Bug 28415

Summary: rhn_register will register old RHL versions, but that isn't working well later
Product: [Retired] Red Hat Linux Reporter: Göran Uddeborg <goeran>
Component: rhn_registerAssignee: Preston Brown <pbrown>
Status: CLOSED NOTABUG QA Contact: Jay Turner <jturner>
Severity: low Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: 7.1CC: srevivo
Target Milestone: ---   
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: i386   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2001-02-21 15:04:29 UTC Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description Göran Uddeborg 2001-02-20 12:35:46 UTC 
I thought I'd try the rhn_register client for the first time.  I tried this
on a machine with a somewhat mixed collection of RPMs, from 5.1 (Manhattan)
up to 7.0.90 (Fisher).  I've had the policy to upgrade redhat-release as
the last package, so that is still redhat-release-5.1-2.

I used rhn_register-gnome (1.1-1) to register.  It asked me about all info,
collected from the RPMs, and finished with a vague message about an error. 
Looking at the web site showed my system as registered, claimed to run
5.1.  Trying to use up2date gave an error message about incorrect
architecture/release.

To come around this I registered my system "by hand" at the web site
(claiming version 7.0).  And removed the old registration.  After that
things worked as expected.

For the benefit of a user more prone to blaim himself for the error (not me
that is :-), I'd suggest you do some more verification of the input in
rhn_register or in the registration process.  I was in a state where it
wasn't obviouis what was wrong.  Version 5.1 on an i386 isn't an
inconsistent combination as the error message said.  And machine entry
which was registered appeared correct; it was in a sense.
Comment 1 Glen Foster 2001-02-21 15:04:24 UTC 
This defect is considered MUST-FIX for Florence Release-Candidate #2
Comment 2 Preston Brown 2001-02-28 02:49:58 UTC 
fisher wasn't supported by rhn_register; this was made clear in the release
notes.
Comment 3 Jay Turner 2001-03-02 19:03:37 UTC 
We really don't have means of passing a better message back for invalid release
and/or arch than what we are passing.
Comment 4 Göran Uddeborg 2001-03-03 20:06:10 UTC 
About not being supported:  The release notes said "rhn_register, the
registration client for Red Hat Network, is
included, but registrations for the beta will not be accepted."  I interpreted
that as meaning it would not be possible to register a machine as running
release Fisher/7.0.90.  Not that it wouldn't be possible to use the rhn_register
enclosed to register older, supported, releases.  Sorry if I misunderstood
things.

About the message: I wanted to suggest some way to stop this registration in an
earlier stage.  Either that rhn_register knew which releases are possible to
register, or that the server side should refuse to accept registrations for
unsupported/too old versions.  Is this also infeasible?  (Or maybe undesirable?)