Re: [cobalt-security] Kernel patch - tech support view

[Bill Irwin <bill_irwin@xxxxxxxx>]

Hey Folks,

I talked with our Sr. Technician here in the support group. I asked him
for his view on the Kernel issue. His take is there hasn't been any one
indicator of what causes the install to corrupt the system. Many people
have installed it with no problems and others have been unsucessful
resulting in a downed system. 

I think I suspect what is happening. Those people who have decided to
modifiy the system with third party applications or upgrades of services
like Apache likely require a recompile or modification of the kernel.
When the Kernel patch is applied, its assuming an unmodified kernel
(meaning you didn't recompile or otherwise change the kernel). It may be
that those individuals who have "modified" the kernel in some way shape
or form, may be the ones experiencing this failure.

If you have experienced a kernel patch failure, please let me know if
this is the case.

BTW, we have not seen an increase in the amount of problems with the
kernel patch. I've only seen two or three in the last week (and I only
handle the e-mail tech support). I've only had a lot of "worried"
customers who suspect their probs were related to the patch when in fact
it was not.

-- 
Bill Irwin
Technical Support Engineer
Sun Microsystems, Inc.