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Chapter 36. System and Subscription Management

Yum no longer crashes in certain nss and nspr update scenario

Previously, when the yum installer updated a certain combination of nss and nspr package versions, the transaction sometimes terminated prematurely due to a following symbol lookup error:
/lib64/libnsssysinit.so: undefined symbol: PR_GetEnvSecure
This then caused stale rpm locks. Yum has been updated to correctly deal with this particular nss and nspr update scenario. As a result, yum does not terminate anymore in the described scenario. (BZ#1458841)

The fastestmirror plug-in now orders mirrors before the metadata download

Previously, when the yum installer ran for the first time after a cache cleanup, the fastestmirror plug-in did not select the fastest mirror before metadata download. This sometimes caused a delay if some mirrors were slow or unavailable. With this update, the fastestmirror plug-in has been modified to have effect on mirror selection before metadata download. As a result, the mirrors are polled and arranged before metadata download, which prevents such delays. (BZ#1428210)

The package-cleanup script no longer removes package dependencies of non-duplicates

Previously, running the package-cleanup script with the --cleandupes option also removed packages that depended on duplicates. Consequently, some packages were removed unintentionally. With this update, the package-cleanup script has been fixed to skip package dependencies of non-duplicates. Instead, the package-cleanup script prints a warning with a suggestion of a workaround. (BZ#1455318)

rhnsd.pid is now writable only by the owner

In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4, the default permissions of the /var/run/rhnsd.pid file were changed to -rw-rw-rw-.. This setting was not secure. With this update, the change has been reverted, and the default permissions of /var/run/rhnsd.pid are now -rw-r--r--.. (BZ#1480306)

rhn_check now correctly reports system reboots to Satellite

Previously, if a system reboot of a Satellite client occurred during a rhn_check run, rhn_check did not report its termination to Satellite. Consequently, the status of rhn_check in Satellite did not update. With this update, this incorrect behavior is fixed and rhn_check now handles system reboots and reports the correct status to Satellite. (BZ#1494389)

The rpm rhnlib -qi command now refers to the current upstream project website

Previously, the RPM information of the rhnlib package incorrectly referred to a deprecated upstream project website. With this update, the rpm rhnlib -qi command displays the URL of the current upstream project website. (BZ#1503953)

Kernel installations using rhnsd complete successfully

If a kernel installation scheduled by the kernel was run using the Red Hat Network Daemon (rhnsd), the installation of the kernel sometimes stopped before completion. This issue has been fixed and kernel installations using rhnsd now complete successfully. (BZ#1475039)

rhn_check no longer modifies permissions on files in /var/cache/yum/

Previously, when the Red Hat Network Daemon (rhnsd) executed the rhn_check command, the command modified permissions on the files in the /var/cache/yum/ directory incorrectly, resulting in a vulnerability. This bug has been fixed and rhn_check no longer modifies permissions on the files in the /var/cache/yum/ directory. (BZ#1489989)

subscription-manager reports an RPM package if its vendor contains non-UTF8 characters

Previously, the subscription-manager utility assumed UTF-8 data in the RPM package vendor field. Consequently, if an RPM installed on the system contained a vendor with non-UTF8 characters, the subscription-manager failed to report the packages. With this update, the subscription-manager has been updated to ignore encoding issues in the RPM package vendor field. As a result, subscription-manager reports a package profile correctly even if the installed RPM has a non-UTF8 vendor. (BZ#1519512)

subscription-manager now works with proxies that expect the Host header

Previously, the subscription-manager utility was not compatible with proxies that expect the Host header because it did not include the Host header when connecting. With this update, subscription-manager includes the Host header when connecting and is compatible with these proxies. (BZ#1507158)

subscription-manager assigns valid IPv4 addresses to network.ipv4_address even if initial DNS resolution fails

Previously, when the subscription-manager utility failed to resolve the IPv4 address of a system, it incorrectly assigned the loopback interface address 127.0.0.1 for the network.ipv4_address fact. This occurred even when there was a valid interface with a valid IP address. With this update, if subscription-manager fails to resolve the IPv4 address of a system, it gathers IPv4 addresses from all interfaces except the loopback interface and assigns the valid IPv4 addresses for the network.ipv4_address fact. (BZ#1476817)

virt-who ensures that provided options fit the same virtualization type

With this update, the virt-who utility ensures that all command-line options provided by the user are compatible with the intended virtualization type. In addition, if virt-who detects an incompatible option, it provides a corresponding error message. (BZ#1461417)

virt-who configuration no longer resets on upgrade or reinstall

Previously, upgrading or reinstalling virt-who reset the configuration of the /etc/virt-who.conf file to default values. This update changes the packaging of virt-who to prevent overwriting configuration files, which ensures the described problem no longer occurs. (BZ#1485865)

virt-who now reads the 'address' field provided by RHEVM to discover and report the correct host name

Previously, if the virt-who utility reported on a Red Hat Virtualization (RHV) host and the hypervisor_id=hostname option was used, virt-who displayed an incorrect host name value. This update ensures that virt-who reads the correct field value in the described circumstances and as a result, the proper host name is displayed. (BZ#1389729)