openssh unix dev - Dec 2001 - mips/mipsel problem

Hi,

There seems to be a problem with the arc4random code on mips/mipsel,
producing the following error message:

Couldn't obtain random bytes (error 604389476)

To quote the bug submitter:
"On mips and mipsel, the above error message is frequently seen when
calling
ssh with a command, usually several times in rapid succession,
although that
is not always the case.  The error appears to come from the OpenBSD
compat code
for arc4random, even if arc4 is not the cipher in use!

What the error number means I am not sure of, as it comes from inside
SSL, and I can't tell what it means from a quick glance at the code. 
A call to one of the more descriptive error calls at this point may be
a good idea.

So I can see two possible things to help the problem:
1. report a more verbose error message so that one might understand
why it
   is failing so it might be fixed.
2. don't initialize the arc4 random routines if arc4 is not used."

I don't have a mips/mipsel box to hand, so I can't comment
myself. Full details are at:

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=115767&repeatmerged=yes

Matthew

-- 
"At least you know where you are with Microsoft."
"True. I just wish I'd brought a paddle."
http://www.debian.org

On 1 Dec 2001, Matthew Vernon wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> There seems to be a problem with the arc4random code on mips/mipsel,
> producing the following error message:
> 
> Couldn't obtain random bytes (error 604389476)
That error is caused because an OpenSSL RAND_bytes() call is failing. 
You need to investiagte why that is happening. Does the MIPS have 
/dev/urandom?

-d

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