the software updater (pup) did not parse OpenSSL error messages correctly. Therefore, when it encountered an invalid or missing SSL certificate, the updater would crash. The parsing code is now corrected, so invalid or missing SSL certificate will not result in a crash. (BZ#441738 , BZ#481042)

/etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid stores the identity of a system registered with the Red Hat Network. Previously, yum-rhn-plugin did not allow for situations where this file was missing, so would cause yum to crash when it could not find the file. If the systemid file is missing, the plugin now warns the user that the SystemID could not be acquired and that the system might not be registered on the Red Hat Network. (BZ#444581)

previously, if yum itself was updated during an update transaction, the version of yum running in memory might attempt to read a yum.conf file that was updated for the new version of yum. If the new yum.conf file were incompatible with the old version of yum, yum would crash and the transaction would fail. Now, before running the transaction, yum creates a YumBase object to hold the actions and associated parameters that it will need during the transaction. By referring to this object, yum does not need to obtain configuration information during the transaction, and therefore avoids any incompatibility introduced by a change in the yum.conf file. (BZ#448245)

yum-rhn-plugin creates creates a file at /var/spool/up2date/loginAuth.pkl that caches login information. If the contents of this file were to become corrupt, attempts to log in would result in a 404 error. Now, yum-rhn-plugin deletes this file at the end of each transaction and creates a new copy the next time that yum is run. Renewing this file ensures that cached login information is current and uncorrupted. (BZ#465340 , BZ#489396)

previously, yum-rhn-plugin did not allow for situations where the update agent sent a request to a Red Hat Network server, but received no response within its timeout interval. This would generate an unhandled exception that would crash the update agent. Now, if the update agent does not receive a timely response from an RHN server, it will present the user with an error message that says: "Server Unavailable. Please try later". (BZ#467866)

previously, while processing package removals, yum-rhn-plugin would not take architecture information into account. Therefore, on a system where a package was installed for more than one architecture, removing the package for one architecture would remove the package for all architectures. Yum-rhn-plugin now pays attention to the architecture of the package that is to be removed, and removes the package for only that architecture. (BZ#476899)

yum-rhn-plugin did not account for missing dependencies while processing scheduled package actions from RHN hosted or satellite servers. If a dependency was missing in the channel, yum-rhn-plugin would report that the package was installed successfully, even though it failed. Now, yum-rhn-plugin notes missing dependencies, and correctly reports that installation of a package failed due to dependency problems. (BZ#491127)