[OTR-users] gaim-otr hangs on generating key

[Ryan Bourque]

This is a terminal server, so there are a lot of clients being used on
the server.  Once we re-imaged the machine, everything started working
just fine as usual.

On 6/30/05, Ian Goldberg <ian at cypherpunks.ca> wrote:
> The strace (particularly this part:
> > open("/dev/random", O_RDONLY)           = 9
> > select(10, [9], NULL, NULL, {3, 0})     = 1 (in [9], left {3, 0})
> > read(9, "8U>\311\320\25\337\347\375U\356\340\276\35\376\311\355"...,
> > 300) = 85> select(10, [9], NULL, NULL, {3, 0})     = 1 (in [9], left
> > {3, 0})
> > read(9, "\332\10\202Zi\274\344b\6\305\230/T\31\252d\354\317\326"...,
> > 215) = 85> select(10, [9], NULL, NULL, {3, 0})     = 1 (in [9], left
> > {3, 0})
> > read(9, "8\6*\213\253\311/\357U\370?\266L\307b\274\r^\30\rU?\256"...,
> > 130) = 85
> > select(10, [9], NULL, NULL, {3, 0})     = 1 (in [9], left {3, 0})
> > read(9, "5\316.\346\1\336G\16\334\37\315J\200\206\352\273\342\3"...,
> > 45) = 38
> > select(10, [9], NULL, NULL, {3, 0})     = 0 (Timeout)
> > select(10, [9], NULL, NULL, {3, 0})     = 0 (Timeout)
> > select(10, [9], NULL, NULL, {3, 0})     = 0 (Timeout)
> > select(10, [9], NULL, NULL, {3, 0})     = 0 (Timeout)
> > select(10, [9], NULL, NULL, {3, 0})     = 0 (Timeout)
> > select(10, [9], NULL, NULL, {3, 0})     = 0 (Timeout)
> ) leads me to believe that for some reason, your kernel is accumulating
> very little randomness in /dev/random [in fact, none at all for 18
> seconds, here].  That seems odd, as things like disk accesses and mouse
> movements AFAIK add randomness.
> 
> Is this an strace of gaim running on the virtual server, or on a client?
> If it's on the server, I can imagine that the (real) server machine
> isn't giving enough randomness to the virtual server's /dev/urandom.
> But I'm unclear on why one would run gaim on the server, and not on a
> client.
> 
>    - Ian
>