RHBA-2013:0027 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated mkinitrd packages that fix two bugs and add two enhancements are now
available Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

Description

The mkinitrd packages provide a utility to create the initrd file system image.
The initrd image is an initial RAM disk that is loaded by a boot loader before
the Linux kernel is started.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• Prior to this update, the "mkrootdev" command could incorrectly use the slave

device instead of the intended multipath device to create the /dev/root node
when a multipath root device was specified by the label "LABEL". As a
consequence, the slave device could not be mounted as it was already used by the
master and creating the "/dev/root" node failed. This update modifies the
mkinitrd code so that "mkrootdev" now ignores devices which are in use.
(BZ#556785)

• Prior to this update, the bindings file in the initial RAM disk (initrd)

could, under certain circumstances, fail to match the bindings file on the root
file system. As a consequence, the boot process was interrupted and the system
rebooted. This update modifies the underlying code so match the bindings file as
expected. (BZ#782615)

This update also adds the following enhancements:

• This update adds support for using FIPS mode with dmraid root devices. The

dmraid device is now activated before checking the FIPS checksum. (BZ#737081)

• This update adds support for Hyper-V to the mkinitrd utility. (BZ#852686)

All users of mkinitrd are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which
fix these bugs and add 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/knowledge/articles/11258

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 5 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 5 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 i386

Fixes

• BZ - 556785 - mkrootdev finds wrong node if root device multipath and rootfilesystem specified by LABEL
• BZ - 737081 - mkinitrd's FIPS support for dmraid is missing

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)