A few days ago an updated linux kernel and updated xorg packages were
pushed into the SL6 updates. These updates are automatically installed
by the default yum configuration of SL6.5.

Unfortunately these updates are incompatible with pre-installed X11 video
drivers for NVIDIA (GeForce 210) and AMD/ATI (AMD E-350/E-450 and socket AM1
on-board video) from ELREPO.

These are the ELREPO kmod-fglrx and kmod-nvidia packages.

So all computers with these video cards promptly broke.

This incompatibility seems to be well known to the perpetrators (X.org API change, leading to crash of Xorg).

I think such a disruptive update should have been announced a little
bit more widely and maybe some technical solution could have been implemented
to avoid breaking X11 outright (i.e. refuse to install new X.org packages
if known-incompatible NVIDIA or AMD/ATI drivers are loaded).

It looks like corrected drivers are available from ELREPO, but automatic updates
from ELREPO are normally disabled because they break themselves (newly installed
package fails to reload the old kernel module resulting in Xorg not starting
because of mismatch between newly installed userland drivers and old kernel module).

As end result, what could have been planned scheduled maintenance is now an emergency
"patch Wednesday" with many computers requiring reboot and many end users disturbed.

I have to fix about 6 computers with AMD/ATI drivers and only (what?) 20 computers with NVIDIA drivers.

Please have a nice day.


P.S. To add injury to insult, the super advanced Red Hat kernel module management
system (dracut) does the super slow (bzip2 -9) rebuilt of initramfs not once,
but twice - once on install of new driver and second time on removal of old driver.
What should have taken 5 seconds takes a good 2-3 minutes (/usr/bin/time yum update kmod-nvidia).


-- 
Konstantin Olchanski
Data Acquisition Systems: The Bytes Must Flow!
Email: olchansk-at-triumf-dot-ca
Snail mail: 4004 Wesbrook Mall, TRIUMF, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 2A3, Canada