1. Release Notes for Oracle Linux 7.8
  2. Known Issues

5 Known Issues

WARNING:

Oracle Linux 7 is now in Extended Support. See Oracle Linux Extended Support and Oracle Open Source Support Policies for more information.

Migrate applications and data to Oracle Linux 8 or Oracle Linux 9 as soon as possible.

This chapter describes known issues in Oracle Linux 7.8. Some issues may apply to both the x86_64 and Arm (aarch64) platforms. For known issues that impact the Arm platform only, see Known Issues (aarch64).

For any additional issues that are specific to the UEK kernel you are using, refer to the release notes for your UEK release in the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel documentation library.

Installation, Upgrade, and Boot Issues

The following issues might be encountered during an Oracle Linux 7.8 installation or upgrade.

Upgrade from ULN fails if the openscap-containers package is installed

Upgrading from Oracle Linux 7.7 to Oracle Linux 7.8 by installing packages from ULN fails if the openscap-containers package is already installed on the system that you are upgrading.

You can prevent this issue from occurring by removing the openscap-containers package prior to upgrading to Oracle Linux 7.8: 

sudo yum -y remove openscap-containers

(Bug ID 30686371)

Graphical installer allows users to edit kickstart settings

Note:

The following issue applies to both x86_64 and 64-bit Arm platforms.

When performing a graphical installation, where some installation options are already set by using a kickstart configuration file, it is still possible to modify these settings by clicking the various fields during the installation and then editing the predefined content. These types of edits during the installation process require you to intentionally attempt to modify the setting, which effectively enables an interactive installation, where options that are set in the kickstart configuration are not secured by any policy.

Note that this type of change is not possible when performing a text installation. During a text installation, you can only modify fields that have not already been defined in the kickstart configuration file.

(Bug ID 28642357)

Graphical installer does not produce error when unacceptable Kdump value is entered

A minor upstream usability error applies to the graphical installer when configuring Kdump settings. In the case where you attempt to configure a manual kdump memory reservation, and you set the memory reservation value to an unacceptable value, the installer allows you to click Done and return to the Installation Summary screen without producing a warning or error message.

When you select an unacceptable value, the installer resets the value to the last known acceptable value that was entered or to the default minimum value of 512 MB. Note that this information is not displayed in the Installation Summary screen. Because an incorrect value cannot be stored for this parameter, the installation succeeds even when incorrect information is entered.

This issue does not occur with the text-based installer, which returns an error if you enter an unacceptable value and then prevents you from continuing until an acceptable value is entered.

(Bug IDs 31133351, 31182708)

Graphical installer does not display the reserved memory that is manually set for Kdump

A minor usability error applies to the graphical installer when configuring Kdump settings. If you manually change the default memory size that is reserved for Kdump, the new setting is not displayed when the screen is refreshed. Instead, only the values for the total system memory and usable system memory are displayed. Consequently, the limits for the parameter "Memory to be reserved (Mb)" become unknown for future Kdump configuration.

Note:

The default settings for Kdump memory reservation of auto is adequate as the kernel will determine what size to use when it boots

(Bug IDs 31133287 and 31182699)

FCoE boot fails on HPE servers with HPE FlexFabric adapters

This issue is caused by a known limitation that the bnx2x and bnx2fc drivers have with the Option Card Black Box - Active Health (OCBB) feature when the input–output memory management unit (IOMMU) is enabled. The issue occurs because the network adapter firmware attempts to access a memory area that is not assigned network devices when bringing the interface up/down, or when loading/unloading the driver. When this issue occurs, you must reboot the system.

As a workaround, you must specify intel_iommu=off in the kernel boot parameters.

(Bug ID 30102871)

Installation on an iSCSI disk

When installing on an iSCSI disk, you must add rd.iscsi.ibft=1 to the boot command line and then specify at least one MBR or GPT-formatted disk as an installation target. Otherwise, the installation fails with the the following error message: No valid boot loader target device found.

Note:

Any prior instruction to use the ip=ibft is no longer valid, as this option is now fully deprecated.

(Bug ID 22076589 and 30155659)

Information about installation on an HPE 3PAR TPVV

If you have not applied a Thin Persistence license to an HPE 3PAR storage array, the installation fails to create a file system on a thin provisioned virtual volume (TPVV). This license is required to support the low-level SCSI UNMAP command for storage reclamation. If you do not have a suitable license, the workaround is to use a fully provisioned virtual volume (FPVV) instead of a TPVV.

(Bug ID 22140852)

Installation fails on Aura7 NVMe device

Installation fails if the target device is an Aura7 NVMe add-in card with two block devices. Although the card has two independent NVMe controllers and devices, they are assigned identical WWIDs. The multipath device mapper maps the two block devices to the same WWID, resulting in a bogus multipath configuration, which prevents installation.

To work around this issue, disable multipath for the installation at boot time by using the installer boot argument nompath. After the installation completes, blocklist the NVMe block devices for the multipath configuration on the system by editing the /etc/multipath.conf file. Or, you can disable device mapper multipath altogether. See Oracle Linux 7: Administrator's Guide for more information about configuring multipath.

(Bug ID 27638939)

Upgrade fails if open files limit is too low and rpm-plugin-systemd-inhibit is installed

Note:

The following issue applies to both x86_64 and 64-bit Arm platforms.

An upgrade from Oracle Linux 7.6 can fail if the log-in session open files limit is set too low and the system that is being upgraded includes multiple packages from many channels or repositories. This issue can be triggered if the rpm-plugin-systemd-inhibit package is installed and the session is configured for a maximum open file limit that is lower than 4096. The issue typically results in the yum command failing to update and produces error messages similar to the following: 

Verifying  : glib2-static-2.56.1-1.el7.i686
glib2-static-2.56.1-1.el7.i686 was supposed to be installed but is not!

To resolve this issue, set the open file limit to 4096 before running the yum update command, for example: 

sudo ulimit -n 4096
sudo yum update -y

(Bug ID 28720235)

32-bit RDMA packages are installed when upgrading a system that has rdma-core installed

For upgrades prior to Oracle Linux 7.4, where the rdma-core.noarch package is installed, 32-bit versions of the packages, as well as many dependencies are also installed unnecessarily. This problem occurs because the original version of the package is obsoleted. Thus, during upgrade, the package is replaced with both the rdma-core.i686 and rdma-core.x86_64 versions of the package, along with any dependencies for those packages.

To work around the issue, run the yum update command with the --exclude=\*.i686 option, for example: 

sudo yum update --exclude=\*.i686

(Bug ID 28217831)

Package Conflict: PackageKit.i686 and PackageKit.x86_64

The PackageKit.i686 package in the ol7_x86_64_optional_latest ULN channel conflicts with the PackageKit.x86_64 package in the ol7_x86_64_u6_base channel. Attempting to install both packages results in a transaction check error similar to the following: 

Transaction check error:
  file /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/packagekit/__init__.pyc from install
of PackageKit-version.el7.i686 conflicts with file from package
PackageKit-version.el7.x86_64
  file /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/packagekit/__init__.pyo from install
of PackageKit-version.el7.i686 conflicts with file from package
PackageKit-version.el7.x86_64
  file /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/packagekit/backend.pyc from install
of PackageKit-version.el7.i686 conflicts with file from package
PackageKit-version.el7.x86_64
  file /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/packagekit/backend.pyo from install
of PackageKit-version.el7.i686 conflicts with file from package
PackageKit-version.el7.x86_64
  file /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/packagekit/enums.pyc from install of
PackageKit-version.el7.i686 conflicts with file from package
PackageKit-version.el7.x86_64
  file /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/packagekit/enums.pyo from install of
PackageKit-version.el7.i686 conflicts with file from package
PackageKit-version.el7.x86_64
  file /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/packagekit/filter.pyc from install of
PackageKit-version.el7.i686 conflicts with file from package
PackageKit-version.el7.x86_64
  file /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/packagekit/filter.pyo from install of
PackageKit-version.el7.i686 conflicts with file from package
PackageKit-version.el7.x86_64
  file /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/packagekit/misc.pyc from install of
PackageKit-version.el7.i686 conflicts with file from package
PackageKit-version.el7.x86_64
  file /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/packagekit/misc.pyo from install of
PackageKit-version.el7.i686 conflicts with file from package
PackageKit-version.el7.x86_64
  file /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/packagekit/package.pyc from install
of PackageKit-version.el7.i686 conflicts with file from package
PackageKit-version.el7.x86_64
  file /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/packagekit/package.pyo from install
of PackageKit-version.el7.i686 conflicts with file from package
PackageKit-version.el7.x86_64
  file /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/packagekit/progress.pyc from install
of PackageKit-version.el7.i686 conflicts with file from package
PackageKit-version.el7.x86_64
  file /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/packagekit/progress.pyo from install
of PackageKit-version.el7.i686 conflicts with file from package
PackageKit-version.el7.x86_64

You may only install one of these packages on the same system at the same time. To avoid this conflict, exclude the PackageKit.i686 package in your yum configuration. For more information about how to exclude packages during an installation, see Oracle Linux: Unbreakable Linux Network User's Guide for Oracle Linux 6 and Oracle Linux 7.

(Bug ID 24963661)

Database installation and operation fails if RemoveIPC=yes is configured for systemd

If the RemoveIPC=yes setting is configured for systemd, interprocess communication (IPC) is terminated for a non-system user's processes when that user logs out. This setting, which is intended for use on laptop systems, can cause software problems on servers. For example, if the user is a database software owner such as oracle for Oracle Database, this configuration can cause a database installation to fail or database services to crash.

By default, Oracle Linux 7.8 configures RemoveIPC=no in the /etc/systemd/logind.conf file to prevent systemd from terminating IPC. However, if you have touched this file before updating your system to Oracle Linux 7.8, the update installs the new version of the file as /etc/systemd/logind.conf.rpmnew and does not set RemoveIPC=no in the /etc/systemd/logind.conf file. To avoid database crashes, set RemoveIPC=no in the /etc/systemd/logind.conf file and then run the systemctl reboot command to reboot the system.

(Bug ID 22224874)

Automatic Bug Reporting Tool

Note:

The following information pertains to both x86_64 and 64-bit Arm platforms.

The automated reporting daemons and features provided by the Red Hat Automatic Bug Reporting Tool (ABRT) are not supported with Oracle Linux

ABRT packages and associated files, such as libreport, are included in the distribution to satisfy package dependencies and can be used to generate local bug reports but the features to automatically upload these reports are not supported. For technical assistance, contact Oracle Support by using the My Oracle Support portal or by telephone.

File Systems Issues

The following file systems issues are encountered when running Oracle Linux 7.8.

XFS: No support for reflink feature in RHCK

If an XFS file system is created with support for the reflink feature with the UEK R5 kernel, you cannot mount the XFS file system with the RHCK kernel. The file system can only be mounted as read-only.

(Bug ID 30119906)

XFS: No support for real-time devices in RHCK

If an XFS file system is created with support for real-time devices with the UEK R5 kernel, you cannot mount the XFS file system with the RHCK kernel.

(Bug ID 30115269)

grubby fatal error during kernel upgrade when /boot is on a BTRFS subvolume

Note:

The following issue applies to both x86_64 and 64-bit Arm platforms.

If /boot is hosted on a Btrfs subvolume, GRUB 2 is unable to correctly process the initramfs and vmlinuz path names. This problem occurs when you update or install a new kernel and then grubby attempts to update the GRUB 2 configuration. In the case where you are running a fresh installation of Oracle Linux 7.8, and you upgrade the RHCK or UEK kernel, the following error is displayed: 

grubby fatal error: unable to find a suitable template

After the kernel update, when the system is rebooted, it boots the old kernel.

The workaround for this problem is to use grub2-mkconfig to regenerate the /etc/grub2/grub.cfg file, or /etc/grub2-efi.cfg file on a UEFI booted system, immediately after the kernel has been installed or upgraded, for example: 

sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

Obtain a listing of the kernel menu entries in the generated configuration as follows: 

grep -P "submenu|^menuentry" /boot/grub2/grub.cfg | cut -d "'" -f2

From the listing, select the kernel entry that you want to run as the default kernel and set this entry as the default by using the following command: 

sudo grub2-set-default "menu entry title"

In the previous command, menu entry title is the title of the kernel entry that you identified in the listing.

You can use the grub2-editenv list command to check that the saved_entry has been updated with the selected kernel menu title.

Reboot the system and use uname -a to check that the correct kernel is now running.

(Bug ID 22750169)

Hebrew LaTeX fonts

Note:

The following information applies to both x86_64 and 64-bit Arm platforms.

Installing the tex-fonts-hebrew package fails unless you first install all of the texlive* packages.

(Bug ID 19059949)

Kdump might fail on some AMD hardware

Kdump might fail on some AMD hardware that is running the current Oracle Linux release. Impacted hardware includes the AMD EPYC CPUs (codename Naples, Rome, and newer) servers.

To work around this issue, modify the /etc/sysconfig/kdump configuration file, remove the "iommu=off" command-line option from KDUMP_COMMANDLINE_APPEND, then restart the kdump service for the changes to take effect.

(Bug ID 31127379)

InfiniBand Issues

The following are issues that you might encounter when using InfiniBand devices.

Kdump might fail due to an incorrect InfiniBand Adapter M3 Firmware version

Kdump might fail on Oracle Linux 7.8 if the Oracle Dual Port QDR InfiniBand Adapter M3 Firmware version 2.31.5350 is installed.

To prevent this issue from occurring, update the Oracle Dual Port QDR InfiniBand Adapter M3 Firmware version to at least 2.31.5350.

(Bug ID 26351183)

Disabling an InfiniBand CA port generates warnings

You might see the following warning messages if you use the ibportstate disable command to disable an InfiniBand CA or router port: 

ibwarn: [2696] _do_madrpc: recv failed: Connection timed out
ibwarn: [2696] mad_rpc: _do_madrpc failed; dport (Lid 38)
ibportstate: iberror: failed: smp set portinfo failed

You can safely ignore these warnings.

(Bug ID 16248314)

Snapshots of KVM guests that use UEFI fail and are unsupported

Note:

The following issue applies to both x86_64 and 64-bit Arm platforms.

You cannot create snapshots of KVM guests if they use UEFI. In older versions of QEMU and libvirt, the tools might allow you to create the snapshot without an error or warning, but the snapshot could be corrupted. More recent versions of these tools prevent snapshot creation by producing an error similar to the following: 

virsh # snapshot-create-as OL7-seboot
error: Operation not supported: internal snapshots of a VM with pflash based
firmware are not supported

(Bug ID 26826800)

KVM guests with LSI MegaRAID SAS ISCSI controller limited to 7 virtual disks

An Oracle Linux 7.8 KVM guest that is using the LSI MegaRAID SAS ISCSI controller is limited to 7 virtual disks. Although KVM guests can have up to 8 ISCSI virtual disks, the LSI MegaRAID SAS controller uses the first slot for the ISCSI Initiator, leaving just the 7 slots remaining for virtual disks.

The workaround for this issue is to use the megasas controller instead of the lsi controller when creating ISCSI virtual disks. For example, change -device lsi to -device megasas, as shown in following examples: 

sudo /usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64 -machine accel=kvm -m 8192 -smp 8 \
-drive file=/path/OracleLinux-7.6-x86_64.qcow2,format=qcow2,if=none,id=disk \  
-device ide-hd,bus=ide.0,unit=0,drive=disk,bootindex=0 -device lsi,id=lsi0 \ 
-drive  file=/path/disk1.img,format=raw,if=none,id=drive_image1 \
-device scsi-hd,id=image1,drive=drive_image1,bus=lsi0.0 \
...
sudo /usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64 -machine accel=kvm -m 8192 -smp 8 \
-drive file=/path/OracleLinux-7.6-x86_64.qcow2,format=qcow2,if=none,id=disk \  
-device ide-hd,bus=ide.0,unit=0,drive=disk,bootindex=0 -device megasas,id=lsi0 \ 
-drive  file=/path/disk1.img,format=raw,if=none,id=drive_image1 \
-device scsi-hd,id=image1,drive=drive_image1,bus=lsi0.0 \
...

(Bug 27681238)

Uninstalling libpcap can result in the removal of a large number of libvirt packages

Note:

The following issue applies to both x86_64 and 64-bit Arm platforms.

The libpcap package is updated to enable functionality for future technologies. If you install this package and then attempt to uninstall it, a large number of libvirt packages might also be uninstalled due to dependency relationships. The libvirt package has a dependency on the libvirt-daemon-driver-nwfiler package and this package has a dependency on libpcap. Removing the libpcap package removes the entire libvirt family of packages.

(Bug ID 28582266)

Unable to create Oracle Linux 7 LXC containers on NFS

Note:

The following issue applies to both x86_64 and 64-bit Arm platforms.

Creating Oracle Linux 7 containers fails when the root file system (/container) is hosted on an NFS share. This problem occurs because the iputils package in Oracle Linux 7 is built to use the Linux file-extended attributes, [xattr(7)] security capabilities(7). Because NFS does not support these file capabilities, the iputils package might not be installed into an NFS files system. For example, when attempting to create an Oracle Linux 7 container, the installation fails while installing the iputils package, producing the following error: 

Error unpacking rpm package iputils-20121221-7.el7.x86_64
error: unpacking of archive failed on file /usr/bin/ping: cpio: cap_set_file
error: iputils-20121221-7.el7.x86_64: install failed

Similar issues are seen when attempting to install the initscripts and systemd packages while creating an Oracle Linux 7 container.

This issue occurs on both NFSv3 and NFSv4. Note that Oracle Linux 6 containers are not affected.

(Bug ID 25024258)

Support for Oracle Linux 7 guests on Oracle VM and Xen

Oracle Linux 7 guests are supported for both hardware virtualization (HVM) and hardware virtualization, with paravirtual drivers (PVHVM) on Oracle VM Release 3. Oracle Linux 7 guests in a paravirtualized domain (PVM) on Oracle VM or other Xen-based hypervisors are not supported.

Oracle Linux 7 guests of any type are not supported on Oracle VM Release 2.

(Bug IDs 18712168, 18667813, 18266964)

Network Issues

The following issues are related to network features and configuration.

Geneve network driver support not available in UEK releases prior to UEK R5

The ip and iproute commands that are included in Oracle Linux 7.8 provide support for Geneve-capable devices. The module for this driver is included with the RHCK, but it is not included in UEK R5.

Note:

The commands that you use to set, add, or view Geneve devices are only functional when used with RHCK or UEK R5.

(Bug ID 24652835)

NetworkManager fails to respond to IPv6 addresses on low priority networks with DHCP on UEK R4

When running UEK R4 on Oracle Linux 7.8, NetworkManager fails to send a response to low priority networks with DHCP on UEK R4. Networks with a higher priority (link-local, IPv6 fe80:/64 routes) take priority over lower priority networks. This behavior might result in the DHCPv6 server failing to send a response to a DHCP client on a lower priority network, even if the network has another output device.

The issue is not encountered if you are running UEK R5, which is the default kernel that is shipped with Oracle Linux 7.8.

(Bug ID 27714775)

Network connection icon reports incorrect state for interfaces

The network connection icon might report that an active network interface is disconnected. This behavior is seen for the root user but not for other users. Command-line utilities such as ip link and ifconfig report the correct state.

(Bug ID 19060089)

Power button defaults to ACPI Suspend

By default, Oracle Linux 7.8 in graphical (GUI) console mode treats the hardware power button as equivalent to the ACPI "Sleep" button, which puts the system into low-power sleep mode. This behavior is specific to GNOME desktop environment.

In previous Oracle Linux releases, the hardware power button initiated a system shutdown. To make Oracle Linux 7.8 behave the same way, create a file named /etc/dconf/db/local.d/01-shutdown-button with the following content: 

[org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/power]
button-power='shutdown'

Then, run the following command: 

sudo dconf update

You must log out of the desktop environment and then log back in for the new setting to take effect. (Bug ID 25597898)

sosreport command issues warnings in Oracle Linux 7.8

Running the sosreport command in this release issues warnings similar to the following: 

[plugin:networking] skipped command 'ip -s macsec show': required kernel
modules or services not present (kmods=[macsec] services=[]). Use
'--allow-system-changes' to enable collection.
[plugin:networking] skipped command 'ss -peaonmi': required kernel modules or
services not present
(kmods=[tcp_diag,udp_diag,inet_diag,unix_diag,netlink_diag,af_packet_diag]
services=[]). Use '--allow-system-changes' to enable collection.

These warnings are expected and are due to a change in the sos package version in Oracle Linux 7.8, which now includes the --allow-system-changes option. The warning is advising you to specify this option whenever you run the sosreport command to ensure that all data is collected correctly and that no system information is omitted from the resulting sosreport.

Note:

When the --allow-system-changes option is specified, it runs all subcommands, even those subcommands that are capable of changing the system, for example, load kernel modules, etc.

(Bug ID 30650012)

Unable to customize guest name during installation with Virtual Machine Manager

Note:

The following issue applies both x86_64 and 64-bit platforms. Note that on the x86_64 platform, this issue only occurs when UEFI firmware is selected for the guest. BIOS-based installations are unaffected.

During an installation with virt-manager, if you select a customized configuration and then edit the Name field to customize the virtual machine (VM) name, an error occurs when you attempt to apply the changes.

The error is similar to the following: 

Error apply changes: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'rfind'

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/virt-manager/virtManager/details.py", line 1887, in
config_apply
    ret = self.config_overview_apply()
  File "/usr/share/virt-manager/virtManager/details.py", line 1979, in
config_overview_apply
    self.vm.rename_domain(self.widget("overview-name").get_text())
  File "/usr/share/virt-manager/virtManager/domain.py", line 596, in
rename_domain
    new_nvram, old_nvram = self._copy_nvram_file(new_name)
  File "/usr/share/virt-manager/virtManager/domain.py", line 571, in
_copy_nvram_file
    nvram_dir = os.path.dirname(old_nvram.path)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/posixpath.py", line 129, in dirname
    i = p.rfind('/') + 1
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'rfind'

This issue is only encountered when attempting to customize the Name field. If you apply any other customizations prior to the installation, such as the Title or Description fields, the installation proceeds normally. If desired, you can edit the Name field after the installation completes without encountering any issues.

(Bug ID 29954660)