From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Thu, 16 Aug 2001 15:35:26 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Thu, 16 Aug 2001 15:35:18 -0400 Received: from shed.alex.org.uk ([195.224.53.219]:62169 "HELO shed.alex.org.uk") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id ; Thu, 16 Aug 2001 15:35:01 -0400 Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2001 20:35:12 +0100 From: Alex Bligh - linux-kernel Reply-To: Alex Bligh - linux-kernel To: Andreas Dilger , Steve Hill Cc: "Richard B. Johnson" , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Alex Bligh - linux-kernel Subject: Re: /dev/random in 2.4.6 Message-ID: <212844030.997994112@[169.254.45.213]> In-Reply-To: <20010816131112.V31114@turbolinux.com> In-Reply-To: <20010816131112.V31114@turbolinux.com> X-Mailer: Mulberry/2.1.0b3 (Win32) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org > Hmm, since it IS critical that the ssh and VPN keys of a new system be > very good, you could do something like run "bonnie++" on one of the new > partitions, until you get enough entropy from block I/O completions. ... > That said, there are still cases where network traffic _has_ to be enough > for /dev/random, given that some firewalls (e.g. LRP) can run from only > ramdisk, so have no other source of entropy than the network traffic. It's a while since I looked, but I /thought/ entropy only came from IDE (not for instance from SCSI, and certainly not when everything is sitting in cache). I have a reasonably active mailserver (SCSI, no k/b, no mouse, lots of RAM) which doesn't have enough entropy to cope with SSL/TLS gracefully without relying on the network traffic (i.e. behaves like it is ramdisk only). -- Alex Bligh