1.148. s390utils

An updated s390utils package that fixes various bugs and adds two enhancements is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

The s390utils package contains utilities related to Linux for the IBM System z architecture.

This update fixes the following bugs:

* Prior to this update, the format 7 label written by the fdasd and dasdfmt utilities was incorrect. Consequent to this, backups of Linux on System z disks from z/OS did not work when the disk was not fully partitioned. This update adapts the libvtoc library to make sure that both fdasd and dasdfmt now write the format 7 label correctly. As a result, such backups now work as expected. (BZ#649966)

* When the previous version of the cpuplugd service exited, it incorrectly changed /proc/sys/vm/cmm_pages to 0 regardless of its previous value. Additionally, when the values of cmm_pages and cmm_inc were equal, cmm_pages failed to reach a cmm_min of 0 during runtime. This update adapts the underlying source code to retain the value of /proc/sys/vm/cmm_pages and evaluate cmm_min correctly. (BZ#658273)

* The previous version of the lsluns utility failed to report LUNs from the SAN Volume Controller (SVC). This update changes the strategy of this utility to determine whether LUN 0 or the WLUN is already available. Now, if none of the LUNs is available, LUN 0 is tried first, and if it fails, the WLUN is tried next. As a result, the lsluns utility reports LUNs from the SVC as expected. (BZ#659827)

* Previously, the lsluns utility did not accept uppercase letters for hex digits in an FCP device identifier or WWPN. This error no longer occurs, and lsluns now accepts both uppercase and lowercase letters. (BZ#660359)

* Prior to this update, the cpuplugd service did not evaluate rules correctly when the multiplication (that is, *) was used. This update applies a patch that addresses this issue so that such rules are now evaluated correctly. (BZ#693366)

* Previously, the cmsfs utilities crashed when they were used on file systems with block sizes different from the underlying device. Consequently, users had to work around the issue by creating a file system with the same block size as the device. With this update, the cmsfs utilities now report the mismatch in block sizes but still work. (BZ#696149)

* Due to an error in the option parser, the previous version of the ziomon utility incorrectly accepted the "--output" command line option instead of "--outfile". Consequently, an attempt to run the utility with the "--outfile" option as specified in the documentation failed. This update corrects the option parser to accept the "--outfile" option as described in the documentation. (BZ#697479)

* Previously, mounting the debugfs file system in a directory other than /sys/kernel/debug caused the ziomon utility to fail with an error. This update adapts the underlying source code to verify the debugfs mount path, resolving this issue. (BZ#700687)

As well, this update adds the following enhancements:

* This update introduces an application programming interface (API) to determine the status of a direct access storage device (DASD), and adapts the tunedasd utility to provide the "-Q" (or "--query_reserve") command line option, which allows users to write this information to standard output. (BZ#651142)

* This update adds a new configuration option, "DELAY_MINUTES", to the /etc/sysconfig/dumpconf file. When specified, this option allows a user to delay the activation of the dumpconf service to prevent possible re-IPL loops. (BZ#651168)

All users of s390utils are advised to upgrade to this updated package, which fixes these bugs and adds these enhancements.