Bug Fix Advisory grub bug fix and enhancement update

Advisory: RHBA-2009:1388-1
Type: Bug Fix Advisory
Severity: N/A
Issued on: 2009-09-02
Last updated on: 2009-09-02
Affected Products: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client)
OVAL: N/A

Details

An updated grub package that fixes a bug and adds an enhancement is now
available.

The GRUB utility is responsible for booting the operating system kernel.

This update addresses the following bug:

* current GCC defaults mean grub is compiled without writable string
support. On systems with an XFS file system present on the same controller
as the boot disk, this could cause the grub shell to segfault and crash.
With this update grub no longer assumes constant strings in the XFS file
system driver are writable, obviating the error. (BZ#496949)

And adds the following enhancement:

* previously, grub-install did not support installing on virtio_blk
devices. When attempted it printed the error message "[device path] does
not have any corresponding BIOS drive." With this update, support has been
added for installing to virtio devices. (BZ#498388)

All grup users are advised to install this updated package, which resolves
this issue and adds this enhancement.


Solution

Before applying this update, make sure that all previously-released
errata relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via Red Hat Network. Details on how to use
the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at
http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-11259

Updated packages

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server)

SRPMS:
grub-0.97-13.5.src.rpm     d37f7ade6bc4dfe0bd4405da1f6f06e5
 
IA-32:
grub-0.97-13.5.i386.rpm     313cd9793f33dcaa5940829b85212f1e
 
x86_64:
grub-0.97-13.5.x86_64.rpm     8850287d5020ba26f1078a0ddb53e1c4
 
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client)

SRPMS:
grub-0.97-13.5.src.rpm     d37f7ade6bc4dfe0bd4405da1f6f06e5
 
IA-32:
grub-0.97-13.5.i386.rpm     313cd9793f33dcaa5940829b85212f1e
 
x86_64:
grub-0.97-13.5.x86_64.rpm     8850287d5020ba26f1078a0ddb53e1c4
 
(The unlinked packages above are only available from the Red Hat Network)

Bugs fixed (see bugzilla for more information)

498388 - [RHEL5.4 KVM/virtio][PATCH] add support for virtio_blk devices to grub-install


Keywords

cciss, command, fixes, grub, line


These packages are GPG signed by Red Hat for security. Our key and details on how to verify the signature are available from:
https://www.redhat.com/security/team/key/#package

The Red Hat security contact is secalert@redhat.com. More contact details at http://www.redhat.com/security/team/contact/