RHBA-2015:0375 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated dracut packages that fix several bugs and add various enhancements are
now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.

Description

The dracut packages include an event-driven initramfs generator infrastructure
based on the udev device manager. The virtual file system, initramfs, is loaded
together with the kernel at boot time and initializes the system, so it can read
and boot from the root partition.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• When using the Hardware Management Console (HMC) on the IBM System z

architecture to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 from a DVD, necessary
parameters could not be specified during load. To address this problem, a
"rd.cmdline=ask" option has been added to the kernel command line, which allows
the user to enter additional parameters during boot. As a result, it is now
possible to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 from a DVD in the aforementioned
scenario. (BZ#1070104)

• Prior to this update, interface names based on the position of the device in

the hardware were bound to the media access control (MAC) address via the HWADDR
directive. As a consequence, the MAC binding rendered the position-based naming
useless and swapping a PCI network card required the card to be reconfigured.
With this update, dracut no longer assigns a MAC address binding to interfaces
with HWADDR. As a result, persistent interface names do not depend on the MAC
address, and swapping a PCI network card no longer requires rewriting the
configuration. (BZ#1087945)

• On IBM System z architecture, various network interfaces previously did not

handle uppercase characters properly. Consequently, the configuration of these
network interfaces failed if device bus IDs were not specified in lowercase
characters. This bug has been fixed and lowercase characters are no longer
required in the described scenario. (BZ#1094773)

• Previously, when the initramfs infrastructure expected a new device to be

loaded during a system boot, it triggered the systemd daemon to reload the
configuration. However, systemd could not handle the reload at that point, which
caused the boot to fail. With this update, systemd is no longer triggered to
reload the configuration in the described scenario, and the booting process thus
proceeds as expected. (BZ#1126008)

• Previously, initramfs did not contain the virtio-console kernel module. As a

consequence, specifying "console=hvc0" on the kernel command line became
unresponsive on a system in initramfs. To fix this bug, initramfs now contains
the virtio-console kernel module, and the system thus boots successfully.
(BZ#1097999)

• Prior to this update, dracut did not return an error code if some required

components could not be found. Consequently, there was no way to figure out that
some required components were not installed in initramfs. With this update,
dracut returns an error code if dracut modules specified to be added are not
actually installed. As a result, the process of initramfs now fails in the
aforementioned scenario and the user can react upon immediately. (BZ#1121362)

In addition, this update adds the following enhancements:

• With this update, dracut is now able to handle multiple "fcoe=..." kernel

command line parameters. (BZ#1082512)

• A new parameter "rd.route" can now be used on the kernel command line, which

specifies static routes to be used in initramfs. (BZ#1101412)

• The lsinitrd daemon has been enhanced with a new "-m"/"--mod" option. This

option displays which dracut modules are present in initramfs. (BZ#1122806)

• The "--rebuild" option has been added to dracut. This option takes an existing

initramfs image and uses the options used for building as a template to build a
new image. (BZ#1123900)

• This update adds support for team devices configuration, as dracut now copies

the team configuration from the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-* host into
initramfs. (BZ#1147521)

Users of dracut 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.

For details on how to apply this update, refer to:

https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 7.7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 7.6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 7.5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 7.4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 7.3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 7.7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 7.4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 7 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 7.7 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 7.6 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 7.5 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 7.4 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 7.3 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 7 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.7 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.6 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.5 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.4 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.3 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Scientific Computing 7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 7.6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 7.3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - TUS 7.7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - TUS 7.6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - TUS 7.3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.3 x86_64

Fixes

• BZ - 1086931 - [GSS 7.0] kernel command line ip=auto reccomended by man page but doesn't work
• BZ - 1096979 - CMS Configuration File option DASD=none invalid
• BZ - 1097999 - virtio-console modules should be included in 90qemu module
• BZ - 1121362 - dracut doesn't return error rc if given --add / --force-add modules fail
• BZ - 1137022 - dracut fails to change the default gateway ("RTNETLINK answers: File exists")
• BZ - 1162177 - Include 90-vconsole.rules in initramfs
• BZ - 1165603 - Add libfreeblpriv3.so and libfreeblpriv3.chk to modules-install in dracut-fips

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)