RHBA-2014:1524 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

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

Description

The udev packages implement a dynamic device-directory, providing only the
devices present on the system. This dynamic directory runs in user space,
dynamically creates and removes devices, provides consistent naming, and a
user-space API. The udev packages replace the devfs package and provides better
hot plug functionality.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• Previously, hard disks connected to a Peripheral Component Interconnect

Express SSD (PCIe SSD) did not have an entry with their IDs in the udev
database, because device names did not trigger any persistent disk udev rule. As
a consequence, no symbolic link was created in the /dev/disk/by-* file and the
device vendor and product were shown as "Unknown" in the installer. This update
adds a udev rule to supply information gathered via the ata_id utility. Now, a
symbolic link in /dev/disk/by-id is created by udev and additional information
is available in the udev database. (BZ#839172, BZ#1020856)

• Prior to this update, a udev rule tried to write to a sysfs file without

checking its existence. As a consequence, an error message was returned to
syslog. With this update, the udev rule checks for the existence of the file
before trying to write to it, and no inappropriate error messages appear in
syslog. (BZ#1008341)

• The udev version in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 serialized modprobe execution

for network cards limiting the amount of worker processes. However, if a lot of
modprobes were triggered, udev could reach the limit of worker processes and
stopped reacting to firmware load requests. With this update, for every modprobe
process in the queue, the amount of worker processes has been increased, and
firmware load requests are now executed successfully. (BZ#028174)

• Previously, for a firmware loading request, the global timeout was 60 seconds

by default. However, some firmware loading took longer than 60 seconds on
systems with heavy I/O load during the boot process, and thus sometimes failed.
The global timeout for firmware loading has been increased to 600 seconds, which
is long enough for all systems to let all firmware load without a timeout.
(BZ#077186)

• The sr_mod kernel module was loaded via a udev rule without honoring any

blacklist options. As a consequence, sr_mod was loaded although the
administrator could have blacklisted this kernel module. With this update, the
udev rule calls modprobe with the "-b" option, which lets modprobe check the
blacklist. As a result, the sr_mod kernel module is no longer loaded
automatically if the administrator chose to blacklist it. (BZ#091790)

• For some data cards, a udev rule called the modem-modeswitch tool to switch

the card from CDROM to modem mode. However, newer versions of the kernel did not
require this call. Consequently, these data cards could not switch to modem
mode. To fix this bug, the udev rule for the data cards have been removed, and
switching to modem mode no longer causes problems. (BZ#1103278)

In addition, this update adds the following enhancements:

• This update adds descriptions of scsi_id short options to the scsi_id(8)

manual page, and thus scsi_id(8) is now complete. (BZ#910168)

• As the "iDRAC7" network interface needed to be distinguished from normal

network interfaces, it has been renamed to "idrac". (BZ#1054482)

Users of udev 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 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 IBM z Systems 6 s390x
• 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
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support (for IBM z Systems) 6 s390x

Fixes

• BZ - 839172 - Micron PCIe SSD devices show up as Unknown on anaconda
• BZ - 1077186 - Increase the firmware loading timeout to 600s

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)