RHBA-2012:0784 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated python-virtinst packages that fix several bugs are now available for Red
Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Description

The python-virtinst package contains several command line utilities, including
virt-install for building and installing new virtual machines, and virt-clone
for cloning existing virtual machines.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• Previously, some special characters could not be included in virtual machine

descriptions in virt-manager (the Virtual Machine Manager graphical tool for
administration of virtual machines). Saving a description containing such
characters failed and the following error message was reported:

Error changing VM configuration: 'NoneType' object is not callable

This update fixes the error so that descriptions containing special characters
can be saved correctly and the error message no longer occurrs. (BZ#741158)

• Previously, creation of guests in a multi-threaded application like

virt-manager sometimes failed with the following error message:

RuntimeError: dictionary changed size during iteration

This was caused by improper locking of internal virtinst state. This update
fixes the error and as a result, the aforementioned error no longer occurs when
creating guests in multi-threaded applications. (BZ#765928)

• Previously, incorrect IDs were generated by virt-manager for newly created

virtio hard disks when 26 or more virtio hard disks were already created.
Consequently, creation of the 27th virtio hard disk failed with the following
error message:

Error adding device: An error occurred, but the cause is unknown

This update ensures that virt-manager generates correct IDs for all virtio hard
disks. As a result, creation of virtio hard disks is possible up to the
supported virtio hard disk limit. (BZ#769191)

• Prior to this update, Japanese translation of the --help message for

virt-clone was incomplete and a part of it was displayed in English. Also, the
meter message for cloning progress in virt-clone displayed unknown characters
when viewed in a terminal window of a certain size. This update fixes both
problems and ensures that both messages are now translated and displayed
correctly. (BZ#783866)

• Prior to this update, virt-manager expected a string value when returning

virtual machine descriptions. However, virtual machines created with
virt-manager-0.9.0-7.el6 or older did not have any description, and therefore
returned a "None" value instead. Consequently, loading of guests created with
virt-manager-0.9.0-7.el6 or older using a newer version failed with the
following error message:

AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'replace'

This update adds a return value check to the operation of loading defined guests
and ensures backward compatibility of guests created with
virt-manager-0.9.0-7.el6 or older. As a result, these guests are now loaded
correctly. (BZ#786672)

• Prior to this update, virt-clone recognized only the "xen" and "qemu" domain

types, while "xen" was the default. Consequently, when "kvm" was specified as a
domain type of a cloned virtual machine, virt-clone did not recognize the domain
type and used "xen" instead. This update adds support for the "kvm" domain type.
As a result, "kvm" is now recognized when specified as a domain type.
(BZ#798909)

All users of python-virtinst 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/knowledge/articles/11258

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 - 741158 - [virt-manager]Show VM description in a tooltip does not work with special character & <>
• BZ - 783866 - Translation bug: virt-clone(in python-virtinst-0.600.0-5.el6)
• BZ - 786672 - Previous guests can not display in virt-manager after updating to virt-manager-0.9.0-8.el6
• BZ - 798909 - Cloned kvm virtual machine's mac address starts with '00:16:3e' like Xen.

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)