RHBA-2011:0106 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

An updated virtio-win package that fixes a bug and adds an enhancement is now
available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

Description

Para-virtualized drivers are virtualization-aware drivers used by fully
virtualized guests running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Fully-virtualized guests
using the para-virtualized drivers gain significantly better I/O performance
than fully-virtualized guests running without the drivers.

The virtio-win package provides para-virtualized network drivers for the
following guest operating systems:

32-bit Windows XP
32-bit Windows Server 2003
64-bit Windows Server 2008
32-bit Windows Server 2008
64-bit Windows Server 2008 R2
32-bit Windows 7

The virtio-win package also provides para-virtualized disk (block) drivers for
the following guest operating systems:

32-bit Windows XP
32-bit Windows Server 2003
64-bit Windows Server 2008
32-bit Windows Server 2008
64-bit Windows Server 2008 R2
32-bit Windows 7

This update fixes the following bug:

• When installing the VirtIO driver, the relevant dialog window did not offer

Windows 7 as the target operating system. With this update, Windows 7 has been
added to the list of supported operating systems, and this error no longer
occurs. (BZ#605334)

As well, this update adds the following enhancement:

• The content of the Virtual Floppy Disk (VFD) is now distributed as a part of

the package installation, and can be found in the /usr/share/virtio-win/drivers
directory. (BZ#636516)

All users running fully-virtualized instances of Windows on Red Hat Enterprise
Linux-based KVM hosts are advised to upgrade to this updated package, which
resolves this issue and adds 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
https://access.redhat.com/kb/docs/DOC-11259

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 x86_64

Fixes

• BZ - 605334 - VirtIO driver for windows does not show specific OS: Windows 7, Windows 2003
• BZ - 636516 - [RFE] Please expand virtio-drivers.vfd in virtio-win package

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)