Root cannot access /dev/urandom

Posted by Darren Newton on Ask Ubuntu See other posts from Ask Ubuntu or by Darren Newton
Published on 2011-03-12T21:36:11Z Indexed on 2011/03/13 0:19 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 319

Filed under:

permissions

|

root

I am trying to generate a GPG key, and I cannot generate enough entropy. So I installed rng-tools and tried following these instructions: http://serverfault.com/questions/214605/gpg-not-enough-entropy

When I am logged in as root, and try to run rngd -r /dev/urandom I get the following error: can't open /dev/random: Permission denied

I find this disturbing as I am root.

This is Ubuntu on a virtual server (via Parallels I believe.)

© Ask Ubuntu or respective owner

Related posts about permissions

Mailman Error / Cpanel

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Mailman is giving off this error when any changes are made to the list: ======================= Bug in Mailman version 2.1.14 We're sorry, we hit a bug! Please inform the webmaster for this site of this problem. Printing of traceback and other system information has been explicitly… >>> More
NTFS Permissions - Correct combinations of special access permissions

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
What would be the correct combination of NTFS special access permissions to allow an AD group (Authenticated Users) to copy files to a share, but after copying no one in the AD group should be allowed to edit, overwrite, rename, or delete the file? The AD group should also be able to copy files from… >>> More
FTP, permissions: I cannot see permissions but I can change them

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
hi, I'm browsing a server with my ftp client. When I try to get the information about a folder, I cannot see the permissions (all rwx checkboxes are uncecked). If i try to check one of it, the opeartion is succesfull (I don't get any error), but then when I come back it is again unchecked. What… >>> More
Snow Leopard doesn't repair permissions, despite showing / saying its fixed them?

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
Sometime ago, I used carbon copy as I was replacing my hard drive in my Mac Mini running Snow Leopard. Afterwards, on my new drive I had some permission problems. I've tried several times running a repair permissions / repair disk from disk util. It shows that there are problems and I think it says… >>> More
IIS Permissions or NTFS Permissions?

as seen on Pro Webmasters - Search for 'Pro Webmasters'
I currently have a Windows Server 2003 setup to serve multiple sites via IIS. One of our directories needs to allow access to only 1 specific AD Security Group. I know there are two ways to accomplish this. One is using IIS to add permissions and the other is to set permissions on the folder/directory… >>> More

Related posts about root

High CPU usage with Team Speak 3.0.0-rc2

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
The CPU usage is always around 40 percent. I use push-to-talk and I had uninstalled pulseaudio. Now I use Alsa. I don't even have to connect to a Server. By simply starting TS the cpu usage goes up 40 percent and stays there. The CPU usage of 3.0.0-rc1 [Build: 14468] is constantly 14 percent. This… >>> More
How to mount a blu-ray drive?

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
Maybe it is for the best to close this question. This has nothing to do with a bluray drive in general anymore. Probably a hardware defect. I will try to test it with a windows system and different cables again... Thx so far. I have a bluray/dvd/cdrom drive with SATA. Ubuntu wont find it under /dev/sd wodim… >>> More
Problems installing Memcache (PECL extension)

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have installed memcached fine, and now I will need to install PECL extension memcache. Im running RedHat x86_64 es5. The installation gives me this: downloading memcache-2.2.6.tgz ... Starting to download memcache-2.2.6.tgz (35,957 bytes) ..........done: 35,957 bytes 11 source files, building running:… >>> More
High Linux loads on low CPU/memory usage

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Hi. I have quite strange situation, where my CentOS 5.5 box loads are high, but the CPU and memory used are pretty low: top - 20:41:38 up 42 days, 6:14, 2 users, load average: 19.79, 21.25, 18.87 Tasks: 254 total, 1 running, 253 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie Cpu(s): 3.8%us, 0.3%sy, 0… >>> More
Ubuntu: Move fsbackup backups to Amazon S3

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have a legacy server (Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic x86), where previous admin set up backups with fsbackup. This server lives in a VPS (under some kind of Xen), and it is low on HDD space (16 GB total). Now it came to a point, where fsbackup backups take more space than the rest of data in the system. The… >>> More