Issued:

2013-09-03

Updated:

2013-09-03

RHBA-2013:1190 - kernel bug fix update

Synopsis

kernel bug fix update

Type/Severity

Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated kernel packages that fix several bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Extended Update Support.

Description

The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux operating system.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• Cyclic adding and removing of the st kernel module could previously cause a system to become unresponsive. This was caused by a disk queue reference count bug in the SCSI tape driver. An upstream patch addressing this bug has been backported to the SCSI tape driver and the system now responds as expected in this situation. (BZ#979291)

• The bnx2x driver could have previously reported an occasional MDC/MDIO timeout error along with the loss of the link connection. This could happen in environments using an older boot code because the MDIO clock was set in the beginning of each boot code sequence instead of per CL45 command. To avoid this problem, the bnx2x driver now sets the MDIO clock per CL45 command. Additionally, the MDIO clock is now implemented per EMAC register instead of per port number, which prevents ports from using different EMAC addresses for different PHY accesses. Also, boot code or Management Firmware (MFW) upgrade is required to prevent the boot code (firmware) from taking over link ownership if the driver's pulse is delayed. The BCM57711 card requires boot code version 6.2.24 or later, and the BCM57712/578xx cards require MFW version 7.4.22 or later. (BZ#982114)

• If the audit queue is too long, the kernel schedules the kauditd daemon to alleviate the load on the audit queue. Previously, if the current audit process had any pending signals in such a situation, it entered a busy-wait loop for the duration of an audit backlog timeout because the wait_for_auditd() function was called as an interruptible task. This could lead to system lockup in non-preemptive uniprocessor systems. This update fixes the problem by setting wait_for_auditd() as uninterruptible. (BZ#982469)

• The kernel could rarely terminate instead of creating a dump file when a multi-threaded process using FPU aborted. This happened because the kernel did not wait until all threads became inactive and attempted to dump the FPU state of active threads into memory which triggered a BUG_ON() routine. A patch addressing this problem has been applied and the kernel now waits for the threads to become inactive before dumping their FPU state into memory. (BZ#988226)

• BE family hardware could falsely indicate an unrecoverable error (UE) on certain platforms and stop further access to be2net-based network interface cards (NICs). A patch has been applied to disable the code that stops further access to hardware for BE family network interface cards (NICs). For a real UE, it is not necessary as the corresponding hardware block is not accessible in this situation. (BZ#990087)

• The fnic driver previously allowed I/O requests with the number of SGL descriptors greater than is supported by Cisco UCS Palo adapters. Consequently, the adapter returned any I/O request with more than 256 SGL descriptors with an error indicating invalid SGLs. A patch has been applied to limit the maximum number of supported SGLs in the fnic driver to 256 and the problem no longer occurs. (BZ#991344)

Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these bugs. The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect

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/site/articles/11258

To install kernel packages manually, use "rpm -ivh [package]". Do not use "rpm -Uvh" as that will remove the running kernel binaries from your system. You may use "rpm -e" to remove old kernels after determining that the new kernel functions properly on your system.

Affected Products

Updated Packages

• kernel-debug-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.s390x.rpm
• perf-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-debuginfo-common-s390x-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.s390x.rpm
• python-perf-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-headers-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-debug-devel-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.s390x.rpm
• python-perf-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.i686.rpm
• kernel-debug-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.i686.rpm
• kernel-firmware-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.noarch.rpm
• kernel-doc-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.noarch.rpm
• kernel-headers-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.s390x.rpm
• kernel-debug-devel-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.i686.rpm
• perf-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.s390x.rpm
• kernel-kdump-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.s390x.rpm
• kernel-debug-devel-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.ppc64.rpm
• python-perf-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.s390x.rpm
• kernel-debug-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.s390x.rpm
• kernel-kdump-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.s390x.rpm
• kernel-kdump-devel-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.s390x.rpm
• perf-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.s390x.rpm
• kernel-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.s390x.rpm
• kernel-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.s390x.rpm
• perf-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.i686.rpm
• kernel-debug-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.s390x.rpm
• kernel-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.i686.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.ppc64.rpm
• python-perf-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.i686.rpm
• kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.ppc64.rpm
• python-perf-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
• perf-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-debug-devel-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-headers-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-headers-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.i686.rpm
• kernel-debug-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.i686.rpm
• kernel-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-debuginfo-common-i686-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.i686.rpm
• kernel-debug-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.ppc64.rpm
• python-perf-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
• perf-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-bootwrapper-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.ppc64.rpm
• python-perf-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-debug-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.ppc64.rpm
• python-perf-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.s390x.rpm
• kernel-debug-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.i686.rpm
• perf-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.ppc64.rpm
• perf-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.i686.rpm
• kernel-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.src.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.i686.rpm
• kernel-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.34.1.el6.ppc64.rpm

Fixes

(none)

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)

Additional information

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