On 2014-11-06, at 0:36, Konstantin Olchanski <[email protected]> wrote:
> 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. I'd recommend subscribing -devel - where this batch of updates was announced separately when it was provided in testing. > 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). To add more fun, the -504 kernel ABI has changes in some agp... interfaces. Affects at least the nvidia-304 legacy driver. The 304xx packages ElRepo has now seem to be compatible with the -504 kernel, and thus are probably incompatible with earlier ones... -- Stephan Wiesand DESY - DV - Platanenallee 6 15738 Zeuthen, Germany
