Issued:
2013-02-20
Updated:
2013-02-20

RHBA-2013:0307 - seabios bug fix and enhancement update

Synopsis

seabios bug fix and enhancement update

Type/Severity

Bug Fix Advisory (none)

Topic

Updated seabios packages that fix several bugs and add two enhancements are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Description

The seabios packages contain an open-source legacy BIOS implementation which can be used as a coreboot payload. It implements the standard BIOS calling interfaces that a typical x86 proprietary BIOS implements.

This update fixes the following bugs:

  • In the QXL-VGA drive, the ram_size and vram_size variables were set to a default value that was too high. Consequently, the guest was not able to boot, and the "VM status: paused (internal-error)" message was returned. This update uses extended addressing for PCI address space and the guest can now boot successfully. (BZ#771616)

  • Previously, the advertisement of S3 and S4 states in the default BIOS was disabled for which a separate BIOS binary file had been created. This update enables users to configurate S3 and S4 states per virtual machine in seabios and thus, the extra BIOS binary file is no longer necessary. Now, a single binary is used to enable these states. (BZ#839674)

  • Prior to this update, the SeaBIOS component did not support the non-contiguous APIC IDs. This resulted in incorrect topology generation on SMP and NUMA systems; moreover, QEMU-KVM was unable to run on some of the host systems. A patch has been provided to fix this bug and Seabios now supports the non-contiguous APIC IDs. (BZ#851245)

  • The seabios packages used the time-stamp counter (TSC) for timekeeping with a simple calibration loop. As a consequence, on a busy host, the magnitude calibration could be set incorrectly and could lead to boot failures. This update provides the power management timer (PMT) with a fixed frequency, which does not suffer from calibration errors due to a loaded host machine. As a result, timeouts work correctly under all circumstances. (BZ#854448)

In addition, this update adds the following enhancements:

  • With this update, it is possible to configurate S3 and S4 states per virtual machine. (BZ#827500)

  • The seabios packages are now able to reboot a VM even if no bootable device can be found. (BZ#831273)

Users of seabios 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.

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 Workstation6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop6x86_64

Updated Packages

  • seabios-0.6.1.2-26.el6.src.rpm
  • seabios-0.6.1.2-26.el6.x86_64.rpm

Fixes

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)

Additional information