RHBA-2013:1580 - 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 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 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)