Collecting entropy?

Marius Strom marius@alpha1.net
Fri, 31 Mar 2000 00:19:19 -0600 (CST)


That should be fine, but you should tell the ISP to change it -- random
number entropy is a "good thing"(tm) to have, and they don't have it
unless someone's there banging at their console.

-- 
Marius Strom <marius@alpha1.net>
Professional Geek/Unix System Administrator
Alpha1 Internet <http://www.alpha1.net>
http://www.marius.org/marius.pgp 0x42C74CBA

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice...
...In practice, there is a big difference.

On Fri, 31 Mar 2000, Darren Cook wrote:


> At 22:51 00/03/30 -0600, Marius Strom wrote:
> >BSD machine:
> >in /etc/defaults/rc.conf, set rand_irqs="<some irq's that are actually
> >used>"
> >
> >It defaults to keyboard controller, IIRC, which is not helpful on a
> >headless terminal.
> >
> >I use the IRQ of my disk controller, then run a find / creates wonderful
> >entropy. =]
>
> Thanks (and to L. Sassaman).
>
> Looking at that file I see:
> rand_irqs="NO" # Stir the entropy pool (like "5 11" or NO).
>
> Any suggestions what to do here (assuming the ISP is unwilling to change
> that file and reboot their server)? Is it reasonable to create the keys on
> my linux machine then upload them?
>
> Darren
>