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Date:      Tue, 19 Oct 2004 16:56:25 -0500
From:      Dan Nelson <dnelson@allantgroup.com>
To:        Randy Bush <randy@psg.com>
Cc:        Kris Kennaway <kris@obsecurity.org>
Subject:   Re: multi-user startup failure Pre-seeding PRNG:
Message-ID:  <20041019215625.GE83510@dan.emsphone.com>
In-Reply-To: <16757.35688.795976.719745@ran.psg.com>
References:  <16757.28156.361400.647815@ran.psg.com> <20041019212148.GB93330@xor.obsecurity.org> <16757.35688.795976.719745@ran.psg.com>

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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



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