RHBA-2011:1664 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated rhn-client-tools and yum-rhn-plugin packages that fix several bugs are
now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Description

The rhn-client-tools and yum-rhn-plugin packages provide programs and libraries
that allow a system to receive software updates from Red Hat Network or Red Hat
Network Satellite.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• Prior to this update, the order of screens in the firstboot application may

have varied depending on the current locale. This update corrects the priority
of the Red Hat Network module so that the order of the firstboot screens is no
longer affected by the translation in use. (BZ#684250)

• When rhn_register fails to verify the server's SSL certificate, it terminates

with a traceback. Previously, this traceback contained a misleading exception
message which treated a CA certificate as an SSL certificate. The relevant
exception message has now been rephrased to make sure such a traceback does not
contain misleading information. (BZ#684913)

• Due to an error in rhnplugin, running the "yum repolist" command may have

incorrectly reported previously cached channels as available. This update adapts
rhnplugin to use the list of cached channels only when the user explicitly
requests it (for example, by using the "--cacheonly" command line option).
(BZ#698525)

• When used in conjunction with yum 3.2.29, rhnplugin caused the "yum clean"

command to create empty directories in the current directory for every
registered Red Hat Network repository. This update ensures that no directories
are created when "yum clean" is executed, as expected. (BZ#700750)

• When building a list of cached channels, the previous version of rhnplugin

failed to verify that a cachedir directory exists. This caused this list to be
empty, and any subsequent "yum clean" command therefore ignored these channels.
This update adapts rhnplugin to create such a directory when necessary so that
the list of cached channels can be successfully created. (BZ#701189)

• Previously, running the "rhn-channel -L" command with an incorrect username or

password or as a user without permissions to administer the system in question
caused it to terminate unexpectedly with a traceback. The rhn-channel utility
has been corrected to display an appropriate error message in this situation.
(BZ#702084, BZ#702107)

• Previously, an error in rhnplugin occasionally prevented yum from displaying

the download progress for packages from Red Hat Network or Red Hat Network
Satellite. This update adapts rhnplugin to set up Red Hat Network channels
during the plug-in initialization, and the download progress is now displayed
for all packages. (BZ#707161)

• Prior to this update, the presence of a UTF-8 character in an error or log

message caused rhnplugin to terminate unexpectedly with a traceback. Such
messages are now printed as expected. (BZ#710065, BZ#714113)

• Due to incompatible APIs, an attempt to run the "spacewalk-channel -L" command

on a system registered with Red Hat Network Satellite failed with a traceback.
This update resolves the compatibility issue and the command no longer fails in
this scenario. (BZ#713548)

• When processing the /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/rhnplugin.conf file, the previous

version of rhnplugin incorrectly ignored options in the [main] section other
than "enabled" and "gpgcheck". This update ensures that this file is now
processed correctly. (BZ#725496)

• When a machine is already registered using the Red Hat Subscription Manager

tool, an attempt to register it with RHN Classic or Red Hat Network Satellite
causes the rhn_register utility to display a warning message. This update
rephrases this warning message for clarity. (BZ#729468)

• Previously, the rhn-profile-sync(8), rhn_register(8), rhnreg_ks(8), and

up2date(5) manual pages incorrectly listed /etc/sysconfig/rhn/update as the
common configuration file used by RHN client programs. This update adapts these
manual pages to use the correct file, /etc/sysconfig/rhn/up2date. (BZ#690440)

Users of rhn-client-tools and yum-rhn-plugin should 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 Server 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 6 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 6 ppc64
• 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 from RHUI 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support (for IBM z Systems) 6 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension (for IBM z Systems) 6 s390x

Fixes

• BZ - 684250 - Firstboot order different for English and German and Spanish
• BZ - 684913 - When RHN is unavailable to customers it should NOT tell them that their SSL certificate is invalid.
• BZ - 690440 - Typo in man rhn_register.
• BZ - 698525 - when systemid file is removed, yum still reports RHEL channels as available
• BZ - 701189 - `yum clean all` do not clean repomod.xml of a channel
• BZ - 702084 - [RHEL6] rhn-channel should emit cogent error message rather than backtrace when encountering a bad username or passwd.
• BZ - 702107 - [RHEL6] rhn-channel -L should emit cogent error message rather than backtrace when run on a host where the login user does not have RHN Org Admin privs.
• BZ - 707161 - yum-rhn-plugin: yum does not print downloaded packages
• BZ - 710065 - [abrt] yum-3.2.29-17.el6: up2dateErrors.py:177:__repr__:UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xc3 in position 30: ordinal not in range(128)
• BZ - 714113 - [abrt] yum-3.2.27-14.el6: up2dateLog.py:57:write_log:UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode characters in position 0-24: ordinal not in range(128)
• BZ - 725496 - yum-rhn-plugin does not respect the default priority setting in the [main] stanza for yum-plugin-priorities, only per-channel definitions are effective
• BZ - 732209 - When proxy password has a '#' character, yum doesn't work

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)