RHBA-2013:0307 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated seabios packages that fix several bugs and add two enhancements are now
available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Description

The seabios packages contain an open-source legacy BIOS implementation which can
be used as a coreboot payload. It implements the standard BIOS calling
interfaces that a typical x86 proprietary BIOS implements.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• In the QXL-VGA drive, the ram_size and vram_size variables were set to a

default value that was too high. Consequently, the guest was not able to boot,
and the "VM status: paused (internal-error)" message was returned. This update
uses extended addressing for PCI address space and the guest can now boot
successfully. (BZ#771616)

• Previously, the advertisement of S3 and S4 states in the default BIOS was

disabled for which a separate BIOS binary file had been created. This update
enables users to configurate S3 and S4 states per virtual machine in seabios and
thus, the extra BIOS binary file is no longer necessary. Now, a single binary is
used to enable these states. (BZ#839674)

• Prior to this update, the SeaBIOS component did not support the non-contiguous

APIC IDs. This resulted in incorrect topology generation on SMP and NUMA
systems; moreover, QEMU-KVM was unable to run on some of the host systems. A
patch has been provided to fix this bug and Seabios now supports the
non-contiguous APIC IDs. (BZ#851245)

• The seabios packages used the time-stamp counter (TSC) for timekeeping with a

simple calibration loop. As a consequence, on a busy host, the magnitude
calibration could be set incorrectly and could lead to boot failures. This
update provides the power management timer (PMT) with a fixed frequency, which
does not suffer from calibration errors due to a loaded host machine. As a
result, timeouts work correctly under all circumstances. (BZ#854448)

In addition, this update adds the following enhancements:

• With this update, it is possible to configurate S3 and S4 states per virtual

machine. (BZ#827500)

• The seabios packages are now able to reboot a VM even if no bootable device

can be found. (BZ#831273)

Users of seabios 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 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support 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 Extension 6 x86_64

Fixes

• BZ - 771616 - Too big value of QXL-VGA ram_size and vram_size cause VM paused (internal-error)
• BZ - 839674 - Revert back to a single seabios binary once s3/s4 configuration is in
• BZ - 851245 - SeaBIOS: support non-contiguous APIC IDs
• BZ - 854448 - add pmtimer support

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)