apt update fails - 'std::runtime_error' what(): random_device::__x86_rdrand(void)

[David Haggett]

I am seeing the following error randomly on issuing sudo apt update:

 Get:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates InRelease [65.4 kB]
 0% [1 InRelease gpgv 69.9 kB] [3 InRelease 7,779 B/65.4 kB 12%]terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::runtime_error'
   what(): random_device::__x86_rdrand(void)
 Aborted

Once this occurs, it normally takes at least one, but frequently more than one reboot to resolve. It only happens on one of my systems - a self-build server based on Asrock Rack motherboard C3758D4I-4L running Ubuntu server.

I've observed the same issue on the same hardware with the Ubuntu 18.04.1 live ISO. I'm booting in Legacy mode.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: apt 1.6.3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-29.31-generic 4.15.18
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-29-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.2
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Aug 1 08:37:28 2018
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-04-28 (94 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Server 18.04 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180426)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: apt
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

This should be a problem with not enough entropy that should have been fixed in recent kernel versions. APT 1.7 will have a fix for that, it's not backported to 1.6 yet, but it should be easily doable.

I'd say: make sure you are running the latest kernel and that you don't start apt shortly after boot.

[David Haggett (m-dw)]

Ah! Awesome, thanks. So the fact that I run apt immediately after rebooting to check if I've cleared the problem, is what is causing the problem. That figures.

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

Fixed in 1.7.0~alpha2

[David Haggett (m-dw)]

OK, this appears to have been fixed in a kernel update, but then broken again, and the error is no longer intermittent - I cannot apt update, which means I can't apt upgrade to a fixed version.

Do you have any suggestions?

[Hanno Böck (hanno-hboeck)]

Hi, can someone with the permission please re-open?
I'm seeing this on a relatively recent system (18.04, updates have been successfully done lately), so it's definitely not fixed since august last year.

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

This has been fixed in 18.10, not 18.04 - the breaking kernel change was reverted in 18.04, so we decided we don't need to backport it.

This is a system wide issue if the kernel runs out of entropy and by no means an apt one. I suggest you report a kernel bug if you still see issues like this on the recent kernel

[Hanno Böck (hanno-hboeck)]

Any recommendation how to update if you can't update due to this bug?

"apt update" will always fail, so no matter if it's a kernel or apt update I need, I won't get it.

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

This should really only be an issue early during boot, or if you require a lot of randomness. So I guess wait, use your keyboard a lot, generate a lot of network traffic? Or manually inject randomness? I don't really know, and it's out of scope for the bug report to discuss this - you might want to ask in one of the user support channels (forums, irc, mailing lists).

[David Haggett (m-dw)]

In my case, it was happening on a headless server so lots of keyboard access isn't an option. I actually fixed it on my system by reversing a change to a BIOS setting which I had initially changed to work around the same issue on a previous occurrence.

The setting on my system related to the execute disable bit.