The default color scheme with color ls has changed for some reason in Red Hat 6.2. The default color for dead symlinks is _flashing_ white on a red background. This is very hard on the eyes, especially when you need to work in directories containing dead symlinks. Since this is quite annoying, I think the default for any colors used by "ls" should be non-flashing and also preferably with a black background. Basically, the way it was in Red Hat 6.1 and earlier. After commenting about it on the zoot-list, I received back many private comments from people in agreement. I'll bet that the majority of users will not want their screen flashing over a simple little thing like a dead symlink. As such, I figured that I might as well request that it be changed back in hopes that the gods above are listening. ;o)
This is normal and can be edited in /etc/DIR_COLORS. I agree the colours for broken links is not very comfortable. ORPHAN 01;05;37;40 # orphaned syminks MISSING 01;01;36;40 # ... and the files they point to These are my colours now. Also flashing, but on a black background.
The general agreement here is that users should be made aware of problems - including by flashing symlinks. If you don't like it, edit /etc/DIR_COLORS or ~/.dircolors to turn it off. See man dircolors for details. Red Hat Linux 6.1 and earlier didn't do color ls, there's no way we're going back to that.