sean finney on 9 Apr 2009 04:59:55 -0700


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Re: [PLUG] GPG + Debian 5 exceeding entropy while generating keys 

hiya,

On Wed, Apr 08, 2009 at 04:30:11PM -0400, TuskenTower wrote:
> The server is a Debian 5 (lenny) OS on an HP ProLiant ML115 G1 with
> Opterons.  Is this a common issue and would installing an entropy daemon
> like EGD help?

i had this happen to me the other day on a virtual server.  i don't know
why lenny gets this problem but if this is a one time thing (i.e. you're
not generating keys from cron or otherwise regularly/uaotmatically), you
can create some ad-hoc entropy to help push it along. 

i find an easy way to create entropy is a pingflood (ping -f) to the host, as
the traffic + interrupts seems to fill the pool pretty quickly.  my last
experience with egd was many years ago, and it was slow and crappy and we only
did it because it was on an old sun system that was missing a real /dev/random
or something similarly wierd.


	sean

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