RHBA-2009:0249 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated rhn-client-tools packages that fix several bugs are now available.

Description

Red Hat Network Client Tools provide programs and libraries that allow your
system to receive software updates from the Red Hat Network (RHN).

These updated packages fix the following bugs:

• rhn_register failed with a traceback when the "serverURL" option in

"/etc/sysconfig/rhn/up2date" was configured with a proxy server as a
failover.

• "rhnreg_ks --subscription" registered the system with the oldest

subscription, instead of the one specified.

• rhn_register and rhn-profile-sync attempted to run dmidecode on all

architectures, even if the architecture was incompatible (such as PowerPC
and IBM S/390), and also on fully virtualized systems. This may have caused
"/usr/sbin/dmidecode: No such file or directory" errors. Now, the
"hardware.py" script no longer runs dmidecode on incompatible systems.

• calling rhnreg_ks from a kickstart script may have caused the following

errors:

Error reading hardware information: dbus_bindings.DBusException

Error reading DMI information: dbus_bindings.DBusException

• previously, when using the rhn_register GUI, packages (if configured) for

the default activation key were not installed.

• at hardware probe time, rhn_register gets the hostname and sends it to

the server. In certain cases, rhn_register sent "unknown" as the hostname,
instead of checking "/etc/hosts". After a kickstart installation, the
hostname may have been "unknown". Now, rhn_register checks "/etc/hosts".

• when the system date and time were set incorrectly, rhn_register may have

failed to validate the RHN certificate. The error message was not helpful.
Now, a more useful error is provided.

• the authentication log in cache was not handled when the cache file was

missing or empty. If "/var/spool/up2date/loginAuth.pkl" was empty or
missing, "yum check-update" failed with a traceback and an "EOFError"
error. Now, if "loginAuth.pkl" has no data, it is recreated and
"yum check-update" continues.

• by default, "do_update = no" is configured in

"/etc/yum/yum-updatesd.conf", but did not prevent updates being
automatically installed. Now, "do_update = no" works as expected.

• running rhnreg_ks with "--activationkey" may have caused a traceback.
• even when the rhn_register "--proxy" option was used in a kickstart

script, the "/etc/sysconfig/rhn/up2date" file was not updated with proxy
information. Now, "--proxy" updates this file.

• after installing an RHN Satellite Server SSL certificate, when running

the rhn_register GUI and selecting that you had access to an RHN Satellite
Server, rhn_register did not automatically use the previously installed
SSL certificate. Now, rhn_register uses the correct certificate when
registering to a server.

• the rhn_check(8) manual page incorrectly stated

"/etc/sysconfig/rhn/update", instead of "/etc/sysconfig/rhn/up2date".

• running rhn_register may have caused traceback errors.
• when using the rhn_register TUI, registering with an account that has

no entitlements, then clicking back to register an account that has
entitlements, resulted in the rhn_register TUI telling users that the
account with entitlements did not have any entitlements. Registration now
works as expected.

• various typographical errors in rhn-client-tools have been resolved.
• when running rhnreg_ks, using double-byte characters with the

"--profilename" option caused a traceback and a "UnicodeEncodeError"
error. Now, double-byte characters work correctly with "--profilename".

Also, the account creation capability has been removed from the
rhn_register GUI and TUI. Users are now instructed to go to
"https://rhn.redhat.com/rhn/sales/LoginInfo.do" for account creation.

All rhn-client-tools users should upgrade to these updated packages, which
resolve these issues.

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 - 231902 - Original PO bugs
• BZ - 249127 - rhnreg_ks --subscription doesn't do anything
• BZ - 429334 - rhn_register fails when configured for failover with proxy
• BZ - 430155 - remove account creation capability from rhn_register TUI
• BZ - 430156 - remove account creation capability from rhn_register GUI
• BZ - 433097 - minor bug in rhn_check manpage on RHEL5
• BZ - 434550 - Error with rhn_register
• BZ - 439383 - rhn_register is very unspecific about problems with the RHN certificate
• BZ - 442930 - when registering logging in with user that has no subs, and then one that does shows no subscriptions
• BZ - 452829 - Unhandled exception in handling of cached login data.
• BZ - 457953 - Hostname sent to server by rhn_register during kickstart is incorrect
• BZ - 467887 - strange text during rhn_register

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)