RHBA-2008:0313 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

An updated kexec-tools package that fixes several bugs and adds various
enhancements is now available.

Description

The kexec-tools package provides tools that facilitate a new kernel to boot
using the kernel's kexec feature either on a normal or a panic reboot. This
package contains the /sbin/kexec binary and ancillary utilities which
form the user-space component of the kernel's kexec feature.

This updated kexec-tools package provides fixes for the following bugs:

• mkdumprd has been modified to call makedumpfile properly with vmcoreinfo.
• on the Itanium(R) architecture, the EFI_LOADER_DATA is now used for the

ELF core header.

• crash would return an error when reading the vmcore generated by kexec-tools.
• mkdumprd now searches for kernel modules in the appropriate locations.
• kdump initrd images are now removed from the /boot directory when the

corresponding kernel is removed.

• mkdumprd now detects the need for xen-syms.
• kdump now works with the qla23xx driver.
• mkdumprd is now able to create a kexec initrd that will successfully boot

on a RAID0 root file system.

• the obsolete Norwegian translation has been removed.
• firstboot no longer triggers kdump configuration on first boot.
• Itanium systems were unable to boot into a kdump kernel due to a

misconfigured compiler.

• mkdumprd now detects the correct amount of space available on NFS

servers.

• an error message that appeared when trying to uninstall kernels before

starting the kdump service has been fixed.

In addition, this updated package provides the following enhancements:

• kdump's dump filtering features now work with Xen hypervisor kernels.
• makedumpfile has been updated to the 1.2.0 version enabling the use of

vmcoreinfo.

• makedumpfile has been enhanced to support flat file formats in Xen.
• longer kernel command lines are now supported by kexec-tools.
• kdump has been enhanced to support kdump_pre scripts.

Users are advised to upgrade to this updated kexec-tools package, which
resolves these issues and adds 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 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 5 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 5 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 i386

Fixes

• BZ - 253196 - ramdisk images for kdump are left behind after kernel is gone
• BZ - 253852 - Need to backport makedumpfile changes for reading elf notes
• BZ - 429014 - [RHEL5.2 kdump] ia64 systems unable to boot into kdump kernel
• BZ - 432788 - Major release upgrade: ls: /boot/initrd*kdump.img: No such file or directory
• BZ - 434927 - Zero-size /proc/vmcore after kdump
• BZ - 439767 - [5.2][kdump] crash failed to read vmcore from SGI Altix

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)