Re: [SLUG] Installing a compiled subversion and removing the packaged one - how to fix dependencies.

[Mike Lake <mikel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all

This is a followup to inform thsoe thast helped me with suggestions on
what I tried and eventually did.

On Fri May 05, Michael Lake wrote:
> In an earlier post I was having probs with getting subversion to work on a 
> server as there wasn't enough entropy. I can't use the rng-tools as it's a 
> virtual server and it does not have access to that hardware (it hangs 
> actually if I try). Hence I have compiled subversion now and I have to 
> install it. I'm testing it first though on my laptop which already has 
> cvs2snv, websnv, trac which depend on subversion.

Although I had downloaded the subversion source and recompiled apr to
use /dev/urandom that wouldn't then be part of the package management and 
would need to be updated manually every now and again. 
Thus I wanted an easier solution.

Ian Wienand suggested:
> If you have root, why not symlink /dev/random to /dev/urandom and
> avoid the need for entropy.  I'm sure the security implications are
> minimal.

When I wondered how can I go back again and create the character device?
Ian suggesed I read up on man mknod which I did.

I decided to try and make /dev/random the same as /dev/urandom first.

$ ls -l /dev/random  
crw-rw-rw-  1 root root 1, 8 Jun 20  2002 /dev/random

$ ls -l /dev/urandom 
cr--r--r--  1 root root 1, 9 Jun 20  2002 /dev/urandom

Create a new /dev/random

# mv random random.old
# mknod random c 1 9              
# Operation not permitted

So I could not create a new device on the virtual server.

I ended up just doing the symlink and I had the old random saved as
random.bak anyhow.

/dev# ln -s urandom random
/dev# ls -l random 
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root 7 May 16 17:32 random -> urandom
#

# svnadmin create /var/lib/test

Thus now svnadmin runs fine and does not hang.


Mike

-- 
Mike Lake
Caver, Linux enthusiast and interested in anything technical.