2.1. RHEA-2009:1284: blktrace
A new package is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.
blktrace is a block layer IO tracing mechanism which provides detailed information about request queue operations to user space.
This new package includes both blktrace, a utility which gathers event traces from the kernel; and blkparse, a utility which formats trace data collected by blktrace.
2.2. RHEA-2009:1325: celt051
A new celt051 package providing low-latency audio encoding and decoding capabilities is now available.
Constrained Energy Lapped Transform (CELT) is an ultra-low delay audio codec designed for real-time transmission of high quality speech and audio.
The new celt051 package provides the 0.5.1 protocol version of the CELT codec for applications that need low-latency audio streaming (e.g. the Spice hypervisor client protocol).
Users of Spice and those requiring application support of the CELT codec are advised to install this package.
2.3. RHEA-2009:1383: ctdb
A new ctdb package is now available.
CTDB is a clustered database based on Samba's Trivial Database (TDB). The ctdb package is a cluster implementation used to store temporary data. If an application is already using TBD for temporary data storage, it can be very easily converted to be cluster-aware and use CTDB. (
BZ#499241)
Note
CTDB is included as a Technology Preview. Technology Preview features are included in Red Hat Enterprise Linux to provide the features with wide exposure, with the goal of supporting these features in a future release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Technology Preview features are not supported under Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 subscription services, and may not be functionally complete. Red Hat welcomes customer feedback and suggestions for Technology Previews. Advisories will be provided for high-severity security issues in Technology Preview features.
All users requiring CTDB should install these newly released packages, which add this enhancement.
2.4. RHEA-2009:1276: etherboot
Etherboot, a new package that enables PXE-booting, is now available.
Etherboot provides the capability to boot guest virtual machines using the Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE). This process occurs before the operating system is loaded; in most cases, the operating system has no knowledge that it was booted through PXE. Many network adapters contain a socket where a ROM chip can be installed; this ROM chip is used to store PXE-boot code provided by
Etherboot. At present,
Etherboot is only supported for use in KVM. (
BZ#488612)
This version of Etherboot was compiled with the
POWERSAVE,
PXE_DHCP_STRICT, and
ASK_BOOT=-1 options.
PXE_DHCP_STRICT is required by some network drivers to support PXE-booting, while the
ASK_BOOT=-1 option prevents a guest from consuming too much CPU time during boot-up. The
POWERSAVE option reduces CPU consumption on a host whenever a guest performs a PXE-boot. (
BZ#481914 and (
BZ#500894)
2.5. RHEA-2009:1318: fcoe-utils
A new fcoe-utils package is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.
The fcoe-utils package contains the fcoeadm command line utility, which is the Fibre Channel-over-Ethernet (FCoE) management tool for Linux systems. The fcoeadm utility can create, destroy and reset an FCoE instance on a given network interface, as well as retrieve and display information about FCoE instances.
This
fcoe-utils package is new to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. (
BZ#494555)
All Fibre Channel-over-Ethernet users requiring an administrative FCoE interface should install this newly-released package, which adds this enhancement.
2.6. RHEA-2009:1320: fuse
fuse, a new package that enables users to mount FUSE file systems, is now available.
FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace) is an interface for userspace programs to export a virtual file system to the Linux kernel. FUSE also aims to provide a secure method for non-privileged users to create and mount their own file system implementations.
FUSE, which can implement a fully functional file system in a userspace program, consists of three main parts: a kernel filesystem module; a userspace library; and a mount utility. This package contains the mount utility, fusermount; the FUSE userspace tool to mount FUSE file systems.
BZ#252372)
Note
FUSE has no relationship with the ZX Spectrum emulator also known as Fuse.
Anyone looking to mount FUSE file systems or otherwise use FUSE should install this new package.
2.7. RHEA-2009:1297: gnupg2
A new package, gnupg2, which provides the GnuPG 2.0 cryptographic software suite, is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.
GnuPG is GNU's tool for secure communication and data storage. It can be used to encrypt data and to create digital signatures. It includes an advanced key management facility and is compliant with the proposed OpenPGP Internet standard as described in RFC2440 and the S/MIME standard as described by several RFCs.
GnuPG 2.0 is a newer version of GnuPG with additional support for S/MIME. It has a different design philosophy that splits functionality up into several modules. (
BZ#445420)
Users wishing to use this later version of GnuPG for secure communications should install this new package. Note: both version 1.x and version 2.0 may be installed simultaneously. In GnuPG 2.0, gpg is called gpg2 and does not conflict with an installed 1.x OpenPGP-only version.
2.8. RHEA-2009:1281: hmaccalc
hmaccalc, a new package that processes HMAC values for authentication purposes, is now available.
The
hmaccalc package provides tools that compute and verify hash-based message authentication code (HMAC) values for the contents of files. These tools process HMAC values using the SHA family of digest algorithms along with a user-specified key. (
BZ#467500 and (
BZ#491724)
2.9. RHEA-2009:1275: iasl
iasl, a new package that compiles ASL into AML, is now available. This package is a build requirement for KVM.
iasl compiles ACPI Source Language (ASL) into ACPI Machine Language (AML); it can also be used to de-compile AML for debugging purposes. AML is suitable for inclusion as Differentiated System Description Tables (DSDT) in system firmware. In addition,
iasl is also used to build the BIOS images inside the KVM userspace source. As such,
iasl is included in this release as a build requirement of the
kvm package. (
BZ#488614)
2.10. RHEA-2009:1272: kvm
A new KVM pacakge is available that adds a new hypvervisor for full virtualization is now available.
KVM (for Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a full virtualization solution for Linux on x86 hardware.
KVM is a Linux kernel module built for the standard Red Hat Enterprise Linux kernel. KVM can run multiple unmodified, virtualized guest Windows and Linux operating systems. KVM is a hypervisor which uses the libvirt virtualization tools (virt-manager and virsh).
The KVM hypervisor cannot run at the same time as the Xen hypervisor. Both hypervisors, Xen and KVM, can be installed on the same system, however, only one hypervisor can be used at a time.
KVM is only available for the Intel 64 and AMD64 architectures.
For more information on changing hypervisor or using KVM refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Virtualization Guide.
All users requiring KVM should install this newly released package.
2.11. RHEA-2009:1296: libassuan
A new package, libassuan, is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.
libassuan is a small library that implements the Assuan protocol. The protocol, which provides a server and client interface, is used for Inter-process Communication (IPC) between newer GNU Privacy Guard (gnupg2) components.
This new package is required by the new
gnupg2 utility. GnuPG 2.0 is a newer version of GnuPG, a tool for secure communication and data storage. GnuPG 2.0 derives from a different design philosophy and includes additional support for S/MIME. (
BZ#484192)
The package also addresses the following pre-release bug:
* a multilib conflict in the
libassuan-1.0.4-4.el5 package is now resolved. (
BZ#502677)
Users of gnupg2 are advised to upgrade to these updated libassuan packages, which resolve these issues.
2.12. RHEA-2009:1314: libhbaapi
A new libhbaapi package is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.
The libhbaapi library is the Host Bus Adapter (HBA) API library for Fibre Channel and Storage Area Network (SAN) resources. It contains a unified API that programmers can use to access, query, observe and modify SAN and Fibre Channel services.
This
libhbaapi package is new to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. (
BZ#494548)
All users who require a unified programming interface to Fibre Channel HBA information should install this newly-released package, which adds this enhancement.
2.13. RHEA-2009:1316: libhbalinux
A new libhbalinux package is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.
The libhbalinux library is a vendor library utilized by fcoe-utils. The libhbaapi library provides programmatic access to the libhbalinux library. This library can retrieve adapter information with the assistance of libpciaaccess.
This
libhbalinux package is new to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. (
BZ#494550)
All users requiring libhbalinux should install this newly-released package, which adds this enhancement.
2.14. RHEA-2009:1295: libksba
A new package, libksba, is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.
KSBA is a library designed to build software based on the X.509 and CMS protocols. It provides developers with a single API that handles the underlying details of the X.509 protocol and presents data consistently.
This new package is required by the new
gnupg2 utility. GnuPG 2.0 is a newer version of GnuPG, a tool for secure communication and data storage. GnuPG 2.0 derives from a different design philosophy and includes additional support for S/MIME. (
BZ#484191)
Anyone wishing to use GnuPG 2 is advised to also install this new package.
2.15. RHEA-2009:1315: libpciaccess
A new libpciaccess package is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.
The libpciaccess library provides simple access to information about PCI devices and their configuration. This library works across multiple operating systems and is utilized by the libhbalinux library. On Linux, libpciaccess uses either the sysfs virtual file system or the /dev/mem device to communicate with PCI devices.
This
libpciaccess package is new to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. (
BZ#496211)
All users requiring libpciaccess should install this newly-released package, which adds this enhancement.
2.16. RHEA-2009:1326: log4cpp
A new log4cpp package is now available.
log4cpp is a library of C++ classes for flexible logging to files, syslog, IDSA and other destinations.
The new log4cpp package contains the 1.0 version of log4cpp for applications that need log4j style logging capabilities.
Users of Spice and users requiring application support of the log4cpp package are advised to install this package.
2.17. RHEA-2009:1245: pdksh
A new pdksh package which provides a public domain implementation of the ksh-88 interactive and shell-scripting language is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.
The Public Domain Korn SHell implements the ksh-88 programming language for both interactive and shell script use.
This new pdksh package provides an alternative to ksh (ksh-93) for backward compatibility. It is also useful in situations where customers would like to port their scripts from ksh-88 to ksh-93.
Important: the pdksh package can be installed alongside the ksh package on the same system, thus providing both ksh-88 and ksh-93 Korn shell implementations. The alternatives utility can be used to switch between them. To set or change the ksh implementation, enter the following at the shell prompt as the root user:
alternatives --config ksh
You will then be prompted for the ksh implementation you prefer to use. On systems which have the ksh package installed, ksh-93 will be the default implementation unless this is changed by using "alternatives", or unless the ksh package is uninstalled and the pdksh package is installed.
The "#!/bin/ksh" bang line at the top of Korn shell scripts causes the ksh implementation selected in "alternatives", which is ksh-93 by default, to run that script. To force scripts to run with the correct ksh implementation despite which Korn shell implementation is selected in "alternatives", employ the following bang lines:
for ksh-88: the first line of the script should read "#!/bin/pdksh"
for ksh-93: the first line of the script should read"#!/bin/ksh93"
All users requiring pdksh should install this newly-released package, which adds this enhancement.
2.18. RHEA-2009:1302: perl-Sys-Virt
A new perl-Sys-Virt package is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 that allows libvirt to be used from Perl.
The new perl-SyS-Virt package provides an API for managing virtual machines from Perl, using the libvirt library.
This new package reflects changes made for the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4.
Users of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 should upgrade to this updated package.
2.19. RHEA-2009:1293: pinentry
A new package, pinentry, is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.
Pinentry is a collection of simple PIN or passphrase entry dialogs which utilize the Assuan protocol as described by the aegypten project; see http://www.gnupg.org/aegypten/ for details. The pinentry package also contains the curses (text) based version of the PIN entry dialog.
This new package is required by the new
gnupg2 utility. GnuPG 2.0 is a newer version of GnuPG, a tool for secure communication and data storage. GnuPG 2.0 derives from a different design philosophy and includes additional support for S/MIME. (
BZ#484188)
Anyone wishing to use GnuPG 2 is advised to also install this new package.
2.20. RHEA-2009:1294: pth
A new package, pth, is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.
Pth is a very portable POSIX/ANSI-C based library for Unix platforms which provides non-preemptive priority-based scheduling for multiple threads of execution ("multi-threading") inside server applications. All threads run in the same address space of the server application, but each thread has it's own individual program-counter, run-time stack, signal mask and errno variable.
This new package is required by the new gnupg2 utility. GnuPG 2.0 is a newer version of GnuPG, a tool for secure communication and data storage. GnuPG 2.0 derives from a different design philosophy and includes additional support for S/MIME. (
BZ#484189)
Anyone wishing to use GnuPG 2 is advised to also install this new package.
2.21. RHEA-2009:1309: qcairo
A new package is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.
Cairo is a 2D graphics library designed to provide high-quality display and print output. Currently supported output targets include the X Window System, OpenGL (via glitz), in-memory image buffers, and image files (PDF, PostScript, and SVG).
Cairo is designed to produce consistent output on all output media while taking advantage of display hardware acceleration when available (for example, through the X Render Extension or OpenGL).
qcairo is a version of the cairo 2D graphics library, with additional features required to support the implementation of the SPICE protocol. (
BZ#488604)
Users of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 should install the qcairo packages for use with SPICE-enabled virtualization products.
2.22. RHBA-2009:1323: qffmpeg
A new qffmpeg package, required for hypervisor Spice protocol support, is now available.
qffmpeg is a stripped-down version of FFMPEG including only a limited set of the codecs available in the upstream version.
This new package provides the codecs required for SPICE protocol support in the Linux KVM hypervisor and clients. The package includes no other codecs from the upstream version, to avoid inadvertently bundling or shipping any encumbered code or binaries. (
BZ#488606)
Users of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 should install the qffmpeg packages for use with SPICE-enabled virtualization products.
2.23. RHEA-2009:1305: qpixman
qpixman is now available as a new package for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.
qpixman is a pixel manipulation library for X and cairo required for SPICE protocol support. (
BZ#488592)
Users of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 should install qpixman for use with SPICE-enabled virtualization products.
2.24. RHEA-2009:1334: qspice
A new qspice package is now available.
The Simple Protocol for Independent Computing Environments (SPICE) is a remote display protocol designed for virtual environments. SPICE users can view a virtualized desktop or server from the local system or any system with network access to the server. SPICE is available for a variety of machine architectures and operating systems. SPICE is used in Red Hat Enterprise Linux for viewing virtualized guests running on the KVM hypervisor or on Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisors.
Users requiring remote display capabilities for KVM hypervisors should install this new package.
2.25. RHEA-2009:1399: samba3x
A new package is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.
Samba is a suite of programs used by machines to share files, printers, and other utilities.
samba3x contains version 3.3 of Samba, and is now included as a Technology Preview in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. To use the samba3x Technology Preview, the supported version of samba (provided by the samba package) must be removed first.
2.26. RHEA-2009:1308: xorg-x11-drv-qxl
xorg-x11-qxl-drv is a new package that is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 as a technology preview.
xorg-x11-qxl-drv is an X11 video driver for the qemu QXL video accelerator. This driver makes it possible to use Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 as a guest operating system under KVM and QEMU, using the SPICE protocol.
Technology preview features are included in Red Hat Enterprise Linux to provide the features with wide exposure with the goal of supporting these features in a future release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. technology preview features are not supported under Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 subscription services and may not be functionally complete. Red Hat welcomes customer feedback and suggestions for technology previews. Advisories will be provided for high-severity security issues in technology preview features.
All users who plan to preview this forthcoming technology are advised to install this new package.
2.27. RHEA-2009:1406: xorg-x11-xdm
The xorg-x11-xdm package is now available.
XDM (X Window Display Manager) is a sample display manager for the X window system. This package makes XDM available in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 for the first time. (
BZ#414171)
All users who require XDM should install this new package.
The anaconda package contains the program which was used to install your system.
The following are the Known Issues that apply to the anaconda package in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4
When installing to an ext3 or ext4 file system, anaconda disables periodic filesystem checking. Unlike ext2, these filesystems are journaled, removing the need for a periodic filesystem check. In the rare cases where there is an error detected at runtime or an error while recovering the filesystem journal, the file system check will be run at boot time.
(BZ#513480)
When installing KVM or Xen guests, always create a partition for the guest disk, or create an LVM volume. Guests should not be installed to block devices or raw disk devices. Anaconda includes disk label duplication avoidance code, but when installing within a VM, it has no visibility to the disk labels elsewhere on the host and cannot detect duplicates.
If guest filesystems, especially the root filesystem, are directly visible to the host, a host OS reboot may inadvertantly parse the partition table and mount the guest filesystems. This can lead to highly undesirable outcomes.
(BZ#518461)
The minimum memory requirement when installing all Red Hat Enterprise Linux packages (i.e. '*' or '@everything' is listed in the %packages section of the kickstart file) on a fully virtualized Itanium guest is 768MB. After installation, the memory allocated to the guest can be lowered to the desired amount.
(BZ#507891)
Upgrading a system using Anaconda is not possible if the system is installed on disks attached using zFCP or iSCSI (unless booted from the disk using a network adaptor with iBFT). Such disks are activated after Anaconda scans for upgradable installations and are not found. To update please use the Red Hat Network with the hosted Web user interface, a Red Hat Network Satellite, the local graphical Updater, or the yum command line.
(BZ#494033)
Anaconda's graphical installer fails to start at the default 800x600 resolution on systems utilizing Intel Graphics Device Next Generation (IGDNG) devices. To work around this issue, ensure anaconda uses a higher resolution by passing the parameters resolution=1024x768 or resolution=1280x1024" to the installer using the boot command line.
The NFS default for RHEL5 is "locking". Therefore, to mount nfs shares from the %post section of anaconda, use the
mount -o nolock,udp command to start the locking daemon before using nfs to mount shares.
(BZ#426053)
If you are using the Virtualized kernel when upgrading from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 to 5.2, you must reboot after completing the upgrade. You should then boot the system using the updated Virtualized kernel.
The hypervisors of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and 5.2 are not ABI-compatible. If you do not boot the system after upgrading using the updated Virtualized kernel, the upgraded Virtualization RPMs will not match the running kernel.
(BZ#251669)
When upgrading to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1 or later from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.6,
gcc4 may cause the upgrade to fail. As such, you should manually remove the
gcc4 package before upgrading.
(BZ#432773)
When provisioning guests during installation, the option will not be available. When this occurs, the system will require an additional entitlement, separate from the entitlement used by dom0.
To prevent the consumption of additional entitlements for guests, install the
rhn-virtualization-common package manually before attempting to register the system to Red Hat Network.
(BZ#431648)
When installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 on a guest, the guest is configured to explicitly use a temporary installation kernel provided by dom0. Once installation finishes, it can then use its own bootloader. However, this can only be achieved by forcing the guest's first reboot to be a shutdown.
As such, when the button appears at the end of the guest installation, clicking it shuts down the guest, but does not reboot it. This is an expected behavior.
Note that when you boot the guest after this it will then use its own bootloader.
(BZ#328471)
Using the swap --grow parameter in a kickstart file without setting the --maxsize parameter at the same time makes anaconda impose a restriction on the maximum size of the swap partition. It does not allow it to grow to fill the device.
For systems with less than 2GB of physical memory, the imposed limit is twice the amount of physical memory. For systems with more than 2GB, the imposed limit is the size of physical memory plus 2GB.
(BZ#462734)
Existing encrypted block devices that contain
vfat file systems will appear as type
foreign in the partitioning interface; as such, these devices will not be mounted automatically during system boot. To ensure that such devices are mounted automatically, add an appropriate entry for them to
/etc/fstab. For details on how to do so, refer to
man fstab.
(BZ#467202)
when using anaconda's automatic partitioning on an IBM System p partition with multiple harddisks containing different Linux distributions, the anaconda installer may overwrite the bootloaders of the other Linux installations although their harddisks have been unchecked. To work around this, choose manual partitioning during the installation process.
(BZ#519795)
The following note applies to PowerPC Architectures:
The following note applies to s390x Architectures:
Installation on a machine with existing Linux or non-Linux filesystems on DASD block devices may cause the installer to halt. If this happens, it is necessary to clear out all existing partitions on the DASD devices you want to use and restart the installer.
(BZ#289631)
The following note applies to the ia64 Architecture:
If your system only has 512MB of RAM, attempting to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 may fail. To prevent this, perform a base installation first and install all other packages after the installation finishes.
(BZ#435271)
The cmirror packages provide user-level utilities for managing cluster mirroring.
Due to limitations in the cluster infrastructure, cluster mirrors greater than 1.5TB cannot be created with the default region size. If larger mirrors are required, the region size should be increased from its default (512kB), for example:
# -R <region_size_in_MiB>
lvcreate -m1 -L 2T -R 2 -n mirror vol_group
Failure to increase the region size will result in the LVM creation process hanging and may cause other LVM commands to hang.
(BZ#514814)
Compiz is an OpenGL-based window and compositing manager.
4.4. device-mapper-multipath
The device-mapper-multipath packages provide tools to manage multipath devices using the device-mapper multipath kernel module.
When using dm-multipath, if features "1 queue_if_no_path" is specified in /etc/multipath.conf then any process that issues I/O will hang until one or more paths are restored.
To avoid this, set no_path_retry [N] in /etc/multipath.conf (where [N] is the number of times the system should retry a path). When you do, remove the features "1 queue_if_no_path" option from /etc/multipath.conf as well.
If you need to use "1 queue_if_no_path" and experience the issue noted here, use dmsetup to edit the policy at runtime for a particular LUN (i.e. for which all the paths are unavailable).
To illustrate: run
dmsetup message [device] 0 "fail_if_no_path", where
[device] is the multipath device name (e.g.
mpath2; do not specify the path) for which you want to change the policy from
"queue_if_no_path" to
"fail_if_no_path".
(BZ#419581)
When a LUN is deleted on a configured storage system, the change is not reflected on the host. In such cases, lvm commands will hang indefinitely when dm-multipath is used, as the LUN has now become stale.
To work around this, delete all device and mpath link entries in /etc/lvm/.cache specific to the stale LUN.
To find out what these entries are, run the following command:
ls -l /dev/mpath | grep [stale LUN]
For example, if [stale LUN] is 3600d0230003414f30000203a7bc41a00, the following results may appear:
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Aug 2 10:33 /3600d0230003414f30000203a7bc41a00 -> ../dm-4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Aug 2 10:33 /3600d0230003414f30000203a7bc41a00p1 -> ../dm-5
This means that 3600d0230003414f30000203a7bc41a00 is mapped to two mpath links: dm-4 and dm-5.
As such, the following lines should be deleted from /etc/lvm/.cache:
/dev/dm-4
/dev/dm-5
/dev/mapper/3600d0230003414f30000203a7bc41a00
/dev/mapper/3600d0230003414f30000203a7bc41a00p1
/dev/mpath/3600d0230003414f30000203a7bc41a00
/dev/mpath/3600d0230003414f30000203a7bc41a00p1
Running the multipath command with the -ll option can cause the command to hang if one of the paths is on a blocking device. Note that the driver does not fail a request after some time if the device does not respond.
This is caused by the cleanup code, which waits until the path checker request either completes or fails. To display the current
multipath state without hanging the command, use
multipath -l instead.
(BZ#214838)
The dmraid packages contain the ATARAID/DDF1 activation tool that supports RAID device discovery, RAID set activation, and displays properties for ATARAID/DDF1 formatted RAID sets on Linux kernels using device-mapper.
The
/etc/cron.d/dmeventd-logwatch crontab file does not specify the user that the logwatch process should be executed by. To work around this issue, the functional portion of this crontab must be changed to:
* * * * * root /usr/sbin/logwatch --service dmeventd --range today --detail med
(BZ#516892)
The installation procedure stores the name of RAID volume and partition in an initscript. When the system boots, dmraid enables the RAID partition (that are named implicitly in the init script. This action functions until the volume and partition names are changed. In these cases, the system may not boot, and the user is given an option to reboot system and start the rebuild procedure in OROM.
OROM changes the name of RAID volume (as seen by dmraid) and dmraid cannot recognize the array identified by previous name stored in initscript. The system no longer boots from RAID partition, since it is not enabled by dmraid. In case of RAID 1 (mirror), the system may be booted from disk that is part of RAID volume. However, dmraid does not allow to active or rebuild the volume which component in mounted.
To work around this issue, do not rebuild the RAID array in OROM. Start the rebuild procedure by dmraid in the operating system, which performs all the steps of rebuilding. dmraid does not change the RAID volume name, therefore the system can be booted from RAID array without the need of init script modification.
To modify init script after OROM has started rebuild:
Start the system in rescue mode from the installation disk, skip finding and mounting previous installations.
At the command line, find and enable the raid volume that is to be booted from (the RAID volume and partitions will be activated)
dmraid -ay isw_effjffhbi_Volume0
Mount the root partition:
mkdir /tmp/raid
mount /dev/mapper/isw_effjffhbi_Volume0p1 /tmp/raid
Decompress the boot image:
mkdir /tmp/raid/tmp/image
cd /tmp/raid/tmp/image
gzip -cd /tmp/raid/boot/inird-2.6.18-155.el5.img | cpio -imd –quiet
Change the names of the RAID volumes in the initscript to use the new names of RAID:
dmraid –ay –I –p –rm_partition “/dev/mapper/isw_effjffhbi_Volume0”
kpartx –a –p p “/dev/mapper/isw_effjffhbi_Volume0”
mkrtootdev –t ext3 –o defaults,ro /dev/mapper/isw_effjffhbi_Volume0p1
compress and copy initrd image with the modified init script to the boot directory
cd /tmp/raid/tmp/image
find . –print | cpio –c –o | gzip -9 > /tmp/raid/boot/inird-2.6.18-155.el5.img
unmount the raid volume and reboot the system:
umount /dev/mapper/isw_effjffhbi_Volume0p1
dmraid -an
dogtail is a GUI test tool and automation framework that uses assistive technologies to communicate with desktop applications.
The firstboot utility runs after installation. It guides the user through a series of steps that allows for easier configuration of the machine.
The following notes apply to s390x Architectures:
The IBM System z does not provide a traditional Unix-style physical console. As such, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 for the IBM System z does not support the firstboot functionality during initial program load.
To properly initialize setup for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 on the IBM System z, run the following commands after installation:
The gfs2-utils packages provide the user-level tools necessary to mount, create, maintain and test GFS2 file systems.
If gfs2 is used as the root file system, the first boot attempt will fail with the error message "
fsck.gfs2: invalid option -- a". To work around this issue:
Enter the root password when prompted
Mount the root file system manually:
mount -o remount,rw /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 /
Edit the /etc/fstab file from:
/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 / gfs2 defaults 1 1
to
/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 / gfs2 defaults 1 0
Reboot the system.
4.9. gnome-volume-manager
The GNOME Volume Manager monitors volume-related events and responds with user-specified policy. The GNOME Volume Manager can automount hot-plugged drives, automount inserted removable media, autorun programs, automatically play audio CDs and video DVDs, and automatically import photos from a digital camera.
Removable storage devices (such as CDs and DVDs) do not automatically mount when you are logged in as root. As such, you will need to manually mount the device through the graphical file manager.
(BZ#209362)
Alternatively, you can run the following command to mount a device to /media:
mount /dev/[device name] /media
The initscripts package contains system scripts to boot your system, change runlevels, activate and deactivate most network interfaces, and shut the system down cleanly.
On systems with more than two encrypted block devices, anaconda has a option to provide a global passphrase. The init scripts, however, do not support this feature. When booting the system, entering each individual passphrase for all encrypted devices will be required.
(BZ#464895)
Boot-time logging to
/var/log/boot.log is not available in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3.
(BZ#223446,
BZ#210136)
4.11. iscsi-initiator-utils
The iscsi package provides the server daemon for the iSCSI protocol, as well as the utility programs used to manage it. iSCSI is a protocol for distributed disk access using SCSI commands sent over Internet Protocol networks.
The following note applies to x86_64 Architectures:
The following note applies to the ia64 Architecture:
On some Itanium systems configured for console output to VGA, the dom0 virtualized kernel may fail to boot. This is because the virtualized kernel failed to properly detect the default console device from the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) settings.
When this occurs, add the boot parameter
console=tty to the kernel boot options in
/boot/efi/elilo.conf.
(BZ#249076)
On some Itanium systems (such as the Hitachi Cold Fusion 3e), the serial port cannot be detected in dom0 when VGA is enabled by the EFI Maintenance Manager. As such, you need to supply the following serial port information to the dom0 kernel:
Speed in bits/second
Number of data bits
Parity
io_base address
These details must be specified in the append= line of the dom0 kernel in /boot/efi/elilo.conf. For example:
append="com1=19200,8n1,0x3f8 -- quiet rhgb console=tty0 console=ttyS0,19200n8"
In this example,
com1 is the serial port,
19200 is the speed (in bits/second),
8n1 specifies the number of data bits/parity settings, and
0x3f8 is the
io_base address.
(BZ#433771)
Virtualization does not work on some architectures that use Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA). As such, installing the virtualized kernel on systems that use NUMA will result in a boot failure.
Some installation numbers install the virtualized kernel by default. If you have such an installation number and your system uses NUMA and does not work with kernel-xen, deselect the Virtualization option during installation.
(BZ#293071)
The Kernel
Under some circumstances, the sky2 driver may hang, returning the following error message:
sky2 eth<N>: receiver hang detected
Currently, the only work around to make the device online again is to reboot the system. This bug will be repaired in an upcoming update to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4.
(BZ#509891,
BZ#517976)
On certain hardware configurations the kernel may panic when the Broadcom iSCSI offload driver (
bnx2i.ko and
cnic.ko) is loaded. To work around this do not manually load the bnx2i or cnic modules, and temporarily disable the
iscsi service from starting. To disable the iscsi service, run
chkconfig --del iscsi
chkconfig --del iscsid
On the first boot of your system, the
iscsi service may start automatically. To bypass this, during bootup, enter interactive start up and stop the iscsi service from starting.
In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, invoking the kernel system call "setpriority()" with a "which" parameter of type "PRIO_PROCESS" does not set the priority of child threads.
(BZ#472251)
Physical CPUs cannot be safely placed offline or online when the 'kvm_intel' or 'kvm_amd' module is loaded. This precludes physical CPU offline and online operations when KVM guests that utilize processor virtualization support are running. It also precludes physical CPU offline and online operations without KVM guests running when the 'kvm_intel' or 'kvm_amd' module is simply loaded and not being used.
If the kmod-kvm package is installed, the 'kvm_intel' or 'kvm_amd' module automatically loads during boot on some systems. If a physical CPU is placed offline while the 'kvm_intel' or 'kvm_amd' module is loaded a subsequent attempt to online that CPU may fail with an I/O error.
To work around this issue, unload the 'kvm_intel' or 'kvm_amd' before performing physical CPU hot-plug operations. It may be necessary to shut down KVM guests before the 'kvm_intel' or 'kvm_amd' will successfully unload.
For example, to offline a physical CPU 6 on an Intel based system:
# rmmod kvm_intel
# echo 0 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu6/online
# modprobe kvm_intel
A change to the cciss driver in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 made it incompatible with the "echo disk > /sys/power/state" suspend-to-disk operation. Consequently, the system will not suspend properly, returning messages such as:
Stopping tasks:
======================================================================
stopping tasks timed out after 20 seconds (1 tasks remaining):
cciss_scan00
Restarting tasks...<6> Strange, cciss_scan00 not stopped
done
(BZ#513472)
The kernel is unable to properly detect whether there is media present in a CD-ROM drive during kickstart installs. The function to check the presence of media incorrectly interprets the "logical unit is becoming ready" sense, returning that the drive is ready when it is not. To work around this issue, wait several seconds between inserting a CD and asking the installer (anaconda) to refresh the CD.
(BZ#510632)
When a cciss device is under high I/O load, the kdump kernel may panic and the vmcore dump may not be saved successfully.
(BZ#509790)
Applications attempting to malloc memory approximately larger than the size of the physical memory on the node on a NUMA system may hang or appear to stall. This issue may occur on a NUMA system where the remote memory distance, as defined in SLIT, is greater than 20 and RAM based filesystem like tmpfs or ramfs is mounted.
To work around this issue, unmount all RAM based filesystems (i.e. tmpfs or ramfs). If unmounting the RAM based filesystems is not possible, modify the application to allocate lesser memory. Finally, if modifying the application is not possible, disable NUMA memory reclaim by running:
sysctl vm.zone_reclaim_mode=0
Important
Turning NUMA reclaim negatively effects the overall throughput of the system.
Configuring IRQ SMP affinity has no effect on some devices that use message signalled interrupts (MSI) with no MSI per-vector masking capability. Examples of such devices include Broadcom NetXtreme Ethernet devices that use the bnx2 driver.
If you need to configure IRQ affinity for such a device, disable MSI by creating a file in /etc/modprobe.d/ containing the following line:
options bnx2 disable_msi=1
Alternatively, you can disable MSI completely using the kernel boot parameter
pci=nomsi.
(BZ#432451)
The
smartctl tool cannot properly read SMART parameters from SATA devices.
(BZ#429606)
IBM T60 laptops will power off completely when suspended and plugged into a docking station. To avoid this, boot the system with the argument
acpi_sleep=s3_bios.
(BZ#439006)
The QLogic iSCSI Expansion Card for the IBM Bladecenter provides both ethernet and iSCSI functions. Some parts on the card are shared by both functions. However, the current qla3xxx and qla4xxx drivers support ethernet and iSCSI functions individually. Both drivers do not support the use of ethernet and iSCSI functions simultaneously.
Because of this limitation, successive resets (via consecutive
ifdown/
ifup commands) may hang the device. To avoid this, allow a 10-second interval after an
ifup before issuing an
ifdown. Also, allow the same 10-second interval after an
ifdown before issuing an
ifup. This interval allows ample time to stabilize and re-initialize all functions when an
ifup is issued.
(BZ#276891)
Laptops equipped with the Cisco Aironet MPI-350 wireless may hang trying to get a DHCP address during any network-based installation using the wired ethernet port.
To work around this, use local media for your installation. Alternatively, you can disable the wireless card in the laptop BIOS prior to installation (you can re-enable the wireless card after completing the installation).
(BZ#213262)
Hardware testing for the Mellanox MT25204 has revealed that an internal error occurs under certain high-load conditions. When the ib_mthca driver reports a catastrophic error on this hardware, it is usually related to an insufficient completion queue depth relative to the number of outstanding work requests generated by the user application.
Although the driver will reset the hardware and recover from such an event, all existing connections at the time of the error will be lost. This generally results in a segmentation fault in the user application. Further, if
opensm is running at the time the error occurs, then you need to manually restart it in order to resume proper operation.
(BZ#251934)
If your system uses the TSC timer, the gettimeofday system call may move backwards. This is because of an overflow issue that causes the TSC timer to jump forward significantly in some cases; when this occurs, the TSC timer will correct itself, but will ultimately register a movement backwards in time.
This issue is particularly critical for time-sensitive systems, such as those used for transaction systems and databases. As such, if your system needs precision timing, Red Hat strongly recommends that you set the kernel to use another timer (for example, HPET).
(BZ#443435)
The IBM T41 laptop model does not enter properly; as such, will still consume battery life as normal. This is because Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 does not yet include the radeonfb module.
To work around this, add a script named hal-system-power-suspend to /usr/share/hal/scripts/ containing the following lines:
chvt 1
radeontool light off
radeontool dac off
This script will ensure that the IBM T41 laptop enters properly. To ensure that the system resumes normal operations properly, add the script restore-after-standby to the same directory as well, containing the following lines:
radeontool dac on
radeontool light on
chvt 7
If the edac module is loaded, BIOS memory reporting will not work. This is because the edac module clears the register that the BIOS uses for reporting memory errors.
The current Red Hat Enterprise Linux Driver Update Model instructs the kernel to load all available modules (including the edac module) by default. If you wish to ensure BIOS memory reporting on your system, you need to manually blacklist the edac modules. To do so, add the following lines to /etc/modprobe.conf:
blacklist edac_mc
blacklist i5000_edac
blacklist i3000_edac
blacklist e752x_edac
Due to outstanding driver issues with hardware encryption acceleration, users of Intel WiFi Link 4965, 5100, 5150, 5300, and 5350 wireless cards are advised to disable hardware accelerated encryption using module parameters. Failure to do so may result in the inability to connect to Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) protected wireless networks after connecting to WiFi Protected Access (WPA) protected wireless networks.
To do so, add the following options to
/etc/modprobe.conf:
alias wlan0 iwlagn
options iwlagn swcrypto50=1 swcrypto=1
(where wlan0 is the default interface name of the first Intel WiFi Link device)
The following note applies to PowerPC Architectures:
The size of the PPC kernel image is too large for OpenFirmware to support. Consequently, network booting will fail, resulting in the following error message:
Please wait, loading kernel...
/pci@8000000f8000000/ide@4,1/disk@0:2,vmlinux-anaconda: No such file or directory
boot:
To work around this:
Boot to the OpenFirmware prompt, by pressing the '8' key when the IBM splash screen is displayed.
Run the following command:
setenv real-base 2000000
Boot into System Managment Services (SMS) with the command:
0> dev /packages/gui obe
kexec-tools provides the /sbin/kexec binary that facilitates a new kernel to boot using the kernel's kexec feature either on a normal or a panic reboot. This package contains the /sbin/kexec binary and ancillary utilities that together form the userspace component of the kernel's kexec feature
The following note applies to ia64 Architecture:
Kerberos 5 is a network authentication system which authenticates clients and servers to each other using symmetric key encryption and a trusted third party, the KDC.
The format of a stash file, while not architecture-specific, is endian-specific. Consequently, a stash file is not directly portable between big-endian and little-endian systems. When setting up a secondary KDC where the endianness differs from that of the master KDC, the stash file should be recreated by running '
kdb5_util create -s' on the secondary and supplying the original master password.
(BZ#514741)
Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) is a full virtualization solution for Linux on x86 hardware.
KVM is a Linux kernel module built for the standard Red Hat Enterprise Linux kernel. KVM can run multiple unmodified, virtualized guest Windows and Linux operating systems. KVM is a hypervisor which uses the libvirt virtualization tools (virt-manager and virsh).
By default, KVM virtual machines created in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 have a virtual Realtek 8139 (rtl8139) network interface controller (NIC). The rtl8139 virtual NIC works fine in most environments, but may suffer from performance degradation issues on some networks for example, a 10 GigE (10 Gigabit Ethernet) network.
One workaround for this issue is switch to a different type of virtual NIC, for example, Intel PRO/1000 (e1000) or virtio (a virtual I/O driver for Linux that can talk to the hypervisor).
To switch to e1000:
Shutdown the guest OS
Edit the guest OS definition with the command-line tool virsh:
virsh edit GUEST
Locate the network interface section and add a model line as shown:
<interface type='network'>
...
<model type='e1000' />
</interface>
Save the changes and exit the text editor
Restart the guest OS
Alternatively, if you're having trouble installing the OS on the virtual machine because of the rtl8139 NIC (for example, because you're installing the OS over the network), you can create a virtual machine from scratch with an e1000 NIC. This method requires you to have at least one virtual machine already created (possibly installed from CD or DVD) to use as a template.
Create an XML template from an existing virtual machine:
virsh dumpxml GUEST > /tmp/guest.xml
Copy and edit the XML file and update the unique fields: virtual machine name, UUID, disk image, MAC address, etc. NOTE: you can delete the UUID and MAC address lines and virsh will generate a UUID and MAC address.
cp /tmp/guest.xml /tmp/new-guest.xml
vi /tmp/new-guest.xml
Locate the network interface section and add a model line as shown:
<interface type='network'>
...
<model type='e1000' />
</interface>
Create the new virtual machine:
virsh define /tmp/new-guest.xml
virsh start new-guest
Currently, KVM cannot disable virtualization extensions on a CPU while it is being taken down. Consequently, suspending a host running KVM-based virtual machines may cause the host to crash.
(BZ#509809)
The KSM module shipped in this release is a different version from the KSM module found on the latest upstream kernel versions. Newer features, such as exporting statistics on the /sys filesystem, that are implemented upstream are not in the version shipped in this release.
The mute button in the audio control panel on a Windows virtual machine does not mute the sound.
BZ#482570
Hot-unplugging of PCI devices is not supported in this release. This feature will be introduced in a future update.
(BZ#510679)
When migrating KVM guests between hosts, the NX CPU feature setting on both source and destination must match. Migrating a guest between a host with the NX feature disabled (i.e. disabled in the BIOS settings) and a host with the NX feature enabled may cause the guest to crash.
(BZ#516029)
the application binary interface (ABI) between the KVM userspace (e.g. qemu-kvm) and the KVM kernel modules may change in future updates. Using the latest upstream qemu-kvm package is unsupported due to ABI differences.
(BZ#515549)
Devices using the qlge driver cannot be assigned to a KVM guest using KVM's PCI Device Driver assignment.
(BZ#507689)
the use of the qcow2 disk image format with KVM is considered a Technology Preview.
(BZ#517880)
Hotplugging emulated devices after migration may result in the virtual machine crashing after a reboot or the devices no longer being visible.
(BZ#507191)
Windows 2003 32-bit guests with more than 4GB of RAM may crash on reboot with the default qemu-kvm CPU settings. To work around this issue, configure a different CPU model on the management interface.
(BZ#516762)
The KVM modules from the
kmod-kvm package do not support kernels prior to version 2.6.18-159.el5. Error messages similar to the following will be returned if attempting to install these modules on older kernels:
FATAL: Error inserting kvm_intel
(/lib/modules/2.6.18-155.el5/weak-updates/kmod-kvm/kvm-intel.ko): Unknown
symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
(BZ#509361)
the kvm package has incorrect dependencies related to the
libgcrypt package. Consequently, if the
libgcrypt package installed on a system is earlier than version 1.4.4, the
qemu-kvm process may refuse to start, returning a
libgcrypt initialization error message. To work around this issue, update
libgcrypt to the version provided by Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4.
(BZ#503118)
The KVM modules available in the
kmod-kvm package are loaded automatically at boot time if the kmod-kvm package is installed. To make these KVM modules available after installing the
kmod-kvm package the system either needs to be rebooted or the modules can be loaded manually by running the
/etc/sysconfig/modules/kvm.modules script.
(BZ#501543)
Some Linux-based guests that use virtio virtual block devices may abort during installation, returning the error message: unhandled vm exit: 0x31 vcpu_id 0 To work around this issue, consider utilizing a different interface (other than virtio) for the guest virtual disk.
(BZ#518081)
RHEL5.x virtualization relies on etherboot for remote booting. Etherboot is an implementation of the pxe standard, but lacks some features that are present in the new gpxe boot technology which is not shipped with RHEL. It is possible to use the gpxe roms with RHEL 5.4. As an example, gpxe roms can be used to interpret requests generated by Microsoft RIS or WDS. All components present in RHEL5.4 are capable of booting gpxe roms. The roms can be obtained directly from http://rom-o-matic.net/, or other sources like the Fedora Project.
BZ#509208
The Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE) boot ROMs included with KVM are from the Etherboot project. Consequently, some bug fixes or features that are present on the newer gPXE project are not available on Etherboot. For example, Virtual Machines (VMs) cannot boot using Microsoft based PXE (ie. Remote Installation Services (RIS) or Windows Deployment Services (WDS)).
(BZ#497692)
The following QEMU / KVM features are currently disabled and not supported:
(BZ#512837)
smb user directories
scsi emulation
"isapc" machine type
nested KVM guests
usb mass storage device emulation
usb wacom tablet emulation
usb serial emulation
usb network emulation
usb bluetooth emulation
device emulation for vmware drivers
sb16, es1370, and ac97 sound card emulation
bluetooth emulation
The less utility is a text file browser that resembles more, but with more capabilities ("less is more"). The less utility allows users to move backwards in the file as well as forwards. Because less need not read the entire input file before it starts, less starts up more quickly than text editors (vi, for example).
The "less" command has been updated. Refer to
Section 1.115, “ less ”. less no longer adds the "carriage return" character when wrapping long lines. Consequently, lines longer than the terminal width will be displayed incorrectly when browsing the file line per line. The command line option "--old-bot" forces less to behave as it did previously, with long text lines displayed correctly.
(BZ#441691)
The libvirt-cim package is a Common Manageablity Programming Interface (CMPI) CIM provider that implements the Distributed Management Task Force's (DMTF's) System Virtualization, Partitioning and Clustering (SVPC) virtualization model. This package supports most of the features of libvirt and enables management of multiple platforms with a single provider.
Selecting libvirt-cim package in the KVM group during installation will install the xen package as a dependency. To work around this issue do not select libvirt-cim during installation. After the installation is complete register the system to the Red Hat Network (RHN) and install the updated libvirt-cim package.
(BZ#517579)
Note
libvirt-cim is an optional package in the KVM group and will not be installed if the group is selected. The package has to be selected manually from the optional packages list to be installed.
Problem Description: The libvirt library is a C API for managing and interacting with the virtualization capabilities of Linux and other operating systems. In addition, libvirt provides tools for remotely managing virtualized systems.
Volumes created using the libvirt storage API may not have an SELinux label that allows access by virtual machines. If an SELinux AVC denial is reported when starting a Xen or KVM guest, the adminstrator should either manually relabel the file/device, or add the file path(s) as rule to the SELinux policy using the 'semanage' tool.
(BZ#510143)
The lvm2 package contains support for Logical Volume Management (LVM).
The following are the Known Issues that apply to the lvm2 packages in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4
The
lvchange command is used to change the attributes of a logical volume. Issuing the
lvchange command on a volume group that contains a mirror or snapshot may result in messages similar to the following:
Unable to change mirror log LV fail_secondary_mlog directly
Unable to change mirror image LV fail_secondary_mimage_0 directly
Unable to change mirror image LV fail_secondary_mimage_1 directly
These messages can be safely ignored.
(BZ#232499)
Mesa provides a 3D graphics API that is compatible with OpenGL. It also provides hardware-accelerated drivers for many popular graphics chips.
The following note applies to x86_64 Architectures:
On an IBM T61 laptop, Red Hat recommends that you refrain from clicking the glxgears window (when glxgears is run). Doing so can lock the system.
To prevent this from occurring, disable the tiling feature. To do so, add the following line in the Device section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
Option "Tiling" "0"
The mkinitrd utility creates file system images for use as initial ramdisk (initrd) images.
When using an encrypted device, the following error message may be reported during bootup:
insmod: error inserting '/lib/aes_generic.ko': -1 File exists
This message can safely be ignored.
(BZ#466296)
Installation using a Multiple Device (MD) RAID on top of multipath will result in a machine that cannot boot. Multipath to Storage Area Network (SAN) devices which provide RAID internally are not affected.
(BZ#467469)
The following note applies to s390x Architectures:
When installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4, the following errors may be returned in
install.log:
Installing kernel-2.6.18-158.el5.s390x
cp: cannot stat `/sbin/dmraid.static': No such file or directory
This message can be safely ignored.
The OpenFabrics Alliance Enterprise Distribution (OFED) is a collection of Infiniband and iWARP hardware diagnostic utilities, the Infiniband fabric management daemon, Infiniband/iWARP kernel module loader, and libraries and development packages for writing applications that use Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) technology. Red Hat Enterprise Linux uses the OFED software stack as its complete stack for Infiniband/iWARP/RDMA hardware support.
The following note applies to the ia64 Architectures:
Running
perftest will fail if different CPU speeds are detected. As such, you should disable CPU speed scaling before running
perftest.
(BZ#433659)
Open MPI, MVAPICH, and MVAPICH2 are all competing implementations of the Message Passing Interface (MPI) standard. MVAPICH implements version 1 of the MPI standard, while Open MPI and MVAPICH2 both implement the later, version 2 of the MPI standard.
mvapich and
mvapich2 in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 are compiled to support only
InfiniBand/iWARP interconnects. Consequently, they will not run over ethernet or other network interconnects.
(BZ#466390)
When upgrading openmpi using yum, the following warning may be returned:
cannot open `/tmp/openmpi-upgrade-version.*' for reading: No such file or directory
The message is harmless and can be safely ignored.
(BZ#463919)
A bug in previous versions of openmpi and lam may prevent you from upgrading these packages. This bug manifests in the following error (when attempting to upgrade openmpi or lam:
error: %preun(openmpi-[version]) scriptlet failed, exit status 2
As such, you need to manually remove older versions of openmpi and lam in order to install their latest versions. To do so, use the following rpm command:
rpm -qa | grep '^openmpi-\|^lam-' | xargs rpm -e --noscripts --allmatches (BZ#433841)
The Public Domain Korn SHell implements the ksh-88 programming language for both interactive and shell script use.
pdksh — a new package in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 — does not recognize the keyword
source in scripts. However, the
/etc/profile.d/kde.sh script uses the
source keyword in the line
source /etc/sysconfig/prelink. Consequently, if a user is using pdksh as their shell, and KDE is installed, the following error message will be returned in login shells:
ksh: /etc/profile.d/kde.sh[7]: source: not found
To work around this issue, change the
source /etc/sysconfig/prelink
line in the
/etc/profile.d/kde.sh script to
. /etc/sysconfig/prelink
The keyword
. is an alias for
source in all Bourne compatible shells including
bash,
AT&T ksh, and
pdksh.
This issue will be resolved in an upcoming update to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4.
(BZ#510374)
The Simple Protocol for Independent Computing Environments (SPICE) is a remote display system built for virtual environments which allows users to view a computing 'desktop' environment not only on the machine where it is running, but from anywhere on the Internet and from a wide variety of machine architectures.
Occasionally, the video compression algorithm used by SPICE starts when the guest is accessing text instead of video or moving content. This causes the text to appear blurry or difficult to read.
(BZ#493375)
rsyslog is an enhanced multi-threaded system logging utility (syslogd) which supports MySQL, syslog/tcp, RFC 3195, permitted sender lists, filtering on any message part, and fine-grain output format control. It is quite compatible to stock sysklogd, and can be used as a drop-in replacement. Its advanced features make it suitable for enterprise-class, encryption-protected syslog relay chains while at the same time being very easy for the novice user to set up.
Currently, rsyslog is unable to handle a large number of clients; SGI's ICE clusters are known to cause overload resulting in messages being lost.
(BZ#475217)
SBLIM stands for Standards-Based Linux Instrumentation for Manageability. It consists of a set of standards-based, Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) modules that use the Common Information Model (CIM) standard to gather and provide systems management information, events, and methods to local or networked consumers via a CIM object services broker using the CMPI (Common Manageability Programming Interface) standard. This package provides a set of core providers and development tools for systems management applications.
when the sblim-cmpi-dhcp package is installed, it modifies the files under /var/lib/Pegasus owned by the tog-pegasus package. Previously, when sblim was installed in the course of an "everything" installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 on the PowerPC architecture, the modifications that sblim made in the /var/lib/Pegasus directory prevented the post-install scriptlet from completing the provider-register commands. In turn, this would prevent installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 from completing. The provider-register commands are no longer provided in the post-install scriptlet, therefore avoiding this situation and allowing installation of the operating system to complete normally. Users of SBLIM who need to register provider modules for tog-pegasus should register these modules manually by running the following command as root:
/usr/share/sblim-cmpi-dhcp/provider-register.sh -t pegasus -v -n
"root/PG_InterOp" -r
/usr/share/sblim-cmpi-dhcp/Linux_DHCPRegisteredProfile.registration
/usr/share/sblim-cmpi-dhcp/Linux_DHCPElementConformsToProfile.registration -m
/usr/share/sblim-cmpi-dhcp/Linux_DHCPService.mof
/usr/share/sblim-cmpi-dhcp/Linux_DHCPRegisteredProfile.mof
/usr/share/sblim-cmpi-dhcp/Linux_DHCPElementConformsToProfile.mof
Accordingly, deregister modules before update/remove of the sblim-cmpi-dhcp package with following command as root:
/usr/share/sblim-cmpi-dhcp/provider-register.sh -d -t pegasus -n
"root/PG_InterOp" -r
/usr/share/sblim-cmpi-dhcp/Linux_DHCPRegisteredProfile.registration
/usr/share/sblim-cmpi-dhcp/Linux_DHCPElementConformsToProfile.registration -m
/usr/share/sblim-cmpi-dhcp/Linux_DHCPService.mof
/usr/share/sblim-cmpi-dhcp/Linux_DHCPRegisteredProfile.mof
/usr/share/sblim-cmpi-dhcp/Linux_DHCPElementConformsToProfile.mof
The selinux-policy packages contain the rules that govern how confined processes run on the system.
When upgrading from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Workstation to 5 Server, OpenOffice will no longer work correctly with SELinux. This is because the Red Hat Enterprise Linux version of OpenOffice is built using an incorrect library. As a result, SELinux will prevent OpenOffice from accessing any shared libraries, causing OpenOffice to fail.
To work around this, update the SELinux context to allow OpenOffice to access shared libraries. To do so, run the following commands:
semanage fcontext -a -t textrel_shlib_t '/usr/lib/ooo-1.1(/.*)?'
semanage fcontext -a -t textrel_shlib_t '/usr/lib64/ooo-1.1(/.*)?'
restorecon -Rv /usr/lib/ooo-1.19
restorecon -Rv /usr/lib64/ooo-1.19
Alternatively, you can also upgrade your OpenOffice to a correct version compatible with SELinux in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. You can do this by subscribing to the "Productivity App" child channel in Red Hat Network and running the following command:
yum install openoffice-{base,calc,draw,emailmerge,graphicfilter,headless,impress,javafilter,math,pyuno,writer,xsltfilter}
SystemTap provides an instrumentation infrastructure for systems running the Linux 2.6 kernel. It allows users to write scripts that probe and trace system events for monitoring and profiling purposes. SystemTap's framework allows users to investigate and monitor a wide variety of wide variety of kernel functions, system calls, and other evens that occur in both kernel-space and user-space.
The following are the Known Issues that apply to the systemtap package in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4
Running some user-space probe test cases provided by the systemtap-testsuite package fail with an Unknown symbol in module error on some architectures. These test cases include (but are not limited to):
systemtap.base/uprobes.exp
systemtap.base/bz10078.exp
systemtap.base/bz6850.exp
systemtap.base/bz5274.exp
Because of a known bug in the latest SystemTap update, new SystemTap installations do not unload old versions of the uprobes.ko module. Some updated user-space probe tests provided by the systemtap-testsuite package use symbols available only in the latest uprobes.ko module (also provided by the latest SystemTap update). As such, running these user-space probe tests result in the error mentioned earlier.
If you encounter this error, simply run
rmmod uprobes to manually remove the older
uprobes.ko module before running the user-space probe test again.
(BZ#499677)
SystemTap currently uses GCC to probe user-space events. GCC is, however, unable to provide debuggers with precise location list information for parameters. In some cases, GCC also fails to provide visibility on some parameters. As a consequence, SystemTap scripts that probe user-space may return inaccurate readings.
(BZ#239065)
udev provides a user-space API and implements a dynamic device directory, providing only the devices present on the system. udev replaces devfs in order to provide greater hot plug functionality. Netlink is a datagram oriented service, used to transfer information between kernel modules and user-space processes.
Fully virtualized guests created through
virt-manager may sometimes prevent the mouse from moving freely throughout the screen. To work around this, use
virt-manager to configure a USB tablet device for the guest.
(BZ#223805)
VirtIO para-virtualized Windows(R) drivers for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows (R) guests.
Low performance with UDP messages larger than 1024 is a known Microsoft issue:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/235257. For the message larger than 1024 bytes follow the workaround procedure detailed in the above Microsoft knowledgebase article.
Installation of Windows XP with the floppy containing guest drivers (in order to get the virtio-net drivers installed as part of the installation), will return messages stating that the viostor.sys file could not be found. viostor.sys is not part of the network drivers, but is on the same floppy as portions of the virtio-blk drivers. These messages can be safely ignored, simply accept the installation's offer to reboot, and the installation will continue normally.
BZ#513160
As of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4, PCI devices connected to a single PCI-PCI bridge can no longer be assigned to different PV guests. If the old, unsafe behaviour is required, disable pci-dev-assign-strict-check in /etc/xen/xend-config.sxp.
(BZ#508310)
Save operations should not be attempted on paused Xen domains. This will cause Xend to hang.
(BZ#504910)
In live migrations of paravirtualized guests, time-dependent guest processes may function improperly if the corresponding hosts' (dom0) times are not synchronized. Use NTP to synchronize system times for all corresponding hosts before migration.
(BZ#426861)
The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 kernel does not include SWIOTLB support. SWIOTLB support is required for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 guests to support more than 4GB of memory on AMD Opteron and Athlon-64 processors. Consequently, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 guests are limited to 4GB of memory on AMD processors.
(BZ#504187)
When setting up interface bonding on dom0, the default network-bridge script may cause bonded network interfaces to alternately switch between unavailable and available. This occurrence is commonly known as flapping.
To prevent this, replace the standard network-script line in /etc/xen/xend-config.sxp with the following line:
(network-script network-bridge-bonding netdev=bond0)
Doing so will disable the
netloop device, which prevents Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) monitoring from failing during the address transfer process.
(BZ#429154)(BZ#429154)
The Hypervisor outputs messages regarding attempts by any guest to write to an MSR. Such messages contain the statement
Domain attempted WRMSR. These messages can be safely ignored; furthermore, they are rate limited and should pose no performance risk.
(BZ#477647)
Red Hat advises that you avoid removing a block device from a guest while the device is in use. Doing so causes Xend to lose domain information for the guest.
(BZ#476164)
The following note applies to x86_64 Architectures:
xorg-x11-drv-i810 is an Intel integrated graphics video driver for the X.Org implementation of the X Window System.
Running a screensaver or resuming a suspended laptop with an external monitor attached may result in a blank screen or a brief flash followed by a blank screen. If this occurs with the screensaver, the prompt for your password is being obscured, the password can still be entered blindly to get back to the desktop. To work around this issue, physically disconnect the external monitor and then press the video hotkey (usually Fn-F7) to rescan the available outputs, before suspending the laptop.
The following notes apply to x86_64 Architectures:
If your system uses an
Intel 945GM graphics card, do not use the
i810 driver. You should use the default
intel driver instead.
(BZ#468218)
On dual-GPU laptops, if one of the graphics chips is Intel-based, the Intel graphics mode cannot drive any external digital connections (including HDMI, DVI, and DisplayPort). This is a hardware limitation of the Intel GPU. If you require external digital connections, configure the system to use the discrete graphics chip (in the BIOS).
(BZ#468259)
xorg-x11-drv-nv provides a driver for NVIDIA cards for the X.org implementation of the X Window System.
Improvements have been made to the 'nv' driver, enhancing suspend and resume support on some systems equipped with nVidia GeForce 8000 and 9000 series devices. Due to technical limitations, this will not enable suspend/resume on all hardware.
(BZ#414971)
The following note applies to x86_64 Architectures:
Some machines that use
NVIDIA graphics cards may display corrupted graphics or fonts when using the graphical installer or during a graphical login. To work around this, switch to a virtual console and back to the original X host.
(BZ#222737,
BZ#221789)
xorg-x11-drv-vesa is a video driver for the X.Org implementation of the X Window System. It is used as a fallback driver for cards with no native driver, or when the native driver does not work.
The following note applies to x86 Architectures:
When running the bare-metal (non-Virtualized) kernel, the X server may not be able to retrieve EDID information from the monitor. When this occurs, the graphics driver will be unable to display resolutions highers than 800x600.
To work around this, add the following line to the ServerLayout section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
Option "Int10Backend" "x86emu"