[CentOS] glibc-2.5-58.el5_6.2.i686 broken?

Tue Apr 19 03:48:30 UTC 2011
Robert Heller <heller at deepsoft.com>

At Mon, 18 Apr 2011 19:07:04 -0500 CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org> wrote:

> 
> On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 4:16 PM, Tom Sorensen <tsorensen at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > There is a known issue with one of the security updates on that
> > version of glibc.
> >
> > That said, it's still *highly* recommended that you update. There are
> > four CVEs closed by this glibc update, one of which is potentially a
> > remote privilege escalation (and that one is NOT the one that is
> > causing the issue).
> >
> > If, for some reason, you cannot update then you should seriously
> > consider whether or not those systems can connect to the Internet, or
> > if you should get the glibc from Scientific Linux that has the 3
> > patches that do not cause an issue in the meantime.
> 
> For clarification, this bug is only known to be affecting Evolution
> and Gnome-Panel, correct? If so, for most servers, the update should
> not be a concern. I've updated four desktops -- the two with Intel
> video chips are not affected at all. The two with nVidia chipsets and
> proprietary nVidia drivers *are* affected. Since I don't use

Are only the nVidia chipsets + *proprietary* nVidia drivers?  And only
Evolution and Gnome-Panel?  And is it 32-bit AND 64-bit or only 32-bit
(or only 64-bit)?

I have a batch of 32-bit diskless workstations, powered by a 32-bit
server (all but one uses an Intel video chip, and the last is something
else -- not nVidia), one regular workstation (don't think it is nVidia
either).  A 32-bit laptop with a ATI video chip and a 64-bit desktop
with a nVidia video chip, but NOT the proprietary nVidia driver (I have
no use for 3D accel and refuse to mess with nVidia's proprietary
drivers).  All of these machines are still at CentOS 5.5, but I'd like
to update them to 5.6.  Oh, the laptop and the 64-bit workstation are
*my* machines and *I* don't use *any* desktop manager (neither GNome
nore KDE) on either machine.

Oh, no one uses Evolution on any of these machines (one person uses
Thunderbird). 

> Evolution, the "work-around" for me is to issue the "pkill
> gnome-panel" command. Usually doing this once will fix it, but
> sometimes it requires a couple shots.
> 
> I dual-boot into Linux Mint 10 (so I can remotely support my father
> who uses Linux Mint -- I need to be able to replicate his errors when
> he has them). It has a very similar issue, except, in its case, both
> Nautilus and Gnome-Panel do not come up. I have to go to a tty
> terminal and issue the "pkill nautilus" and "pkill gnome-panel"
> commands. I didn't have this problem *until* I updated the video
> driver to nVidia's proprietary one. So, again, it appears it might
> have something to do with the nVidia's driver.

Hmmm.  Proprietary drivers are something I avoid... 


> 
> At any rate, there are work-arounds -- for those who use Evolution,
> the SL update is probably the best. I'm kind of surprised that Red Hat
> has not issued a fix yet.
> 

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933 / heller at deepsoft.com
Deepwoods Software        -- http://www.deepsoft.com/
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