From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Oct 19 21:56:26 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BCC0316A4CE for ; Tue, 19 Oct 2004 21:56:26 +0000 (GMT) Received: from dan.emsphone.com (dan.emsphone.com [199.67.51.101]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 661D243D3F for ; Tue, 19 Oct 2004 21:56:26 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from dan@dan.emsphone.com) Received: (from dan@localhost) by dan.emsphone.com (8.12.11/8.12.11) id i9JLuP7I021815; Tue, 19 Oct 2004 16:56:25 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from dan) Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 16:56:25 -0500 From: Dan Nelson To: Randy Bush Message-ID: <20041019215625.GE83510@dan.emsphone.com> References: <16757.28156.361400.647815@ran.psg.com> <20041019212148.GB93330@xor.obsecurity.org> <16757.35688.795976.719745@ran.psg.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <16757.35688.795976.719745@ran.psg.com> X-OS: FreeBSD 5.3-BETA7 X-message-flag: Outlook Error User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.6i cc: FreeBSD Current cc: Kris Kennaway Subject: Re: multi-user startup failure Pre-seeding PRNG: X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 21:56:26 -0000 In the last episode (Oct 19), Randy Bush said: > >> lock up while going multi-user. last message on console is > >> "Pre-seeding PRNG:" > >> this is an old problem. it is solved by removing the 'sysctl -a;' > >> from > >> /etc/rc.d/preseedrandom > >> /etc/rc.d/initrandom > > The real question is: why is 'sysctl -a' hanging? > > of course. considering that it will lock up the system and > all i will be able to do is take a digital camera picture > (no serial port on thinkpad t4x), what would you suggest i > do to help refine the problem? Does it really lock up, or does sysctl just not return? Can you hit ^C? Does ^T print anything? Can you break into the debugger via Ctrl-Alt-ESC? After you comment them out, does "sysctl -a" lock the system if you run it after the system boots up? Something to try might be to change the script to run "truss sysctl -a" and remove the 2>/dev/null, which should list all the syscalls it does to the screen and you can tell which one it is hanging on (or at least the last one that worked). -- Dan Nelson dnelson@allantgroup.com