1.2. anaconda

Updated anaconda packages that fix multiple bugs and add multiple enhancements are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

The anaconda packages provide the installation program used by Red Hat Enterprise Linux to identify and configure the hardware, and to create the appropriate file systems for the system's architecture, as well as to to install the operating system software.

This update fixes the following bugs:

* Some packages could be lost when initiating a kickstart with selected virtualization software. Now, anaconda validates package repositories added via kickstart against the installation key if one is given. (BZ#452983)

* When installing all packages in a paravirtualized Xen guest, the wrong kernel was set as default. Now, anaconda sets kernel-xen as the default kernel for installations on Xen guests. (BZ#480031)

* When booting with a kernel boot command, anaconda could abort unexpectedly. Now, anaconda no longer aborts when booted with a kernel boot command-line that ends with a quote character. (BZ#500198)

* Drives to be moved up or down in the "Edit the Driver Order" dialog had to be re-selected each time they moved one position up or down. Now, anaconda no longer deselects selected items when moving them. (BZ#583837)

* When pressing the 'Back' button on the package confirmation screen, incorrect packages could be installed. Now, packages are installed as expected. (BZ#603177)

* The file systems ext3 and ext4 had incompatible mount options when created. Now, both ext3 and ext4 file systems have the same default mount options. (BZ#616184)

* anaconda incorrectly referred to installation DVDs as "CD". Now, this problem is resolved. (BZ#617262, BZ#641412)

* If a 0-byte storage device was present, anaconda aborted unexpectedly. Now, anaconda no longer aborts when a device of 0 bytes is present on the system. (BZ#636984)

* The iBFT code selected the wrong LAN interface for installation. Now, anaconda activates the correct network interface when there are multiple networks available and one of them has iBFT data. (BZ#643774)

* The hard drive installation method and layer2 VSWITCH caused non-functional networking on the IBM System z. Now, anaconda writes out the LAYER2 and PORTNO options into ifcfg files also on non-network install methods. (BZ#649301)

* It was not possible to go back to the Partition screen during VNC installation on the IBM System z. Now, anaconda allows the user to go back from the network screen to the partitioning screen. (BZ#654685)

* An unexpected SELinux context was set in the iptables configuration file. Now, anaconda sets the correct SELinux context. (BZ#658084)

* The kickstart files on USB drives were not found on the first attempt. Now, anaconda only asks to retry reading the kickstart file from a CD-ROM drive when necessary. Now, the drive probing handles situations better when the device shows up late. (BZ#658398)

* ETHTOOL_OPT in ifcfg-ethX was not quoted with the kickstart option --ethtool. Now, anaconda correctly quotes ETHTOOL_OPTS in ifcfg files. (BZ#674473)

* Now, anaconda enables IPv6 on the installed system unless this is explicitly disabled via kickstart. (BZ#677653)

This update also adds the following enhancements:

* It is now possible to disable ssh via Anaconda kickstart command such as "firewall --enabled --no-ssh". (BZ#485086)

* Busybox is now a part of the installation RAM Disk image to allow for easier debugging of installation issues. (BZ#500527)

* A new kernel boot command-line argument blacklist= is now recognized in Anaconda that lets the user blacklist troubling drivers. Such drivers are then not loaded by Anaconda. (BZ#569883)

* Now, the Anaconda installer contains and runs the Red Hat Subscription Manager and associated yum plugins. (BZ#670973)

All users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which fix these bugs and add these enhancements.