RHBA-2011:1720 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

An updated grub package that fixes three bugs and adds two enhancements is now
available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Description

The GRUB utility is responsible for booting the operating system kernel.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• Due to an error in the underlying source code, previous versions of GRUB may

have failed to boot in Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) mode. This
happened, because GRUB was making UEFI calls without aligning the stack pointer
to a 16-byte boundary. With this update, a patch has been applied to correct
this error, and GRUB now boots in UEFI mode as expected. (BZ#677468)

• Prior to this update, an attempt to install GRUB on a CCISS device may have

caused the grub-install utility to report the following error:

expr: non-numeric argument

When this happened, grub-install failed to install GRUB on this device, but
incorrectly reported success and returned a zero exit status. This update
applies a patch that ensures that GRUB can now be successfully installed on such
devices. (BZ#736833)

• When looking for its configuration file, the previous versions of GRUB did not

respect vendor-specific EFI device path. With this update, the underlying source
code has been adapted to use the vendor-specific EFI-device path as expected.
(BZ#746106)

As well, this update adds the following enhancements:

• Prior to this update, the GRUB boot loader was unable to boot from boot drives

that were larger than 2.2 TB. This update adds support for such devices on UEFI
systems. (BZ#629408)

• On BIOS-based systems, previous versions of GRUB were only able to boot from

first eight disk drives. This update allows GRUB to boot from up to 128 disk
drives on these systems. (BZ#671355)

All users of grub are advised to upgrade to this updated package, which fixes
these bugs and adds these enhancements.

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 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 Extension 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension 6 i386

Fixes

• BZ - 671355 - Can't boot from 9th or further HDD.

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)