[ILUG] not enough entropy...

[Gavin McCullagh]

On Wed, 19 Dec 2001, John P. Looney wrote:

>  Interesting;
> 
> S1000:run# cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail 
> 480
> S1000:run# cat /bin/* > /dev/urandom 
> S1000:run# cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail 
> 1487
> S1000:run# cat /bin/* > /dev/urandom 
> S1000:run# cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail
> 1487
> S1000:run# cat /lib/* > /dev/urandom 
> S1000:run# cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail
> 2251
> S1000:run# cat /lib/* > /dev/urandom 
> S1000:run# cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail
> 2251

It seems your random device crystallizes without sufficient input
dispersity.  For interest, you could try interleaving the files in the dirs in 
various different orders.  This should give you a little more, but only a
little.  Try tac instead of cat, see what that does.

What fun,

Gavin