Known Issues

Installation Issues

The following are known installation issues for Oracle Linux 9.

Network Installation With PXE Boot Server Fails

While using a PXE boot server to perform a network installation on a UEFI client where Secure Boot is enabled, the installation might fail because the grubx64.efi file can't load the grub configuration file. The grub bootloader switches to the command line mode and the installation process stops at the grub prompt.

To work around this issue, configure the tftpd service to run with the -r blksize option enabled.

If you are using dnsmasq for TFTP services, uncomment the tftp-no-blocksize line in the /etc/dnsmasq.conf file. Then restart the dnsmasq service.

(Bug ID 34233443)

`fwupd` Error Reported During an Oracle Linux 9 Update

During an update from Oracle Linux 9.0 to the current Oracle Linux 9 update release, the installer program might report failures when setting properties for the pesign.service. A message similar to the following might be displayed:

...
Running transaction
...
Running scriptlet: fwupd-1.7.4-2.0.2.el9_0.aarch64                        
3/4
Failed to set unit properties on pesign.service: Unit pesign.service not
found.
...

You can ignore the message. The upgrade successfully completes in the end.

(Bug ID 34760075)

Virtualization Issues

The following are known virtualization issues for Oracle Linux 9

KVM Virtual Machines Panic When Started on Oracle Linux 9 Hosts

The glibc version that's included with Oracle Linux 9 checks for compatibility between a system's CPU and new architectures that are supported. A system might pass the compatibility check. However, the CPU flags that are set on the system after passing the check might be unknown to the KVM virtual machines that are hosted on that system. Consequently, the VMs panic when they're booted.

To work around this issue, run the following command:

virsh edit vm-name

Then, add the following declaration in the virtual machine's XML file:

<cpu mode='host-model' check='partial'/>

The check parameter's partial setting sets libvirt to check the VM's CPU specification before starting a domain. However, the rest of the checking remains on the hypervisor, which can still provide a different virtual CPU.

(Bug ID 34224821)

Virtual Machines Fail to Start at Boot Because the `virbr0` Interface Isn't Available

After reboot, the virbr0 network interface might be missing, which can prevent virtual machines from automatically starting up after boot.

The libvirt daemons on Oracle Linux 9 are modular to handle atomic features within the virtualization environment and are started and run as required, and stopped after two minutes of inactivity. The daemon responsible for setting up the networking interfaces for libvirt is virtnetworkd. This service isn't automatically started when a virtual machine is started.

To work around this issue, enable the virtnetworkd service so that the service starts at boot:

sudo systemctl enable --now virtnetworkd

(Bug ID 34237540)

Kernel Issues

The following are known kernel issues in Oracle Linux 9.

Kdump Might Fail on Some AMD Hardware

Kdump might fail on some AMD hardware that's running the current Oracle Linux release. Impacted hardware includes the AMD EPYC CPU servers.

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

(Bug ID 31274238, 34211826, 34312626)

`flatpak-system-helper` File Access Triggers SELinux Policy Violations

Booting Oracle Linux 9 with a GUI desktop environment that has SELinux enabled can produce SELinux security messages similar to the following:

SELinux is preventing /usr/libexec/flatpak-system-helper from read access on the file passwd.
SELinux is preventing /usr/libexec/flatpak-system-helper from write access on the directory flatpak.
SELinux is preventing /usr/libexec/flatpak-system-helper from watch access on the directory /usr/libexec.

A popup message notifying you of a violation might appear immediately after the installation if the Server with GUI or Workstation with GUI installation profiles are selected and SELinux is enabled and Flatpak installed.

You can continue to use Flatpak with SELinux; however, continued use can result in large numbers of messages to the logs.

To work around this issue, create an SELinux policy module for the flatpak-system-helper service:

ausearch -c 'flatpak-system-' --raw |audit2allow -M my-flatpaksystem
semodule -i my-flatpaksystem.pp

(Bug ID 34321783)

(aarch64) Some GUI Elements Aren't Displayed During Installation and Boot Using VGA Output

During installations on the Arm platform, the Oracle Linux installer does not display some GUI elements, such as the progress update screen, on VGA output. Output is displayed on the serial console, instead.

Additionally, if you install Oracle Linux with GUI on an encrypted disk, for example, by choosing Server with GUI during the installation stage, and VGA is enabled, the password prompt doesn't appear on the VGA output at system boot, and consequently, the boot process can not be completed. The prompt appears only on a serial console, and therefore, you would need to switch to a serial console to provide the password there.

This issue is specific to systems on the Arm platform only and occurs regardless of whether you are using secure boot or non secure boot. Further, the issue applies to Oracle Linux 8 or Oracle Linux 9 systems that use UEKR6 and UEKR7. The issue occurs wherever Plymouth graphical elements are loaded in the GUI.

To resolve these GUI issues and to cause these elements to display on VGA output without using a serial console, add plymouth.ignore-serial-consoles to the kernel command line in the GRUB configuration. For instructions, see the Managing Kernels and System Boot chapter in Oracle Linux 9: Managing Core System Configuration.

(Bug ID 35034465 and 35270637)

Certain SEV Guest Configurations Might Cause Hypervisor CPU Soft-Lockup Warnings

On older generation AMD systems that are based on the AMD Rome processors, such as E2 and E3 systems, a guest with more than 350GB memory that's configured to use Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) memory encryption can trigger a CPU soft-lockup warning on the hypervisor host during guest boot or shutdown operations.

The time that's needed to flush the pinned memory that's being encrypted is proportional to the amount of guest memory. However, with larger amounts of memory in excess of 350GB, the time on the CPU to flush the memory becomes excessive, which consequently triggers a warning. After the memory is flushed, the hypervisor resumes normal operations.

Newer systems that are based on the AMD Milan processor, such as E4 systems, have hardware support that can minimize the time required for flushing the memory. Therefore, the CPU soft-hang issue isn't encountered.

As a workaround, if a SEV enabled guest with more then 350GB of memory is required, create the guest on a system that's based on the AMD Milan processor. If you are using systems with the AMD Rome processor, limit the guest memory to less than 350GB if the guest is configured with SEV memory encryption.

(Bug ID 34050377)

Tuned Profile Packages for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Are Moved

Packages intended for use only on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure instances, such as the tuned-profile-oci-* packages, are available in the ol9_appstream repository. Some of these packages were previously available in the dedicated ol9_oci_included repository but have been moved to avoid cross-channel dependencies.

The tuned-profile packages include profiles intended to run in specific corresponding environments and must be intentionally installed for the correct environment.

Sources for all profiles are included in the tuned source RPM package that is available in the ol9_baseos repository.

(Bug 34867566)