RHEA-2011:0112 - Product Enhancement Advisory

Topic

Updated rhn-client-tools and yum-rhn-plugin packages that fix several bugs and
add an enhancement are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

Description

Red Hat Network Client Tools provide programs and libraries that allow a system
to receive software updates from Red Hat Network (RHN). yum-rhn-plugin allows
yum to access a Red Hat Network server for software updates.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• When the "networkRetries" configuration option was not set to a valid integer

value, network operation did not time out at all. With this update, invalid
values are now interpreted as a single attempt, and network operations time out
as expected. (BZ#554693)

• Due to a typing error, the manual page for rhn-profile-sync incorrectly

referred to /etc/sysconfig/rhn/update, even though the file is actually called
/etc/sysconfig/rhn/up2date. This has been corrected, and the manual page no
longer contains misleading information. (BZ#559797)

• On a PowerPC system, running the rhn_register utility did not subscribe a user

to all relevant channels associated with the installation number. As a result,
affected users had to subscribe to these channels manually. This error no longer
occurs, and all users are now subscribed to appropriate channels as expected.
(BZ#574404)

• Prior to this update, KVM and Xen fully virtualized guests may have

incorrectly consumed regular entitlements. This error has been fixed, and such
guests now use Flex Guest Entitlement as expected. (BZ#575127, BZ#624780)

• Several files related to the graphical user interface (GUI) were removed from

the rhn-setup package, and are now installed as a part of rhn-setup-gnome.
(BZ#584779)

• Under certain circumstances, clicking the "back" button in a GUI version of

the rhn_register utility may have caused the cursor to remain busy. This error
has been fixed, and the cursor is now properly restored. (BZ#595679)

• Due to an error in the architecture checking, the rhn_register utility failed

to update packages when their architecture had changed from "noarch" to
"multiarch" or vice versa. With this update, the underlying source code has been
modified to target this issue, and such packages are now updated as expected.
(BZ#603028)

• The number of CPUs is now reported correctly on IBM System z. (BZ#621135)
• Previously, using the hash sign (that is, "#") in a proxy password caused yum

to fail with the following error:

Error communicating with server. The message was:
Proxy Authentication Required

With this update, this error no longer occurs, and the use of this character no
longer prevents yum from working. (BZ#650520)

As well, this update adds the following enhancement:

• The rhn-client-tools package has been updated to support the Red Hat Network

Satellite Server Maintenance Window. (BZ#626737)

All users of rhn-client-tools and yum-rhn-plugin are advised to upgrade to these
updated packages, which resolve these issues and add this enhancement.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure that all previously-released errata
relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via Red Hat Network. Details on how to use the Red
Hat Network to apply this update are available at
https://access.redhat.com/kb/docs/DOC-11259

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 5 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 5 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 i386

Fixes

• BZ - 554693 - networkRetries = nonsense runs unlimited, set some default
• BZ - 559797 - Minor typo in man (8) rhn-profile-sync referring to /etc/sysconfig/rhn/update in FILES section
• BZ - 574404 - rhn_register doesn't subscribe user to additional channels according to the installation number
• BZ - 575127 - XEN FV guest consumes regular entitlements
• BZ - 584779 - The TUI rhn-setup package contains *_gui* files of graphical firstboot, they probably should go to rhn-setup-gui
• BZ - 595679 - RHN client tools: rhn_register shows busy cursor after clicking back
• BZ - 603028 - rhn_check does not update packages whose architecture was changed from noarch to multiarch and vice-versa
• BZ - 621135 - rhn-client-tools does not count CPUs on s390
• BZ - 624780 - KVM guests do not consume FLEX entitlements
• BZ - 626737 - Include support for Satellite 5.4.0 Maintenance Window / Staged Deployment feature
• BZ - 650520 - When proxy password has a '#' character, yum doesn't work

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)