RHBA-2007:0816 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated anaconda and anaconda-runtime packages that address several bugs
and add enhancements are now available.

Description

The anaconda package contains the program which was used to install your
system.

These updated packages fix the following bugs:

• the 2.6 series Linux kernel is limited to 15 SCSI partitions.

Installations on systems with more than 15 partitions resulted in numerous
errors such as the following:

Error informing the kernel about modifications to partition /dev/sdaX -
Invalid argument. This means Linux won't know about any changes you made to
/dev/sdaX until you reboot - so you shouldn't mount it or use it in any way
before rebooting. 96

(The 'X' in /dev/sdaX above is each partition above 15: for example 16, 17,
and so on).

After these errors a traceback occurred.

• removing an invalid RAID request from a kickstart file did not actually

remove the request; anaconda still tried to create the device.

• anaconda checked for conflicting labels before generating a new label. If

conflicting labels were found anaconda appended a "1", "2", and so on to
the extant label. This occurred when re-installing onto an already
partitioned and labeled disk. Disks are now labelled correctly.

• using the "--useexisting" option in a kickstart file for a RAID device

caused the following error: "couldn't get chunksize of md0: bad md magic on
device".

• anaconda crashed if "keep existing RAID partitions" was selected during

installation.

• during a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 installation, using an automatic

partitioning option while choosing to keep existing Logical Volume Manager
(LVM) partitions, resulted in the following error:

File "/usr/src/build/711711-ia64/install//usr/lib/anaconda/autopart.py",
line 1369, in doAutoPartition for d in r.drive: AttributeError:
RaidRequestSpec instance has no attribute 'drive'

This exception has been resolved in these updated packages.

• the kickstart post script on IBM System z architectures would fail with

numerous errors, including programs such as head, tail, and perl not being
found, and RPMs failing to install.

• retrieving a kickstart configuration file from a URL requiring

authentication failed.

• installing a Fully Virtualized Xen guest directly to a block device on

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 resulted in a "Error mounting file system on
hda1: No such device or address" pop-up window.

• network devices had to manually be specified when using the ksdevice boot

parameter.

• biosdisk installs would fail on certain hardware if each disk did not

have a unique disk signature.

• anaconda failed to correctly create LVM PVs of previously selected

drives during installation.

• anaconda failed to create unique disk labels on Itanium architectures. If

more than one Red Hat Enterprise Linux install was present, a "mount:
LABEL=/boot/efi duplicate - not mounted" error occurred during startup.

• on the IBM power 5 architecture, selecting "CD-ROM" as the installation

source failed, due to the CD-ROM not being found.

• the "diskboot.img" in the images directory of the first CD of "Red

Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Update 5 Work Station AMD/Intel 64" caused a
"Could not find kernel image: linux" error when booting a system.

This update also adds the following enhancements:

• disk size and model information is available during text-mode

installations.

• new "exclusivedisk" command allowing you to specify disks to use in

kickstart installations.

• documentation for the nfsmountopts and nicdelay command line arguments.
• OSA layer 2 network support for anaconda.
• support for the following hardware: NetXen and QLogic qla3xxx ethernet

adapters, and the ARECA SATA RAID host adapter.

• Intel EtherExpress/1000 gigabit driver to support the advanced

features found in Intel GbE devices.

• the CCISS driver is correctly labeled "HP/Compaq Smart Array Controller".

Users of the anaconda packages are advised to upgrade to these updated
packages, which resolve these issues and add these enhancements.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure that all previously-released
errata relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via Red Hat Network. Details on how to use
the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at
http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/FAQ_58_10188

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 - 172648 - anaconda crashes while trying to keep existing raid partition.
• BZ - 182943 - keeping existing partitions/LVM setup and autoconfigure without free OTHER free space causes exception
• BZ - 194247 - Can't get initial kickstart when URL requires auth
• BZ - 198526 - Interruptions to Kickstart
• BZ - 207541 - --useexisting can't find the existing RAID devices
• BZ - 207546 - ksdevice=link doesn't use nicdelay
• BZ - 209291 - kickstart install creates incorrect labels by appending a trailing "1"
• BZ - 233308 - anaconda doesn't remove all invalid RAID requests under kickstart
• BZ - 233639 - LTC33326: 200901: Update to installation tools - enable the netxen 10Gb Ethernet device as a network boot/install device
• BZ - 240561 - x86_64 diskboot.img no longer works
• BZ - 242113 - [Areca RHEL 4.6] Add anaconda/boot support for Areca RAID controllers (include arcmsr driver from 2.6.19)
• BZ - 247303 - BUG: biosdisk installs broken in some scenarios when unique disk signature dont exist

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)