Synopsis

hdparm bug fix and enhancement update

Type/Severity

Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

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

Description

Hdparm is a useful system utility for setting (E)IDE hard drive parameters. For
example, hdparm can be used to tweak hard drive performance and to spin down
hard drives for power conservation.

The hdparm packages have been upgraded to upstream version 9.43, which provides
a number of bug fixes and enhancements over the previous version. These
enhancements include creating files with the desired size on the ext4 and xfs
filesystems, and a possibility to specify the offset for reading operations when
measuring timing performance. Other notable enhancements include an ability to
obtain and set the "idle3" timeout value of the Western Digital Green (WDG) hard
drive, and an ability to obtain and set the Write-Read-Verify feature for hard
drives. (BZ#977800)

This update also fixes the following bugs:

• Previously, the hdparm utility did not assume that some disk information could
  be unavailable. As a consequence, hdparm could terminate unexpectedly with no
  useful output. With this update, proper checks for unsuccessful disk queries
  have been added, and hdparm now terminates with a more detailed error message.
  (BZ#639623)
  
• Prior to this update, the hdparm utility did not assume that some disk
  information could be unavailable when the user requested information about how
  much disk space a file occupied. Consequently, hdparm terminated unexpectedly
  with no useful output in such a scenario. With this update, proper checks for
  unsuccessful disk queries have been added. As a result, hdparm now terminates
  with an error message providing detailed information. (BZ#735887)
  
• Previously, the hdparm utility retrieved the hard drive identification data in
  a way that could cause errors. As a consequence, hdparm failed to obtain the
  data on some occasions and displayed an unhelpful error message. With this
  update, the respective system call has been replaced with one that is more
  appropriate and robust. As a result, the hard drive identification data is now
  successfully obtained and printed in the output. (BZ#807056)
  
• When the hdparm utility is unable to obtain the necessary geometry information
  about a hard drive, it attempts to download firmware. Previously, due to
  incorrect control statements, hdparm could terminate unexpectedly with a
  segmentation fault at such a download attempt. With this update, control
  statements checking for system call failures have been added. As a result, if
  hdparm cannot operate on a drive, it displays an error message and exits
  cleanly. (BZ#862257)
  

Users of hdparm 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/site/articles/11258

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 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 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

Fixes

• BZ - 992922 - hdparm is crashing during tests.

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 6

SRPM
hdparm-9.43-4.el6.src.rpm	SHA-256: e1402ad14fd994dd7c5bd87ec5981b48227ced8660b4f34be5347d6f683531e3
x86_64
hdparm-9.43-4.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 86473201db1edffcd4c4792817bc91cdae330b8d1bb8fd39c5227ffeb3035b04
hdparm-debuginfo-9.43-4.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 569cb343d23744ecd22c59884f70ad584f61eb4c07c281fa402349b26b433655
i386
hdparm-9.43-4.el6.i686.rpm	SHA-256: 735c5838d177614128afbee356a6d3dc99ca2beeb06842efc6c6fc4c40a2e873
hdparm-debuginfo-9.43-4.el6.i686.rpm	SHA-256: c39208f5cc5f4439f3b71af1f85be159ac56fb9b2829eef7261f7c997cfd9215

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 6

SRPM
hdparm-9.43-4.el6.src.rpm	SHA-256: e1402ad14fd994dd7c5bd87ec5981b48227ced8660b4f34be5347d6f683531e3
x86_64
hdparm-9.43-4.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 86473201db1edffcd4c4792817bc91cdae330b8d1bb8fd39c5227ffeb3035b04
hdparm-debuginfo-9.43-4.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 569cb343d23744ecd22c59884f70ad584f61eb4c07c281fa402349b26b433655
i386
hdparm-9.43-4.el6.i686.rpm	SHA-256: 735c5838d177614128afbee356a6d3dc99ca2beeb06842efc6c6fc4c40a2e873
hdparm-debuginfo-9.43-4.el6.i686.rpm	SHA-256: c39208f5cc5f4439f3b71af1f85be159ac56fb9b2829eef7261f7c997cfd9215

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 6

SRPM
hdparm-9.43-4.el6.src.rpm	SHA-256: e1402ad14fd994dd7c5bd87ec5981b48227ced8660b4f34be5347d6f683531e3
x86_64
hdparm-9.43-4.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 86473201db1edffcd4c4792817bc91cdae330b8d1bb8fd39c5227ffeb3035b04
hdparm-debuginfo-9.43-4.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 569cb343d23744ecd22c59884f70ad584f61eb4c07c281fa402349b26b433655
i386
hdparm-9.43-4.el6.i686.rpm	SHA-256: 735c5838d177614128afbee356a6d3dc99ca2beeb06842efc6c6fc4c40a2e873
hdparm-debuginfo-9.43-4.el6.i686.rpm	SHA-256: c39208f5cc5f4439f3b71af1f85be159ac56fb9b2829eef7261f7c997cfd9215

Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 6

SRPM
hdparm-9.43-4.el6.src.rpm	SHA-256: e1402ad14fd994dd7c5bd87ec5981b48227ced8660b4f34be5347d6f683531e3
ppc64
hdparm-9.43-4.el6.ppc64.rpm	SHA-256: 75c703ab0b6a589902401025b8900dac44cbc3c4b4c1c75f1fa52cdbdbfda0e3
hdparm-debuginfo-9.43-4.el6.ppc64.rpm	SHA-256: f24b0a98bc0f230b5fe7a4c571d3eed6c2f907d37c4797651f1d31fdee5a6244

Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Scientific Computing 6

SRPM
hdparm-9.43-4.el6.src.rpm	SHA-256: e1402ad14fd994dd7c5bd87ec5981b48227ced8660b4f34be5347d6f683531e3
x86_64
hdparm-9.43-4.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 86473201db1edffcd4c4792817bc91cdae330b8d1bb8fd39c5227ffeb3035b04
hdparm-debuginfo-9.43-4.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 569cb343d23744ecd22c59884f70ad584f61eb4c07c281fa402349b26b433655

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 6

SRPM
hdparm-9.43-4.el6.src.rpm	SHA-256: e1402ad14fd994dd7c5bd87ec5981b48227ced8660b4f34be5347d6f683531e3
x86_64
hdparm-9.43-4.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 86473201db1edffcd4c4792817bc91cdae330b8d1bb8fd39c5227ffeb3035b04
hdparm-debuginfo-9.43-4.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 569cb343d23744ecd22c59884f70ad584f61eb4c07c281fa402349b26b433655
i386
hdparm-9.43-4.el6.i686.rpm	SHA-256: 735c5838d177614128afbee356a6d3dc99ca2beeb06842efc6c6fc4c40a2e873
hdparm-debuginfo-9.43-4.el6.i686.rpm	SHA-256: c39208f5cc5f4439f3b71af1f85be159ac56fb9b2829eef7261f7c997cfd9215