[users@httpd] auth_digest_module - causes httpd to hang on start up

[Don Harden <ha...@gsu.edu>]

Hello,

I am setting up a new web server:  
	Intel Xeon X3220 Kentsfield quad core
	Fedora 7  (fairly minimal install)
	kernel 2.6.22.1-41.fc7
	apache 2.2.4  compiled with the following:
	
	./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apache-2.2.4 --with-mpm=prefork --enable-nonportable-atomics  
	--disable-auth  --disable-cgi  --disable-charset-lite --disable-userdir \
 	--enable-mods-shared='all auth-dbm auth-digest dav dav-fs dav-lock \ 
	mime-magic enable-speling rewrite' \
 	--with-z=/usr/lib64/imlib2/loaders/  --with-included-apr


I would like to use Digest Authentication for some WebDAV directories.  

Apache always starts without incident if I don't use digest authentication.  
That is if LoadModule auth_digest_module modules/mod_auth_digest.so is 
commented out.

If I do load auth_digest_module  httpd sometimes hangs on start up.  This is a 
typical error_log:

[Thu Sep 06 17:30:05 2007] [notice] Graceful restart requested, doing restart
[Thu Sep 06 17:30:05 2007] [notice] Digest: generating secret for digest 
authentication ...
[Thu Sep 06 17:54:27 2007] [notice] Digest: done
[Thu Sep 06 17:54:27 2007] [notice] Apache/2.2.4 (Unix) DAV/2 PHP/5.2.3 
configured -- resuming normal operations
[Thu Sep 06 17:54:27 2007] [info] Server built: Aug 31 2007 14:26:11
[Thu Sep 06 17:54:27 2007] [debug] prefork.c(991): AcceptMutex: sysvsem 
(default: sysvsem)

It can take 10 minutes or longer for httpd to eventually start as indicated in 
the above log entry (24 mins).

Note httpd sometimes (especially after a reboot) starts just fine even with 
auth_digest.

I did not find much in the archives, but 	a Google search revealed this page  
http://www.raptorized.com/?p=70 which suggested quad SMP boxes may run low on 
entropy which causes the hang.  And indeed when httpd hangs I have low 
entropy
	> cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail
	55

I tried using /dev/urandom instead of /dev/random  by doing this

    cd httpd-2.2.4/srclib/apr
    ./configure --with-devrandom=/dev/urandom
    cd ../../
and then configuring apache as above.

But httpd still occasionally hangs. I don't have /dev/arandom, so I can't try 
that.  Any ideas on what I can do?

Thanks for your time and consideration,
Don

-- 
Dr. Don Harden
Department of Chemistry
Georgia State University
ph:  404 413 5555

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