Issued:
2014-10-13
Updated:
2014-10-13

RHBA-2014:1421 - ethtool bug fix and enhancement update

Synopsis

ethtool bug fix and enhancement update

Type/Severity

Bug Fix Advisory (none)

Topic

Updated ethtool packages that fix several bugs and add one enhancement are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Description

Ethtool is a utility that enables querying and changing settings such as speed, port autonegotiation, PCI locations, and checksum offload on many network devices, especially on ethernet devices.

This update fixes the following bugs:

  • Previously, the ethtool utility did not support the Backplane link type. As a consequence, ethtool did not return "supported link modes" and "advertised link modes" on be2net-based devices. With this update, the support for Backplane has been added, and ethtool now returns "supported link modes" and "advertised link modes" as expected. (BZ#1003891)

  • Previously, the ethtool utility did not correctly communicate with the network device driver when attempting to set Large Receive Offload (LRO) options. Consequently, it was not possible to set the LRO options on devices supporting LRO. With this update, ethtool has been fixed to communicate correctly with the network device driver, and the LRO options can now be set on network devices. (BZ#1010843)

  • Due to a change to the ixgbe driver, the "ethtool -d" command in non-raw mode stopped providing output. As a consequence, "ethtool -d" could not be used to examine the state of ixgbe devices. To fix this bug, ethool has been changed to work with the new ixgbe device driver, and the "ethtool -d" command in non-raw mode can now be used again on the ixgbe devices. (BZ#1018367)

In addition, this update provides the following enhancement:

  • With this update, the ethtool utility supports the Medium Dependent Interface Crossover (MDI-X) mode setting on the e1000, e1000e, and igb drivers. (BZ#1105589)

Users of ethtool are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which fix these bugs and add this enhancement.

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/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

  • ethtool-3.5-5.el6.ppc64.rpm
  • ethtool-debuginfo-3.5-5.el6.i686.rpm
  • ethtool-3.5-5.el6.i686.rpm
  • ethtool-3.5-5.el6.s390x.rpm
  • ethtool-debuginfo-3.5-5.el6.x86_64.rpm
  • ethtool-debuginfo-3.5-5.el6.ppc64.rpm
  • ethtool-3.5-5.el6.src.rpm
  • ethtool-3.5-5.el6.x86_64.rpm
  • ethtool-debuginfo-3.5-5.el6.s390x.rpm

Fixes

(none)

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)

Additional information