Problems Running under GNU/Hurd

[Werner Koch]

Brent Fulgham <bfulgham at xpsystems.com> writes:

> GPG compiles cleanly under the Hurd, and works perfectly in decryption mode.
> 
> Unfortunately, it hangs when encrypting/signing.  The program opens the
> "output" file (you can see the empty file in the file system) and then gets
> stuck waiting indefinitely.

I have not booted my Hurd system for some month now so I'm glad to
hear that it still compiles fine. 

> I have tracked the problem down to the "rndunix.c" module, and am looking
> for additional information on this code.  Does anyone have a reference on
> the original author, how it is supposed to work, etc.?

Yesterday I wrote a driver for the new EGD and that should be usable
for Hurd too - however I think it would be *much* easier to add
support for /dev/?random to the Hurd (I posted such a request a long
time agon on help-hurd.  But I've heard nothing about any progress.

linux/drivers/char/random.c should be usable for Hurd - the only
problem is to identify parts where to add the hooks for gathering
random from Mach.

> (2)  The rndunix module believes that a device is present for gathering
> random bits, but this device is possibly only implemented as a stub in the
> hurd for now and so the "gather_rnd" routine just waits indefinitely for a

I don't understand this.  Did you try to run ./configure
--disable-dev-random?  The next release will have better configuration
for the random gatherer (I think I can commit this to CVS today).


  Werner


-- 
ceterum censeo RSA esse delendam