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/.

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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 <filename of old
           RPM>

   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 )

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/