RHBA-2011:0030 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

An updated anaconda package that fixes several bugs and adds various
enhancements is now available.

Description

Anaconda is the system installer.

This updated package fixes the following bugs:

• Anaconda now verifies the format of IPv4 netmasks entered during

installation and therefore avoids a segmentation fault if nonsensical
data is entered. (BZ#440498)

• Anaconda no longer recommends that IBM System z installations require

swap space equal to installed system memory and therefore avoids
misleading users to allocate more swap than they require (BZ#475358)

• Anaconda ensures that any packages required by kernel packages appear

on the first disc of multi-disc sets, together with the kernel packages
themselves. (BZ#491136)

• Anaconda ensures that a monitor is attached before it sets monitor

parameters when the "xconfig --startxonboot" kickstart command is
specified in a kickstart file and therefore avoids a crash on systems
without a monitor. (BZ#517051)

• The iscsi and iscsiname commands and the ignoredisk --onlyuse option

are better documented in the kickstart-docs.txt file. (BZ#525136,
BZ#586576)

• Anaconda mounts /proc/bus/usb directly after installation to make this

path available for packages installed with %post scriptlets. (BZ#532397)

• Anaconda alters modprobe.conf to ensure that kernel IPv6 modules are no

longer loaded if the kickstart --noipv6 option is used (BZ#537887)

• Anaconda now handles situations where users click a "Back" button that

points to a non-existent screen in an installation that supplies some but
not all information in a kickstart file. Clicking such a button no longer
causes a crash. (BZ#537889)

• Anaconda no longer installs i686 versions of mkinitrd and rhlp on 64-bit

systems if users' package selections would exclude them. (BZ#541323)

• Anaconda now correctly validates the format of hostnames entered by

users and therefore accepts hostnames that begin with a number. (BZ#559626)

• Anaconda again accepts absolute paths specified for the --log option in

kickstart files and no longer crashes when an absolute path is specified.
(BZ#568861)

• Anaconda now correctly handles dhcp domain-name options longer than

64 characters. Long domain names are correctly written to the resolv.conf
file. (BZ#578110)

• Test of accessibility of default gateway using layer 3 vswitch on

IBM System z has been fixed. linuxrc no longer fails while attempting to
reach gateway. (BZ#643961)

• The ks=nfs and method=nfs boot options are now documented in the

command-line.txt file. (BZ#559200)

This update also adds the following enhancements:

• Anaconda now includes a "noeject" boot option that prevents the system

from ejecting media after installation. This option is useful in remote
installations where it is difficult to close the tray afterwards. The new
command is documented in command-line.txt. (BZ#477887,BZ#647232)

• Reports of package scriptlet errors has been improved. Error messages

now appear in interactive mode. (#531599)

• When trying to download a package, anaconda now retries ten times with

increasing delay before each try, giving a better chance to recover from
failure without intervention from the user. (#544323)

• Anaconda prompts users to confirm whether to install drivers from driver

discs that anaconda detects automatically. (BZ#570053)

• Brocade 10G Ethernet controller is now supported (#549677)
• Chelsio T4 10Gb Ethernet adapter is now supported (#562913)
• QLogic Corp cLOM8214 1/10Gb Ethernet controller is now

supported (#571895)

• LSI 3ware 97xx SAS/SATA RAID controller is now supported (#572341)
• 10Gb EN port on Mellanox InfiniBand controller is now

supported (#635095)

Users are advised to upgrade to this updated anaconda 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
https://access.redhat.com/kb/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 - 475358 - [LTC 5.6 FEAT] Adjust Anaconda Swap recommendations to Linux on System z specifics [201680]
• BZ - 477887 - Request CD boot option that does not eject CD on firstboot
• BZ - 517051 - "xconfig --startxonboot" in kickstart causes traceback on headless system
• BZ - 525136 - [RHEL-5][documentation] iscsi and iscsiname kickstart commands not documented
• BZ - 532397 - [RHEL-5] cannot install the package depending on /proc/bus/usb with kickstart
• BZ - 537887 - patch - honor --noipv6 within modprobe.conf
• BZ - 537889 - KeyError: 'partitionobjinit' when using Kickstart
• BZ - 559200 - [docs] commandline nfs mount options in RHEL5 not documented
• BZ - 559626 - Anaconda fails to accept hostnames starting with a number
• BZ - 568861 - [RHEL 5.5 Beta] anaconda crashes with full path specified in %post --log parameter
• BZ - 571895 - [Qlogic 5.6 FEAT] Anaconda boot/install support for new driver "qlcnic" for NetXen P3+ NIC Support
• BZ - 572341 - [LSI 5.6 FEAT] Add new 3w-sas driver to anaconda module-info file
• BZ - 578110 - Long names for 'option domain-name' not written to resolv.conf while doing anaconda installation
• BZ - 586576 - please document 'ignoredisk --only-use'
• BZ - 647232 - Document noeject command line argument
• BZ - 661199 - Lots of Japanese messages are not displayed on installation

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)