Messages in this thread | | | Date | Thu, 23 Nov 2006 01:10:08 +0100 (MET) | From | Jan Engelhardt <> | Subject | Re: Entropy Pool Contents |
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>Hi! > >(PEBKAC warning. I'm probably doing something dump. I just don't know >what...) > >I seem to have an entropy pool on a headless machine which is not nearly >empty (a common problem in this case, I know), but completely empty and >stuck in this state... > >Hornburg:~# cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail >0
You really must have bad luck with your entropy...
01:05 ichi:/home/k > cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail 3596 01:08 ichi:/home/k > dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/null bs=3596 count=1 1+0 records in 1+0 records out 3596 bytes (3.6 kB) copied, 0.00115262 seconds, 3.1 MB/s 01:08 ichi:/home/k > cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail 157
however that might be caused because I am in X, mouse moves, kernel compiles, etc.
>Also causing disk activities doesn't help at all. (Two disks on a Promise >PDC20268 controller.)
Disk activities are "somewhat predictable", like network traffic, and hence are not (or should not - have not checked it) contribute to the pool. Note that urandom is the device which _always_ gives you data, and when the pool is exhausted, returns pseudorandom data.
>The system runs a rather ancient Debian Sarge 2.4 kernel: >Linux Hornburg 2.4.27-3-386 #1 Thu Sep 14 08:44:58 UTC 2006 i486 GNU/Linux
[I have] No memories about a kernel this old. :>
>However as the machine itself is also ancient, the 2.4 seems like a good >match. And also 2.4 ought to have a refilling entropy pool, doesn't it? > >Maybe someone can shed some light on what's happening here...
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