RHBA-2009:0978 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

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

Description

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

These updated anaconda packages provide fixes for the following bugs:

• the Anaconda graphical system installer provides a way to edit system

storage elements. In certain situations, when partitioning storage disks,
the GUI presented a negative size value to the user, which was incorrect.
(BZ#144676)

• GRUB, the GRand Unified Bootloader, is a part of the initialization

process. A flaw was discovered and fixed where GRUB did not work properly
with raid devices. (BZ#217176)

• in certain circumstances, creating a single logical partition used more

space than was necessary, which caused the "lvcreate" command to fail when
trying to create the next partition. (BZ#233050)

• previously, in the anaconda kickstart documentation, the section

detailing the '--driveorder' option in a kickstart file contained this
definition: "Specify which drive is first in the BIOS boot order." However,
the '--driveorder' option actually requires a list of all drives on the
system, with the first boot device appearing first in the list. With this
update, the documentation has been clarified and now reads: (BZ#430476)

Specify which drive is first in the BIOS boot order.The ordered list must
include all the drives in the system

• X11-forwarding allows access to graphical user interfaces running on a

remote host. A flaw was discovered in which X11-forwarding did not work for
the Anaconda installer, which has been fixed in these updated packages.
(BZ#459730)

• when performing an installation from an existing hard drive containing

the install information onto other system partitions and drives, in certain
circumstances Anaconda allowed the user to edit or delete the partition
which the essential installation information was located. (BZ#461855)

• on the IBM S/390 architecture, Anaconda failed and caused a traceback due

to an incorrectly-formatted string specifying the addresses of DNS servers.
(BZ#465175)

• Anaconda now clears stale LVM metadata when performing installations so

as to avoid installation failures caused by inconsistent metadata. (BZ#480793)

• the Kickstart automated system installer no longer prompts for the root

password when an encrypted root password has been specified. (BZ#481597)

In addition, these updated anaconda packages provide the following enhancement:

• the Anaconda installer now supports virtio devices. virtio is an API used

to handle virtual I/O devices in virtualized environments. (BZ#479134)

Users are advised to upgrade to these updated anaconda 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 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 - 217176 - error installing grub on raid devices
• BZ - 233050 - lvcreate fails using --grow on small disks
• BZ - 465175 - Incorrect DNS format on s390 causes traceback
• BZ - 479134 - RHEL4 kvm virtio: anaconda support for installing to kvm virtio guests
• BZ - 480793 - [RHEL4.8][Anaconda] raise SystemError, "lvcreate failed for %s" %(self.name,)
• BZ - 481178 - LVM Incorrect metadata area header checksum after update from UP kernel to SMP
• BZ - 481597 - kickstart prompts for root password if using autostep and encrypted root password
• BZ - 481698 - vgremove failed on s390*
• BZ - 491982 - [QLogic 4.8 bug] qla2xxx - installing for 25xx 8 Gb/S boot from san broken...
• BZ - 492331 - kernel image from boot.img doesn't boot
• BZ - 493005 - Regression: SSH / telnet fails to start on Z series , libwrap.so.0: cannot open shared object file

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)