Success with /dev/{u}random and openssh.

[Clemmitt Sigler]

Hi,

I've successfully (and very easily :^) gotten Marcus's random
translator to work, and installed/configured openssh from the
J1 CDs.  I'm running Hurd 0.3/libc0.3 (an updated system, that is).
My understanding from trolling the mailing list archives is that
this implementation is a starting point, and may not yet be as robust
for cryptographic purposes as on other systems, so YMMV.

Steps (which are hopefully helpful, # means I did these commands
as root, $ as a normal user):

1.) Install openssl/openssh from the J1 CDs.  ssh can't configure
due to no /dev/urandom.

2.) Download a pre-built binary for Hurd 0.3/libc0.3 from:

   http://kilobug.free.fr/hurd/random-64.tar.gz

This contains a source tarball with a pre-built binary inside it
(happy-happy joy-joy :^).

3.) $ tar xzvf random-64.tar.gz

4.) # chown root:root random/random

5.) # cp -ip random/random /hurd

6.) Set up the random devices:

# touch /dev/random
# touch /dev/urandom
# chmod 644 /dev/random
# chmod 644 /dev/urandom

7.) Start the translators:

# settrans /dev/random /hurd/random --seed-file /var/run/random-seed --secure
# settrans /dev/urandom /hurd/random --seed-file /var/run/urandom-seed --fast

8.) # dpkg --configure --pending

This configures ssh, building all the necessary keys.  After this, ssh
and sshd seem to work for me, though I haven't done any regression
or stress testing.

Thanks to Marcus for the original translator source and instructions on
how to use it, Gael Le Mignot and the folks behind www.hurdfr.org (and
check out news.hurdfr.org :^), Michal 'hramrach' Suchanek who posted an
update to Marcus's original code here:

   http://mactest98.ruk.cuni.cz/~hramrach/random/

and others who've posted on this to the lists in the past.

                                        Clemmitt Sigler