Thanks for providing this; the effort here to "go the extra mile" in fully documenting the situation is appreciated. I will try an update on my 6.0 machine over the weekend and report if everything is resolved. I will also give the "testing" kernel a try too! David. On Fri, Jul 13, 2012 at 11:13 PM, Pat Riehecky <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > There have been a number of questions regarding problem with starting X > after the recent security update. This email is an attempt to summarize the > situation, provide insight, demonstrate the process as a whole, and clear up > some confusion with the solution. > > Solution: > > It is believed that anyone who runs 'yum clean all; yum update' at this time > will have the problem fixed. > > > > Praise for the SL community from Pat and Connie: > > The community immediately started working together to get this resolved. > The attitude expressed by the 20+ emails on the list was generally > wonderful. Helpful details were given, explanations were provided to people > of all sorts of skill sets - in general people started pitching in and being > wonderfully helpful. People mostly provided fixes or troubleshooting > information. > > Thanks for that, it means a lot witnessing how helpful everyone on the list > can be in times like this! > > > Cause: > > At the root of the problem was the security update for xorg-x11-server > published on July 9th. The problem was caused by a change in the module ABI > for loading xorg drivers that happened in SL6.2. That change was a bugfix > and not a security update, so it was not pushed out to earlier releases. > The security update for xorg-x11-server uses the new ABI. The package, > however, does not force the use of these newer drivers though any rpm > dependency tools - such as requires, conflicts, or obsoletes. Thus the > xorg-x11-drv update can be installed without incident, even though it will > not work as expected. Our usual dependency resolution process is unable to > locate and report dependencies that are not listed by the package. The > change in the ABI happened with SL6.2, but none of the xorg packages were > security errata at that time. So, we didn't catch the problem then as we > didn't have to integrate the 6.2 ABI with the 6.1 ABI. > > > On the period in testing: > > The xorg-x11-server package was in the sl-testing repository for 12 days > before the date of release. > I received a few reports from people who tested the packages while they were > in testing. It appears that those testers were on 6.2 and thus didn't run > into the incompatibility problem. There were no problems reported with this > package during the testing window. > I tested these packages. My test system was SL6.2 and uses the ERRepo > nvidia kmod. So I did not encounter any problems. > > > Details on the solution: > > Several packages that were present in SL6.2 have been placed in the security > tree for SL6.1 and SL6.0.[1] They have been working on 6.2 for some time > now, and I have many reports of things working as expected for people using > them. SL6.0-SL6.2 have also received some driver updates that will be > present in SL6.3. It is believed that this is exactly what upstream has > done for their release. > > > Forward looking resolution: > > A bug has been filed with upstream to have the 'conflicts' section updated. > The upstream bug number is 840078. If the fix listed there is placed in the > next version of this rpm by upstream the problem should not reoccur. > > > Answers to common questions: > > Q: Who was affected? > A: Anyone who was running Scientific Linux 6.0 or 6.1 and dependent on the > xorg-x11-drv provided drivers for running the X server. > > Q: Why didn't you just automatically include all the drivers? > A: We provide the older point releases as an attempt to provide a reasonably > unchanging platform. Many of our users have their applications certified > with very specific versions of things. When putting new security packages > in older releases our approach is simply, "If nothing forces me to add this > package I wont add it." Nothing in the package itself said that these > drivers were required for functionality. Furthermore, with SL6.2 the > x11-xorg-drv-* packages provided with the initial release seem to work just > fine with this new xorg-x11-server package. This is part of the upstream > attempt to preserve a consistent ABI. Usually when the ABI changes this is > noted in either a 'requires' section or a 'conflicts' section. > > Q: Shouldn't I just get new drivers every time there is a new X? > A: Not necessarily. For example, with SL6.1 the wacom and xgi drivers were > identical to the SL6.0 packages. Upstream didn't update them for that > release. And with 6.3 the only updated drivers are currently for ati, > intel, mga, and wacom. If they didn't rebuild it there shouldn't be a need > for us to rebuild it. > > Q: Can you just make it your policy to release X drivers every time there is > a new X? > A: If this is something you need, I would encourage you to instead move to > the 6x release. As we are trying to keep the releases as unchanging as > possible while remaining secure. Adding non-security packages only happens > to resolve dependency issues. > > Q: Some of these packages are from February, aren't they too old? > A: No, the packages from February are those that came with SL6.2. They have > been working for a while with the updated xorg ABI. The packages are 'new' > to 6.1 and 6.0, but have been around since February as a part of the SL6.2 > tree. > > Q: Why did it take 3 days to fix? > A: Many of the early problem reports required additional research. Several > of the people reporting problems are many hours off from the people working > with them to get more information. Additionally, several users were quick > to discover moving to 6.2 corrected the issue. This was wonderful, however, > many people simply moved to SL6.2 rather than installing the packages posted > to testing. This makes sense as SL6.2 was available instantly, while the > testing packages were being assembled and having their dependencies checked. > This is not a criticism of that solution. However, getting independent > verification that the packages in testing actually fixed the problem was a > priority before they got pushed out. If they had compounded the issue > rather than resolving it, the additional problems would have further made a > mess of things. Once reports came in from two community members that the > packages in testing fixed the issue, they were pushed. > > > > > [1] > list of 6.2 packages published to 6.0 and 6.1 > > i386: > xorg-x11-drivers-7.3-13.3.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-acecad-1.5.0-3.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-aiptek-1.4.1-2.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-apm-1.2.3-2.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-ast-0.91.10-1.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-cirrus-1.3.2-2.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-dummy-0.3.4-1.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-elographics-1.3.0-2.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-evdev-2.6.0-2.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-evdev-devel-2.6.0-2.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-fbdev-0.4.2-2.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-fpit-1.4.0-2.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-geode-2.11.12-1.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-glint-1.2.5-1.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-hyperpen-1.4.1-2.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-i128-1.3.4-1.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-i740-1.3.2-2.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-keyboard-1.6.0-1.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-mach64-6.9.0-1.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-mouse-1.7.0-4.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-mutouch-1.3.0-2.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-neomagic-1.2.5-1.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-nouveau-0.0.16-13.20110719gitde9d1ba.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-nv-2.1.18-2.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-openchrome-0.2.904-4.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-openchrome-devel-0.2.904-4.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-penmount-1.5.0-2.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-qxl-0.0.14-13.el6_2.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-r128-6.8.1-3.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-rendition-4.2.4-1.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-s3virge-1.10.4-2.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-savage-2.3.2-1.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-siliconmotion-1.7.5-1.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-sis-0.10.3-1.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-sisusb-0.9.4-1.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-synaptics-1.4.1-3.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-synaptics-devel-1.4.1-3.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-tdfx-1.4.3-2.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-trident-1.3.4-1.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-v4l-0.2.0-4.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-vesa-2.3.0-2.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-vmmouse-12.7.0-1.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-vmware-11.0.3-1.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-void-1.4.0-1.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-voodoo-1.2.4-1.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-xgi-1.6.0-11.el6.i686.rpm > > x86_64: > xorg-x11-drv-acecad-1.5.0-3.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-aiptek-1.4.1-2.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-apm-1.2.3-2.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-ast-0.91.10-1.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-cirrus-1.3.2-2.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-dummy-0.3.4-1.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-elographics-1.3.0-2.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-evdev-2.6.0-2.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-evdev-devel-2.6.0-2.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-evdev-devel-2.6.0-2.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-fbdev-0.4.2-2.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-fpit-1.4.0-2.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-glint-1.2.5-1.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-hyperpen-1.4.1-2.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-i128-1.3.4-1.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-i740-1.3.2-2.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-keyboard-1.6.0-1.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-mach64-6.9.0-1.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-mouse-1.7.0-4.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-mutouch-1.3.0-2.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-nouveau-0.0.16-13.20110719gitde9d1ba.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-nv-2.1.18-2.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-openchrome-0.2.904-4.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-openchrome-0.2.904-4.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-openchrome-devel-0.2.904-4.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-openchrome-devel-0.2.904-4.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-penmount-1.5.0-2.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-qxl-0.0.14-13.el6_2.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-r128-6.8.1-3.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-rendition-4.2.4-1.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-s3virge-1.10.4-2.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-savage-2.3.2-1.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-siliconmotion-1.7.5-1.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-sis-0.10.3-1.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-sisusb-0.9.4-1.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-synaptics-1.4.1-3.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-synaptics-devel-1.4.1-3.el6.i686.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-synaptics-devel-1.4.1-3.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-tdfx-1.4.3-2.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-trident-1.3.4-1.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-v4l-0.2.0-4.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-vesa-2.3.0-2.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-vmmouse-12.7.0-1.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-vmware-11.0.3-1.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-void-1.4.0-1.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-voodoo-1.2.4-1.el6.x86_64.rpm > xorg-x11-drv-xgi-1.6.0-11.el6.x86_64.rpm