"PRNG is not seeded" error when starting OpenSSH server
 

I just installed Slackware 9.1 on an old box I had laying around. I've spent the last week working out bugs and learning about the OS. This error has me stumped, though.

Whenever I try to start up the OpenSSH SSH server, I get the error "PRNG is not seeded." I've traced it to the call to ssh-keygen in the rc.sshd script, but am not sure what exactly is causing the problem.

Any ideas?

- Kyle

Ahh. Problem solved.

I traced the error back to OpenSSL. I then discoved that /dev/urandom was not functioning. So, I recreated the device and my SSH server seems to be starting up fine.

- Kyle

How do you "re-create" a device?

Generally, you would use mknod with the correct parameters (type of device, major, and minor number). See the man page for more details.

In my case, I seem to recall the problem being that the system device file package (a/devs-*.tgz) did not get installed properly when I setup the system. /dev/urandom may not have even existed. Reinstalling the package solved the problem.

Kyle

v""PRNG is not seeded" error when starting OpenSSH server" update
 

Thanks guys for the suggestions. The problem appears to be random and a retry of the command line generally makes the error disappear. So it remains a mystery. However functionality appears to remain intact.

Thanks much.