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4.104. mkinitrd

Updated mkinitrd packages that fix two bugs and add two enhancements are now available Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.
The mkinitrd packages provide a utility to create the initrd file system image. The initrd image is an initial RAM disk that is loaded by a boot loader before the Linux kernel is started.

Bug Fixes

BZ#556785
Prior to this update, the "mkrootdev" command could incorrectly use the slave device instead of the intended multipath device to create the /dev/root node when a multipath root device was specified by the label "LABEL". As a consequence, the slave device could not be mounted as it was already used by the master and creating the "/dev/root" node failed. This update modifies the mkinitrd code so that "mkrootdev" now ignores devices which are in use.
BZ#782615
Prior to this update, the bindings file in the initial RAM disk (initrd) could, under certain circumstances, fail to match the bindings file on the root file system. As a consequence, the boot process was interrupted and the system rebooted. This update modifies the underlying code so match the bindings file as expected.

Enhancements

BZ#737081
This update adds support for using FIPS mode with dmraid root devices. The dmraid device is now activated before checking the FIPS checksum.
BZ#852686
This update adds support for Hyper-V to the mkinitrd utility.
All users of mkinitrd are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which fix these bugs and add these enhancements.