Synopsis

kernel bug fix update

Type/Severity

Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated kernel packages that fix several bugs are now available for Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 6.2 Long Life.

Description

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

This update fixes the following bugs:

• Due to a bug in ext4 metadata allocation code, the number of metadata blocks
  needed to complete a file system operation could be calculated incorrectly.
  Consequently, when performing file system operations on a nearly full ext4 file
  system, unexpected allocation failures could occur at writeback time, leading to
  possible data loss and file system inconsistency. A series of patches has been
  applied, fixing metadata allocation estimation problems and introducing a
  reserved space concept that ensures correct allocation of metadata in specific
  situations, such as the aforementioned scenario. (BZ#1059380)
  
• Previously, the sysfs_dev_char_kobj variable was freed on shutdown, but the
  variable could be used later by the USB stack, and possibly other code, which
  could cause the system to terminate unexpectedly. The underlying source code has
  been modified to prevent "kobjects" in the device_shutdown() function from being
  removed, as the /sys/dev/block/ and /sys/dev/char/ directories must be kept
  because of the symbolic links pointing to the devices. As a result, the system
  no longer crashes in the described scenario. (BZ#1063349)
  
• Due to an incorrect call of the weak-modules script in the kernel spec file,
  weak-modules was removed from the system when removing or upgrading certain
  kernel packages related to weak-modules, such as kernel-debug. With this update,
  the the weak-modules call in the kernel spec file has been corrected, and the
  script now preserves on the system as expected in this scenario. (BZ#1076598)
  
• Due to several bugs in the ext4 code, data integrity system calls did not
  always properly persist data on the disk. Therefore, the unsynchronized data in
  the ext4 file system could have been lost after the system's unexpected
  termination. A series of patches has been applied to the ext4 code to address
  this problem, including a fix that ensures proper usage of data barriers in the
  code responsible for file synchronization. Data loss no longer occurs in the
  described situation. (BZ#1064965)
  
• A bug in the journaling block device (jbd and jbd2) code could, under certain
  circumstances, trigger a BUG_ON() assertion and result in a kernel oops. This
  happened when an application performed an extensive number of commits to the
  journal of the ext3 file system and there was no currently active transaction
  while synchronizing the file's in-core state. This problem has been resolved by
  correcting respective test conditions in the jbd and jbd2 code. (BZ#1066323)
  

All users are advised to 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 Server - AUS 6.2 x86_64

Fixes

(none)

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 6.2

SRPM
kernel-2.6.32-220.48.1.el6.src.rpm	SHA-256: 5091fc2bb3b455b20424745ba1af75c229cf89bcf3a1047c12998ea1bec87459
x86_64
kernel-2.6.32-220.48.1.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 8fb67c1df19a29e60d3cafb10d183f1fd1f002645f8708d62edb58e62a59bb1b
kernel-debug-2.6.32-220.48.1.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 32f6415b4042f9717d1c1af9f88a47b36ec9d1a6bb44d6a07e7895fd9544801e
kernel-debug-debuginfo-2.6.32-220.48.1.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 95a2f5d4381ff9c0f9c50b472a15feabbbcfec6053d85e26b0a60bc10c995b91
kernel-debug-debuginfo-2.6.32-220.48.1.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 95a2f5d4381ff9c0f9c50b472a15feabbbcfec6053d85e26b0a60bc10c995b91
kernel-debug-devel-2.6.32-220.48.1.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 2bb5330ee6dda8d2f2adaee1347cb5dd9f5bd353ce8e97d8da096ef89bc279a6
kernel-debuginfo-2.6.32-220.48.1.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 8a60a2942fb136ac6963ee16e104d0694268d6e00f366824b36de5d15560629d
kernel-debuginfo-2.6.32-220.48.1.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 8a60a2942fb136ac6963ee16e104d0694268d6e00f366824b36de5d15560629d
kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64-2.6.32-220.48.1.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: ffc65d517d4b942f036276141aa358445e80113644feb69b91cf3c6d1a98e351
kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64-2.6.32-220.48.1.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: ffc65d517d4b942f036276141aa358445e80113644feb69b91cf3c6d1a98e351
kernel-devel-2.6.32-220.48.1.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: ec886de0102d85dd87a3e4aca15feae3441361453151a397d8b3d71c0b7c80e0
kernel-doc-2.6.32-220.48.1.el6.noarch.rpm	SHA-256: 2a88db1493808ece3cfc187e28c0e5116ba2f029d7b34a8284c1e46e619ea6ab
kernel-firmware-2.6.32-220.48.1.el6.noarch.rpm	SHA-256: a539e8b756c2779ada14da4621e256427ff821527967dffb67466b46e23b401b
kernel-headers-2.6.32-220.48.1.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 40a41c8836dc92ff5f545267153e94929a3113b6e0c4fc22dc7cf08259869cb9
perf-2.6.32-220.48.1.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: c6eefd17c4d936a689f3a3f1d4490119a740607f984f4238b280162f41f3ef67
perf-debuginfo-2.6.32-220.48.1.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 0fad86d333bf4f92fc2aa2b2c08c9cf02f16d23df724e50375f5b5ced66e550a
perf-debuginfo-2.6.32-220.48.1.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 0fad86d333bf4f92fc2aa2b2c08c9cf02f16d23df724e50375f5b5ced66e550a
python-perf-2.6.32-220.48.1.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 74ffed991b7bd4eb59021acc925077f58b24322d51391172490d77b2837a546e
python-perf-debuginfo-2.6.32-220.48.1.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 9629abdc3931853e8786cd29a00427030d95aab86905036c29708f3db25842a9
python-perf-debuginfo-2.6.32-220.48.1.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 9629abdc3931853e8786cd29a00427030d95aab86905036c29708f3db25842a9