RHBA-2010:0778 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated kernel packages that resolve several issues are now available for Red
Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 Extended Update Support.

Description

The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux operating
system.

These updated kernel packages provide fixes for the following bugs:

• Previously, migrating a hardware virtual machine (HVM) guest with both UP and

PV drivers may have caused the guest to stop responding. With this update, HVM
guest migration works as expected. (BZ#630987)

• To build the CCW requests, the direct access storage device (DASD) reserve and

release ioctl system calls use a preallocated memory pool of the respective
device. Previously, this pool may have been emptied due to lack of memory,
causing such system calls to fail. With this update, a memory is preallocated
for each of these requests, and ioctl calls now work as expected. (BZ#631807)

• Prior to this update, ccw_device_set_options() in dasd_generic_probe() unset

the CWDEV_ALLOW_FORCE flag set in dasd_eckd_probe(). As a result, the
unconditional reserve was not allowed on ECKD direct access storage devices
(DASDs). With this update, the flags are set only in discipline specific probe
functions. (BZ#631809)

• The cnic parts resets could cause a deadlock when the bnx2 device was enslaved

in a bonding device and that device had an associated VLAN. (BZ#631854)

• Previously, running the dd command on an iSCSI device with the qla3xxx driver

may have caused the system to crash. This error has been fixed, and running the
dd command on such device no longer crashes the system. (BZ#637204)

• Recently applied patch introduced a bug, which caused the Xen guest networking

not to work properly on 64-bit Itanium processors. However, this bug also
revealed an issue, which may have led to a data corruption. With this update,
both errors have been fixed, and Xen virtual guest networking now works as
expected. (BZ#637219)

• Under certain circumstances, an attempt to dereference a NULL pointer in the

lpfc_nlp_put() function may have caused the system to crash. With this update,
several changes have been made to ensure the correct reference count, resolving
this issue. (BZ#637726)

Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches
to correct these issues. The system must be rebooted for this update to take
effect.

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
https://access.redhat.com/kb/docs/DOC-11259

To install kernel packages manually, use "rpm -ivh [package]". Do not use
"rpm -Uvh" as that will remove the running kernel binaries from your
system. You may use "rpm -e" to remove old kernels after determining that
the new kernel functions properly on your system.

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 5.4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 5.4 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 5.4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 5.4 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 5.4 ppc

Fixes

• BZ - 630987 - HVM guest w/ UP and PV driver hangs after live migration or suspend/resume [rhel-5.4.z]
• BZ - 631807 - dasd: allocate fallback cqr for reserve/release [rhel-5.4.z]
• BZ - 631809 - dasd: force online does not work. [rhel-5.4.z]
• BZ - 631854 - Kernel: network: bonding: scheduling while atomic: ifdown-eth/0x00000100/21775 [rhel-5.4.z]
• BZ - 637204 - system crashes due to corrupt net_device_wrapper structure [rhel-5.4.z]
• BZ - 637219 - [RHEL5 IA64 XEN] netfront driver: alloc_dev: Private data too big. [rhel-5.4.z]
• BZ - 637726 - lpfc ioctl crash in lpfc_nlp_put() [rhel-5.4.z]

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)