=`cat /sys/module/openvswitch_mod/srcversion`
+            LOADED_VERSION=`cat /sys/module/openvswitch_mod/version`
+        fi
+        SRCVERSION=`modinfo -F srcversion openvswitch 2>/dev/null`
+        VERSION=`modinfo -F version openvswitch 2>/dev/null`
+
+        ovs_ctl_log "Package upgrading:\n"\
+                    "Loaded version: ${LOADED_VERSION} ${LOADED_SRCVERSION}.\n"\
+                    "Version on disk: ${VERSION} ${SRCVERSION}."
+
+        # If the kernel module was previously loaded and it is different than
+        # the kernel module on disk, then do a 'force-reload-kmod'.
+        if [ -n "${LOADED_SRCVERSION}" ] && [ -n "${SRCVERSION}" ] && \
+            [ "${SRCVERSION}" != "${LOADED_SRCVERSION}" ]; then
+            start force-reload-kmod
+        else
+            start restart
+        fi
     else
         stop
         start
diff --git a/debian/openvswitch-switch.postinst b/debian/openvswitch-switch.postinst
index ac6ed653ace..24645724965 100755
--- a/debian/openvswitch-switch.postinst
+++ b/debian/openvswitch-switch.postinst
@@ -49,9 +49,10 @@ esac
 OVS_MISSING_KMOD_OK=yes
 export OVS_MISSING_KMOD_OK
 
-# Save and restore openflow flows during a package upgrade.
-OVS_RESTART_SAVE_FLOWS=yes
-export OVS_RESTART_SAVE_FLOWS
+# force-reload-kmod during upgrade. If a user wants to override this,
+# they can set the variable OVS_FORCE_RELOAD_KMOD=no while installing.
+[ -z "${OVS_FORCE_RELOAD_KMOD}" ] && OVS_FORCE_RELOAD_KMOD=yes || true
+export OVS_FORCE_RELOAD_KMOD
 
 #DEBHELPER#
 
diff --git a/utilities/ovs-lib.in b/utilities/ovs-lib.in
index f7b5bd4703a..1684ddcdd62 100644
--- a/utilities/ovs-lib.in
+++ b/utilities/ovs-lib.in
@@ -37,6 +37,10 @@ else
     dbdir='@DBDIR@'
 fi
 
+ovs_ctl_log () {
+    echo "$@" >> "${logdir}/ovs-ctl.log"
+}
+
 ovs_ctl () {
     case "$@" in
         *"=strace"*)