Issued:
2012-06-20
Updated:
2012-06-20

RHBA-2012:0871 - module-init-tools bug fix and enhancement update

Synopsis

module-init-tools bug fix and enhancement update

Type/Severity

Bug Fix Advisory (none)

Topic

Updated module-init-tools packages that fix two bugs and add one enhancement are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Description

The module-init-tools packages include various programs needed for automatic loading and unloading of modules under 2.6 kernels, as well as other module management programs. Device drivers and file systems are two examples of loaded and unloaded modules.

This update fixes the following bugs:

  • Previously, on low-memory systems (such as low-memory high-performance infrastructure, or HPC, nodes or virtual machines), depmod could use excessive amount of memory. As a consequence, the depmod process was killed by the OOM (out of memory) mechanism, and the system was unable to boot. With this update, the free() function is correctly used on several places in the code so that depmod's memory consumption is reduced. (BZ#670613)

  • Previously, if the "override" keyword was present in the depmod.conf file without any parameters specified, the depmod utility terminated unexpectedly with a segmentation fault. A patch has been applied to ensure that the depmod utility no longer crashes and a syntax warning is displayed instead. (BZ#673100)

This update also adds the following enhancement:

  • This update adds the "backports" directory to the search path in the depmod.conf file, which is necessary to support integration of the compat-wireless package into kernel packages. (BZ#761511)

All users of module-init-tools are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which fix these bugs and add this 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/knowledge/articles/11258

Affected Products

ProductVersionArch
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Scientific Computing6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian6ppc64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems6s390x
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation6i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server6i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI6i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support6i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension6i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension (for IBM z Systems)6s390x
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support (for IBM z Systems)6s390x
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop6i386

Updated Packages

  • module-init-tools-debuginfo-3.9-20.el6.ppc64.rpm
  • module-init-tools-3.9-20.el6.src.rpm
  • module-init-tools-3.9-20.el6.i686.rpm
  • module-init-tools-debuginfo-3.9-20.el6.s390x.rpm
  • module-init-tools-debuginfo-3.9-20.el6.x86_64.rpm
  • module-init-tools-3.9-20.el6.x86_64.rpm
  • module-init-tools-3.9-20.el6.ppc64.rpm
  • module-init-tools-debuginfo-3.9-20.el6.i686.rpm
  • module-init-tools-3.9-20.el6.s390x.rpm

Fixes

(none)

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)

Additional information