slavapestov/factor — Issue #405: Factor fails to acquire a crypto context on Windows XP
Author: kotarak
Created: 2011-11-15 08:58:17+00:00
State: open

I downloaded 0.94 as well as the development release for Windows. However `factor.exe` doesn't start. A short flicker of the egg clock is all that happens.

Calling `factor.com` in a shell gives the following error message:

acquire-crypto-context-failed
provider "Microsoft Base Cryptographic Provider v1.0"
type 1
error T{ windows-error f 5 "Zugriff verweigert" }
(U) Quotation: [ c-to-factor -> ]
Word: c-to-factor
(U) Quotation: [ [ catchstack* push ] dip call -> catchstack* pop* ]
(U) Quotation: [ do-startup-hooks -> command-line-startup ]
(O) Word: do-hooks
(U) Quotation: [
{ ~array~ ~array~ } try-crypto-providers ->
system-random-generator set-global
{ ~array~ ~array~ } try-crypto-providers
secure-random-generator set-global
]
(O) Word: try-crypto-providers
(O) Word: initialize-crypto-context
(O) Word: attempt-crypto-context
(O) Word: acquire-crypto-context-failed
(O) Method: M\ object throw
(U) Quotation: [
OBJ-CURRENT-THREAD special-object error-thread set-global
continuation -> error-continuation set-global
[ original-error set-global ] [ rethrow ] bi
]

The “Zugriff verweigert” means “Access denied”. My suspicion is the my system is (at times ridiculously) locked down by corporate IT. And factor obviously tries to access something my user is not allowed to.

Is there some workaround to disable this or fall back to some different solution?