| Description: | The Linux kernel handles the basic functions of the operating system.
This is the fifth regular kernel update to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.
New features introduced by this update include:
- support for 2-TB partitions on block devices - support for new disk, network, and USB devices - support for clustered APIC mode on AMD64 NUMA systems - netdump support on AMD64, Intel EM64T, Itanium, and ppc64 systems - diskdump support on sym53c8xx and SATA piix/promise adapters - NMI switch support on AMD64 and Intel EM64T systems
There were many bug fixes in various parts of the kernel. The ongoing effort to resolve these problems has resulted in a marked improvement in the reliability and scalability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.
Some key areas affected by these fixes include the kernel's networking, SATA, TTY, and USB subsystems, as well as the architecture-dependent handling under the ia64, ppc64, and x86_64 directories. Scalability improvements were made primarily in the memory management and file system areas.
A flaw in offset handling in the xattr file system code backported to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 was fixed. On 64-bit systems, a user who can access an ext3 extended-attribute-enabled file system could cause a denial of service (system crash). This issue is rated as having a moderate security impact (CAN-2005-0757).
The following device drivers have been upgraded to new versions:
3c59x ------ LK1.1.18 3w-9xxx ---- 2.24.00.011fw (new in Update 5) 3w-xxxx ---- 1.02.00.037 8139too ---- (upstream 2.4.29) b44 -------- 0.95 cciss ------ v2.4.54.RH1 e100 ------- 3.3.6-k2 e1000 ------ 5.6.10.1-k2 lpfcdfc ---- 1.0.13 (new in Update 5) tg3 -------- 3.22RH
Note: The kernel-unsupported package contains various drivers and modules that are unsupported and therefore might contain security problems that have not been addressed.
All Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 users are advised to upgrade their kernels to the packages associated with their machine architectures and configurations as listed in this erratum.
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