Apache 2.0.54 hanging on start|stop|reload etc

I'm encountering a problem with my apache server after restarting it
with mod_python installed.
To debug, I have removed mod_python from mods-enabled. And all
accompanying references.

I'm using the debian package:
apache2 2.0.54-4.swsoft.1
Linux 2.4.20-021stab028.17.777-enterprise #1 SMP Tue Jul 19 19:31:27
MSD 2005 i686 GNU/Linux

When I try:
sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 start
I just get:
Starting web server: Apache2

and nothing else.
root 27264 0.1 0.0 2296 1084 pts/1 S+ 12:42 0:00 /bin/sh
-e /etc/init.d/apache2 start
root 27265 0.1 0.0 2472 1208 pts/1 S+ 12:42 0:00 /bin/sh
/usr/sbin/apache2ctl startssl
root 27267 0.7 0.0 12196 2904 pts/1 S+ 12:42 0:00
/usr/sbin/apache2 -k start -DSSL

Nothing has been written to any of the logs, though I've tried
resetting the logging level to debug.

I've tried running gdb on apache2 (output below), but I'm not getting
anything obvious from the output.

Any other advice would be appreciated.



sudo gdb /usr/sbin/apache2
GNU gdb 6.3-debian
Copyright 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
GDB is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License, and
you are
welcome to change it and/or distribute copies of it under certain
conditions.
Type "show copying" to see the conditions.
There is absolutely no warranty for GDB. Type "show warranty" for
details.
This GDB was configured as "i386-linux"...(no debugging symbols found)
Using host libthread_db library "/lib/libthread_db.so.1".

(gdb) b ap_process_request
Breakpoint 1 at 0x8069bd4
(gdb) run -X
Starting program: /usr/sbin/apache2 -X
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
[New Thread 16384 (LWP 6368)]
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)

Program received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
[Switching to Thread 16384 (LWP 6368)]
0x40367a98 in read () from /lib/libpthread.so.0
(gdb) Quit
(gdb) Quit

My hosting company diagnosed my underlying problem as being caused by a
'dried up' random number generator (due to no external entropy source
on the VPS).
Their remedy was:
rm /dev/random
ln -s /dev/urandom /dev/random