RHBA-2011:0694 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated gpxe packages that fix two bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise
Linux 6.

Description

The gpxe packages provide an open source Preboot Execution Environment (PXE)
implementation and bootloader. gPXE also supports additional protocols such as
DNS, HTTP, iSCSI and ATA over Ethernet.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• Devices that did not allow interrupts or required polling were not supported

by gPXE UNDI code. This meant that booting did not work when using gPXE images
on bare metal with some NICs, such as Emulex 10g. This patch allows the gPXE
UNDI code to use polling for underlying devices that do not support interrupts.
As a result it is now possible to use gPXE images to boot bare metal hosts using
UNDI where it was not possible in some cases. (BZ#661840)

• Virtual Machines (VM) with virtIO NIC could not access the PXE server,

reaching a time out. This was because even though the VM could get an IP address
from the DHCP server, it could not reach its own default gateway. The ARP
requests that the VM sends were too large and thus not valid, so the default
gateway did not answer those ARP requests. A patch has been added that sets the
size of the transmitted Ethernet frame to header + data length, allowing the VM
to boot via PXE. (BZ#672529)

All gPXE users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which fix these
bugs.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure all previously-released errata
relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via the 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 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Scientific Computing 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension 6 x86_64

Fixes

• BZ - 672529 - VMs with virtIO NIC can't access the PXE server

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)