1.75.2. RHBA-2011:0505: kexec-tools bug fix update

An updated kexec-tools package that fixes one bug is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

The kexec fastboot mechanism allows booting a Linux kernel from the context of an already running kernel. The kexec-tools package provides the /sbin/kexec binary and ancillary utilities that form the user-space component of the kernel's kexec feature.

This update fixes the following bug:

* On x86 systems with a Physical Address Extension (PAE) kernel, the previous version of kexec-tools incorrectly attempted to use a reserved memory range and failed to create a valid core dump. This rendered the crash utility unable to read vmalloc addresses, and any attempt to analyze such a dump file caused the utility to display the following message:

WARNING: cannot access vmalloc'd module memory

This update applies a patch that prevents kexec-tools from incorrectly accessing a reserved memory range. Now, kexec-tools can generate core dump files that the crash utility can handle. (BZ#696547)

All users of kexec-tools are advised to upgrade to this updated package, which fixes this bug.