Bug#240027: KDM does not start correctly on boot
The problem is that kdm_config blocks when reading /dev/random.
AFAIK, the kernel entropy pool is fed with random events coming from
disk seeks, keyboard input and mouse motions. When the entropy pool is
empty, read accesses to /dev/random will block. Therefore, on a diskless
workstation, kdm_config (and kdm which is waiting for its child to
complete) will block until someone types something on the keyboard.
/dev/urandom is considered less secure than /dev/random (man 4 random),
but never blocks.
As a fix for this kind of situation, in the [General] part of
/etc/kde3/kdm/kdmrc, put :
RandomDevice=/dev/urandom
To save diskless workstation users from having headaches when using kdm,
I suggest that the kdm package maintainer put this line (maybe commented
out for security reasons) in the default kdmrc.
Xavier
Reply to: