[Axiom-mail] echo 0 >/proc/sys/kernel/randomize_va_space needed for normal Axiom functioning

[Andrea Gamba]

I have recently compiled axiom (v. July 2008) on Ubuntu Intrepid.

I have spent some hours trying to figure out why the newly compiled 
program worked seamlessly during the first few hours, and became badly 
broken afterwards.

I have found that the infamous

echo 0 >/proc/sys/kernel/randomize_va_space

is now not only necessary for compiling, but also for the normal 
functioning of the program.

To have this setting permanently enabled I have added
kernel.randomize_va_space=0
in
/etc/sysctl.con

Please add a warning here:

http://www.axiom-developer.org/axiom-website/download.html

about this fact, to keep Axiom running on Ubuntu.

I guess the solution of turning off randomization permanently is not 
good in the long term for security reasons, it would be interesting to 
understand whether this bug can be solved for good by axiom developers.

Probably the better solution would be to use setarch -R in the script 
that launches axiom, when an ubuntu system is detected. Could someone 
provide the corrisponding patch?

See also:
http://www.mail-archive.com/address@hidden/msg00664.html

Andrea