RHBA-2009:0076 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated udev packages that fix several bugs and add an enhancement are now
available.

Description

The udev packages implement a dynamic device-directory, providing only the
devices present on the system. This dynamic directory runs in user-space,
dynamically creates and removes devices, provides consistent naming, and a
user-space API. udev replaces devfs, providing greater hot plug
functionality.

These updated packages fix the following bugs:

• race conditions in "scsi_id", which may have resulted in devices not

being created as per udev rules, have been resolved.

• the udev spec file had "%{dist}" on the "Release" line, instead of

"%{?dist}".

• there was only one symbolic link in "/dev/disk/by-path/" for each iSCSI

target. If there were multiple LUNs in a target, each LUN may have used the
same symbolic link, causing overlaps. In this update, a symbolic link is
created for each target, with the LUN number included in each link, which
resolves this issue.

• "floppy" is hardcoded in the "/etc/sysconfig/modules/udev-stw.modules"

file, causing modules for floppy drives to be loaded, even if such drives
are not present. This may have resulted in commands, such as "grubby",
taking a long time to load. In this update, the "udev-stw.modules" file
checks "/etc/sysconfig/udev-stw" to see which modules to load at start-up,
allowing administrators to use the "udev-stw" file to add and remove
modules (such as "floppy"). Note: on certain systems, floppy drives may
also have to be disabled in the BIOS to prevent floppy modules loading.

• Zaptel device-node rules were included in udev packages. These rules

are in the "/etc/udev/rules.d/50-udev.rules" file, and prevented rules from
the zaptel package, "/etc/udev/rules.d/zaptel.rules", from being executed.
When running Asterisk as the "asterisk" user, Asterisk was unable to access
Zaptel-based devices. In this update, Zaptel device-node rules have been
removed from the udev packages, allowing rules from the zaptel package to
be executed, which resolves this issue.

• segmentation faults occurred when "vol_id" parsed malformed "/etc/passwd"

and "/etc/group" files. This was most noticeable when these files contained
a "#" at the start of the first line. Also, this issue may have resulted in
long start-up and shutdown times, and "vol_id" using large amounts of CPU.
In this update, more robust parsing has been added to "vol_id", which
resolves this issue.

• the "dasd_id" command returned the device's hexadecimal ID_SERIAL number.

This number is not persistent. Multipath can use "dasd_id", which may have
caused problems. In this update, "dasd_id" returns the device's persistent
UID, which resolves this issue.

Also, ext4dev support was added to "vol_id", which is used to provide udev
with information, such as file system types.

Users of udev are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which
resolve these issues and add this enhancement.

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/docs/DOC-11259

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 - 294061 - udev creates zaptel devices with the wrong file permissions
• BZ - 413831 - udev timeout at boot; vol_id process stuck when /sbin/start_udev is run
• BZ - 427640 - /dev/disk/by-path symlinks broken for iSCSI targets
• BZ - 440631 - there should be %{?dist} instead of %{dist} in the *.spec on the Release: line
• BZ - 444528 - RFE: ext4/ext4dev support in udev for RHEL5

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)