Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 Update 9 Release Notes Copyright (c) 2007 Red Hat, Inc. and others. This material may be distributed only subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Open Publication License, v1.0, available at [1]http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction The following topics are covered in this document: o Maintenance Phase Announcement o Installation-Related Notes o General Information Some updates on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 Update 9 may not appear in this version of the Release Notes. An updated version of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 Update 9 Release Notes may also be available at the following URL: [2]http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/ Maintenance Phase Announcement This is the final scheduled update for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3. With this release, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 now enters its maintenance phase. Note that while Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 is now in its maintenance phase, Red Hat will continue to provide fixes for critical functional and security issues until the end of the product lifecycle. Installation-Related Notes The following section includes information specific to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation program, Anaconda. Note In order to upgrade an existing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 installation to Update 9, you must use Red Hat Network to update those packages that have changed. The use of Anaconda to upgrade to Update 9 is not supported. Use Anaconda only to perform a fresh install of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 Update 9. o If you are copying the contents of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 Update 9 CD-ROMs (in preparation for a network-based installation, for example) be sure you copy the CD-ROMs for the operating system only. Do not copy the Extras CD-ROM, or any of the layered product CD-ROMs, as this will overwrite files necessary for Anaconda's proper operation. These CD-ROMs must be installed after Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 Update 9 has been installed. General Information HS20 Reboot Freeze IBM HS20 blades may freeze during reboot with an error stating: NET4: Frame Diverter 0.46 To prevent further reboot freezes, add the parameters usb-handoff and noapic to the kernel command line. Rollbacks Using up2date The up2date options --undo and list-rollbacks are now deprecated. Currently, the recommended method in performing a rollback is to use the Multi-state Rollback feature provided by the Provisioning entitlement on Red Hat Network. For more information about this, refer to [3]http://www.redhat.com/rhn/rhndetails/provisioning/. Alternatively, you can also downgrade an RPM manually. To do this, obtain the old RPM and run the following command: rpm -Uvh --oldpackage --nosignature --nodigest noacl Security Issue A bug in the noacl NFS mount option can potentially grant a process unauthorized read access to cached data. This is because noacl prevents a process from consulting the server by disabling ACCESS calls on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3. As a result, the kernel has to rely on the file mode bits, which in turn can allow an open call to succeed inappropriately. This can ultimately result in unauthorized read access to cached data. This issue will not be fixed since some customers use noacl to boost NFS performance. Testing has shown that all fixes proposed to this bug negatively affect systems that use noacl. Users concerned with this potential security issue are advised not to use the noacl NFS mount option. nfsstat man Page Error The man page for the nfsstat utility incorrectly references the -z option, which is not supported in this release. gaim Rename gaim has been renamed to pidgin. ConnectTech WhiteHeat USB Serial Ports A kernel panic may occur when a ConnectTech WhiteHeat USB Serial Port adapter is connected at boot time. As such, to use this device, you should disconnect it during boot up and reconnect it once the boot process has completed. kernel.shmall When configuring shared memory, kernel.shmall needs to be 1 higher than the amount of shared memory you want to use. This can be set in /etc/sysctl.conf. ( x86-64 ) References Visible links 1. http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/ 2. http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/ 3. http://www.redhat.com/rhn/rhndetails/provisioning/