RHBA-2005:192 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

An updated lvm2 package that includes various bug fixes and enhancements is
now available.

Description

The lvm2 package contains support for logical volume management.

This updated lvm2 package now does the following:

• Avoids the possibility of an infinite loop while following sysfs symlinks.
• Ignores devices that are too small to be Physical Volumes - previously an

error message sometimes appeared.

• Displays an error message if 'pvchange -x' is run against an orphan

Physical Volume in lvm2 format. Previously pvchange crashed with a
segmentation fault.

• When deciding which devices to scan for physical volume labels, treats

empty DOS partition tables in the same way as the kernel does.

• Fixes device reference counting on re-opens while scanning. Without

this, pvcreate could get stuck in a loop.

• Fixes vgdisplay -s to match the documentation. Previously, it behaved

the same as '--separator', which broke backwards-compatibility with LVM1.
Instead, lvs/pvs/vgs no longer accept -s as an undocumented abbreviation
for --separator.

• Builds in read-only support for pool volumes, as used by GFS.
• Ensures pvcreate wipes old ext file system superblocks. Use -Zn if this

is not the desired behavior.

• Only asks the kernel device-mapper driver for open_count when needed, not

every time. This improves performance & avoids a possible deadlock.

• Fixes the automatic metadata recovery if operations are interrupted.
• vgcreate man page updated to mention differences between lvm1 and lvm2

metadata.

• Explictly records the size of snapshot origins at the time each snapshot

is taken as preparation for supporting resizing in the future.

• Fails the command if generation of random id fails. pvcreate succeeds if

/dev/random is missing but has a non-unique UUID.

• Recognises gnbd devices.
• Fixes display of large sizes. Previously, incorrect sizes were reported

in several places with the top 32 bits of 64-bit numbers discarded.

• Improves the behaviour when /etc/lvm does not exist and cannot be created.
• Removes the unused -f option from pvmove.
• Adds a fixed offset to imported pool minor numbers so they do not

conflict with already-active devices.

• Improves the detection of external changes that affect the internal

metadata cache. This addresses issues with long-running lvm2 processes
such as 'pvmove', the lvm2 readline shell and the clustered lvm2 daemon, clvmd.

• New Volume Group flag so the initscripts can distinguish between local

and clustered volume groups. (Local Volume Groups need to be activated
before Clustered ones.) Use 'vgchange --clustered' to set or clear the flag.

• Suppresses a spurious 'opendir' error message in vgmknodes.
• Allows '-a' with 'pvdisplay -C'. (This does the same as 'pvs -a'.)

All users of lvm2 should upgrade to this updated package, which includes
these bug fixes and enhancements.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure that all previously-released
errata relevant to your system have been applied. Use Red Hat
Network to download and update your packages. To launch the Red Hat
Update Agent, use the following command:

up2date

For information on how to install packages manually, refer to the
following Web page for the System Administration or Customization
guide specific to your system:

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 4 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 4 s390
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 4 ppc

Fixes

• BZ - 129701 - adjustment to vgcreate man page regarding max size of block dev
• BZ - 129703 - vgcreate man page shows wildcard method that doesn't work
• BZ - 138396 - no mechanism for external events to trigger updates to the clvm daemons
• BZ - 138487 - /dev/mapper/control incorrect after module load: Inappropriate ioctl for device
• BZ - 140329 - Duplicate ext3 label created while installing to multiple disks
• BZ - 141050 - Permission of logical volumes do not allow backup.
• BZ - 142400 - 'too many open files' by LVM commands
• BZ - 143501 - Outstanding LVM2 issues affecting RHEL4 for U1
• BZ - 144827 - RHEL 4 U1: Autopartitioning during install maintains old filesystem labels
• BZ - 146035 - clvmd cannot activate pool volumes with static minor numbers
• BZ - 147236 - Symbol lookup error from lvm.static
• BZ - 149813 - vgreducing while pvmoving causes inconsistency after pvmove completes
• BZ - 150442 - lvm2 package obsoletes lvm < 1.0.3-19
• BZ - 151322 - rc.sysinit incorrectly activates clustered LVs locally
• BZ - 151657 - "pvcreate /dev/device" at LVM2 ends up in "close failed: Bad file descriptor"

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)