Re: [CentOS] A Blast from the past

2021-08-18 Thread Johnny Hughes
On 8/17/21 11:14 AM, Jonathan Billings wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 17, 2021 at 05:02:02PM +0100, Mark Woolfson wrote:
>> Unfortunately the manufacturer of our application software will only support
>> it on RHEL/CentOS 7.0. I have asked and that is all they say.
> 
> This is absurd.  The 7.0 kernel has so many vulnerabilities that are
> well known and well documented, they're forcing you to run a kernel
> that can be trivially exploited.  I would seriously push back with the
> manufacturer.  Does it have a custom kernel module that it requires?
> Or did they only test it on RHEL or CentOS 7.0 and never updated their
> documentation?
> 
> In the past, I've asked vendors that tried this kind of nonsense if
> they're willing to indemnify their customers for any security issues
> that arise as a result of using their product. Feel free to list all
> the CVEs in the current CentOS 7 kernel.  I see there are 1,125 CVEs
> mentioned in the kernel changelog. It won't hold any legal water, most
> likely, but it might get someone to at least look closer at the issue. 
> 

Both Stephen and Jonathon have hit on this .. But you need to tell your
vendor that a 7.0 kernel is vulnerable and that they need to support
newer versions.

There are so many security vulnerabilities in RHEL/CentOS from 7.0 to
7.9 .. many of them remotely exploitable.  And this is true for all
packages, not just the kernel.

If you have a RHEL/CentOS 7.0 machine running and touching the internet
without security updates .. you probably no longer are running it.
Certainly, not by yourself.


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Re: [CentOS] A Blast from the past

2021-08-17 Thread Michael Schumacher


> I changed the processor to an Ice Lake and I get the problem below when I
> boot the working Haswell disk.

Did you try to update your BIOS to the most recent version? Most BIOS updates 
add code to handle more recent CPUs.

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Re: [CentOS] A Blast from the past

2021-08-17 Thread Simon Matter
> Thank you for your feedback.
>
> Unfortunately the manufacturer of our application software will only
> support
> it on RHEL/CentOS 7.0. I have asked and that is all they say.
> When the CentOS 7.0 boots it does not recognise the CPU ID, flags it as a
> soft error then continues.
> The Haswell and the Ice Lake both have 28 cores but different frequencies.
> A couple of clues. At the boot prompt the server cooling fans are running
> slowly. When it hangs, after a short delay, the fans run faster and this
> is
> repeated.
> Also, when it hangs the keyboard is unresponsive and the server status
> LED's
> state that all is okay.
> If Intel adhere to the x86_64 standard for their processors then surely
> the
> only difference would be the addition functionality.
> I am trying to find a resolution as this particular application is perfect
> for our requirements.
> Mark

But, if you only install the newer kernel, does your application work on
it? If so, why not just run it that way?

Apart from that, you could install a current distribution on the host and
then let the application server run in a KVM instance. That way you can
fine tune what kind of CPU/features are provided to the VM.

Regards,
Simon

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Re: [CentOS] A Blast from the past

2021-08-17 Thread Jonathan Billings
On Tue, Aug 17, 2021 at 05:02:02PM +0100, Mark Woolfson wrote:
> Unfortunately the manufacturer of our application software will only support
> it on RHEL/CentOS 7.0. I have asked and that is all they say.

This is absurd.  The 7.0 kernel has so many vulnerabilities that are
well known and well documented, they're forcing you to run a kernel
that can be trivially exploited.  I would seriously push back with the
manufacturer.  Does it have a custom kernel module that it requires?
Or did they only test it on RHEL or CentOS 7.0 and never updated their
documentation?

In the past, I've asked vendors that tried this kind of nonsense if
they're willing to indemnify their customers for any security issues
that arise as a result of using their product. Feel free to list all
the CVEs in the current CentOS 7 kernel.  I see there are 1,125 CVEs
mentioned in the kernel changelog. It won't hold any legal water, most
likely, but it might get someone to at least look closer at the issue. 

-- 
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Re: [CentOS] A Blast from the past

2021-08-17 Thread Stephen John Smoogen
On Tue, 17 Aug 2021 at 12:02, Mark Woolfson  wrote:
>
> Thank you for your feedback.
>
> Unfortunately the manufacturer of our application software will only support
> it on RHEL/CentOS 7.0. I have asked and that is all they say.
> When the CentOS 7.0 boots it does not recognise the CPU ID, flags it as a
> soft error then continues.
> The Haswell and the Ice Lake both have 28 cores but different frequencies.
> A couple of clues. At the boot prompt the server cooling fans are running
> slowly. When it hangs, after a short delay, the fans run faster and this is
> repeated.
> Also, when it hangs the keyboard is unresponsive and the server status LED's
> state that all is okay.
> If Intel adhere to the x86_64 standard for their processors then surely the
> only difference would be the addition functionality.
> I am trying to find a resolution as this particular application is perfect
> for our requirements.

You will either need an older computer or a different application. A
company which only supports a .0 version of an OS usually means they
aren't really supporting their customers. They are expecting you to
run an application on an OS without any security updates or
improvements. There are 7 years of CVE's in the kernel, libraries and
other parts the customer has to live with if they want the
application. Good luck.



-- 
Stephen J Smoogen.
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Flame wars in
sci.astro.orion. I have seen SPAM filters overload because of Godwin's
Law. All those moments will be lost in time... like posts on  BBS...
time to reboot.
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Re: [CentOS] A Blast from the past

2021-08-17 Thread Mark Woolfson
Thank you for your feedback.

Unfortunately the manufacturer of our application software will only support
it on RHEL/CentOS 7.0. I have asked and that is all they say.
When the CentOS 7.0 boots it does not recognise the CPU ID, flags it as a
soft error then continues.
The Haswell and the Ice Lake both have 28 cores but different frequencies.
A couple of clues. At the boot prompt the server cooling fans are running
slowly. When it hangs, after a short delay, the fans run faster and this is
repeated.
Also, when it hangs the keyboard is unresponsive and the server status LED's
state that all is okay.
If Intel adhere to the x86_64 standard for their processors then surely the
only difference would be the addition functionality.
I am trying to find a resolution as this particular application is perfect
for our requirements.
Mark
-Original Message-
From: CentOS  On Behalf Of Phil Perry
Sent: 17 August 2021 16:43
To: centos@centos.org
Subject: Re: [CentOS] A Blast from the past

On 17/08/2021 16:34, Simon Matter wrote:
>> Hello,
>> Can you please help with an interesting problem.
>> I have an Intel Haswell based processor with CentOS 7.0 with an early 
>> kernel booting and running perfectly.
>> I changed the processor to an Ice Lake and I get the problem below 
>> when I boot the working Haswell disk.
>> The boot process hangs almost immediately and when I remove the 'quiet'
>> boot
>> parameter I see that it hangs randomly, usually with a high CPU 
>> number, when SMPBOOT is starting up the cores.
>> The only solution I have found is to boot with the 'nr_cpus=8 (could 
>> be any low number), update to the latest kernel then reboot with the 
>> 'nr_cpus=8'
>> parameter removed.
>> On examination there are no problems with CentOS 7.4 and above but 
>> there are with CentOS 7.3 and below.
> 
> I think the issue is quite clear here: the newer CPU is not handled 
> correctly by the old kernel - maybe it even doesn't know this CPU type 
> and doesn't know how to detect the number of cores it has.
> 
> I don't think there is a better solution than what you already did.
> 
> Regards,
> Simon
> 

Exactly what I was thinking. CentOS 7.0 released in 2014, Intel Ice Lake
released at least 5 years later so there will be no support for Ice Lake in
the CentOS 7.0 kernel. I'm surprised there is any support in 7.4. Why are
you not using the latest release?

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Re: [CentOS] A Blast from the past

2021-08-17 Thread Phil Perry

On 17/08/2021 16:34, Simon Matter wrote:

Hello,
Can you please help with an interesting problem.
I have an Intel Haswell based processor with CentOS 7.0 with an early
kernel
booting and running perfectly.
I changed the processor to an Ice Lake and I get the problem below when I
boot the working Haswell disk.
The boot process hangs almost immediately and when I remove the 'quiet'
boot
parameter I see that it hangs randomly, usually with a high CPU number,
when
SMPBOOT is starting up the cores.
The only solution I have found is to boot with the 'nr_cpus=8 (could be
any
low number), update to the latest kernel then reboot with the 'nr_cpus=8'
parameter removed.
On examination there are no problems with CentOS 7.4 and above but there
are
with CentOS 7.3 and below.


I think the issue is quite clear here: the newer CPU is not handled
correctly by the old kernel - maybe it even doesn't know this CPU type and
doesn't know how to detect the number of cores it has.

I don't think there is a better solution than what you already did.

Regards,
Simon



Exactly what I was thinking. CentOS 7.0 released in 2014, Intel Ice Lake 
released at least 5 years later so there will be no support for Ice Lake 
in the CentOS 7.0 kernel. I'm surprised there is any support in 7.4. Why 
are you not using the latest release?


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Re: [CentOS] A Blast from the past

2021-08-17 Thread Simon Matter
> Hello,
> Can you please help with an interesting problem.
> I have an Intel Haswell based processor with CentOS 7.0 with an early
> kernel
> booting and running perfectly.
> I changed the processor to an Ice Lake and I get the problem below when I
> boot the working Haswell disk.
> The boot process hangs almost immediately and when I remove the 'quiet'
> boot
> parameter I see that it hangs randomly, usually with a high CPU number,
> when
> SMPBOOT is starting up the cores.
> The only solution I have found is to boot with the 'nr_cpus=8 (could be
> any
> low number), update to the latest kernel then reboot with the 'nr_cpus=8'
> parameter removed.
> On examination there are no problems with CentOS 7.4 and above but there
> are
> with CentOS 7.3 and below.

I think the issue is quite clear here: the newer CPU is not handled
correctly by the old kernel - maybe it even doesn't know this CPU type and
doesn't know how to detect the number of cores it has.

I don't think there is a better solution than what you already did.

Regards,
Simon

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Re: [CentOS] A Blast from the past

2021-08-17 Thread Mark Woolfson
Hello,
Can you please help with an interesting problem.
I have an Intel Haswell based processor with CentOS 7.0 with an early kernel
booting and running perfectly.
I changed the processor to an Ice Lake and I get the problem below when I
boot the working Haswell disk.
The boot process hangs almost immediately and when I remove the 'quiet' boot
parameter I see that it hangs randomly, usually with a high CPU number, when
SMPBOOT is starting up the cores.
The only solution I have found is to boot with the 'nr_cpus=8 (could be any
low number), update to the latest kernel then reboot with the 'nr_cpus=8'
parameter removed.
On examination there are no problems with CentOS 7.4 and above but there are
with CentOS 7.3 and below.
Mark



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