Issued:
2015-07-22
Updated:
2015-07-22

RHBA-2015:1338 - biosdevname bug fix and enhancement update

Synopsis

biosdevname bug fix and enhancement update

Type/Severity

Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated biosdevname packages that fix several bugs and add various enhancements are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Description

The biosdevname packages contain an optional convention for naming network interfaces, which assigns names to network interfaces based on their physical location. The biosdevname utility is disabled by default, except for a limited set of Dell PowerEdge, C Series, and Precision Workstation systems.

The biosdevname packages have been upgraded to upstream version 0.6.2, which provides a number of bug fixes and enhancements over the previous version. Notably, it provides the dev_port attribute for a new Mellanox driver and allowing naming of FCoE devices to be ignored. (BZ#1158564)

This update also fixes the following bugs:

  • Previously, the biosdevname utility did not parse Vital Product Data (VPD) correctly. As a consequence, names for network interfaces on Vindicator 2 Emulex card were displayed incorrectly when NIC extended partitioning (nPAR-EP) was enabled. VPD parsing has been modified, and Network interface names are now displayed correctly. (BZ#1133523)

  • Prior to this update, the biosdevname utility did not read Vital Product Data (VPD) on NICs with vpd-r:2.0, which resulted in incorrect network interface names when NIC partitioning (NPAR) was enabled on certain NICs. With this update, biosdevname reads VPD data also in cases when NIC has vpdr:2.0, and interface names are now formed as expected if NPAR is enabled. (BZ#1207557)

  • Due to a scheme used for slot numbers derivation, the biosdevname utility did not populate proper names for Virtual Functions (VFs) of on-board NICs. Now, the scheme that enables VFs of on-board NICs can have proper names, too. (BZ#1212449)

In addition, this update adds the following enhancement:

  • This update provides an implementation of 10-GB Ethernet adapters naming scheme from Mellanox. Now, the biosdevname utility produces expected network interface names for Mellanox 10-GB Ethernet adapters that have 2 physical ports on the same PCI device. The /sys/class/net//dev_port attribute is designed to distinguish network interfaces. (BZ#1003465, BZ#1084225)

Users of biosdevname are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which fix these bugs and add these enhancements.

Solution

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

For details on how to apply this update, refer to:

https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258

Affected Products

ProductVersionArch
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Scientific Computing6x86_64
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 Desktop6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop6i386

Updated Packages

  • biosdevname-0.6.2-1.el6.src.rpm
  • biosdevname-0.6.2-1.el6.x86_64.rpm
  • biosdevname-debuginfo-0.6.2-1.el6.x86_64.rpm
  • biosdevname-0.6.2-1.el6.i686.rpm
  • biosdevname-debuginfo-0.6.2-1.el6.i686.rpm

Fixes

(none)

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)

Additional information