RHBA-2013:1190 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated kernel packages that fix several bugs are now available for Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 6 Extended Update Support.

Description

The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux
operating system.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• Cyclic adding and removing of the st kernel module could previously

cause a system to become unresponsive. This was caused by a disk queue
reference count bug in the SCSI tape driver. An upstream patch addressing
this bug has been backported to the SCSI tape driver and the system now
responds as expected in this situation. (BZ#979291)

• The bnx2x driver could have previously reported an occasional MDC/MDIO

timeout error along with the loss of the link connection. This could
happen in environments using an older boot code because the MDIO clock was
set in the beginning of each boot code sequence instead of per CL45
command. To avoid this problem, the bnx2x driver now sets the MDIO clock
per CL45 command. Additionally, the MDIO clock is now implemented per EMAC
register instead of per port number, which prevents ports from using
different EMAC addresses for different PHY accesses. Also, boot code or
Management Firmware (MFW) upgrade is required to prevent the boot code
(firmware) from taking over link ownership if the driver's pulse is
delayed. The BCM57711 card requires boot code version 6.2.24 or later, and
the BCM57712/578xx cards require MFW version 7.4.22 or later. (BZ#982114)

• If the audit queue is too long, the kernel schedules the kauditd daemon

to alleviate the load on the audit queue. Previously, if the current audit
process had any pending signals in such a situation, it entered a
busy-wait loop for the duration of an audit backlog timeout because the
wait_for_auditd() function was called as an interruptible task. This could
lead to system lockup in non-preemptive uniprocessor systems. This update
fixes the problem by setting wait_for_auditd() as uninterruptible.
(BZ#982469)

• The kernel could rarely terminate instead of creating a dump file when

a multi-threaded process using FPU aborted. This happened because the
kernel did not wait until all threads became inactive and attempted to
dump the FPU state of active threads into memory which triggered a
BUG_ON() routine. A patch addressing this problem has been applied and the
kernel now waits for the threads to become inactive before dumping their
FPU state into memory. (BZ#988226)

• BE family hardware could falsely indicate an unrecoverable error (UE) on

certain platforms and stop further access to be2net-based network
interface cards (NICs). A patch has been applied to disable the code that
stops further access to hardware for BE family network interface cards
(NICs). For a real UE, it is not necessary as the corresponding hardware
block is not accessible in this situation. (BZ#990087)

• The fnic driver previously allowed I/O requests with the number of SGL

descriptors greater than is supported by Cisco UCS Palo adapters.
Consequently, the adapter returned any I/O request with more than 256 SGL
descriptors with an error indicating invalid SGLs. A patch has been
applied to limit the maximum number of supported SGLs in the fnic driver
to 256 and the problem no longer occurs. (BZ#991344)

Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported
patches to correct these bugs. The system must be rebooted for this update
to take effect

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/site/articles/11258

To install kernel packages manually, use "rpm -ivh [package]". Do not use "rpm

• Uvh" as that will remove the running kernel binaries from your system. You may

use "rpm -e" to remove old kernels after determining that the new kernel
functions properly on your system.

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 6.3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 6.3 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 6.3 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 6.3 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Update Support from RHUI 6.3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Update Support from RHUI 6.3 i386

Fixes

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)