[ale] what's the difference between

[ale at pcartwright.com (Paul Cartwright)]

On Fri December 5 2008, Jim Kinney wrote:
> Is there a way to "add entropy" to get /dev/random to fill quicker?

 When  a  Linux  system starts up without much operator interaction, the
       entropy pool may be in a fairly predictable state.   This  reduces  the
       actual  amount  of  noise  in  the entropy pool below the estimate.  In
       order to counteract this effect, it helps to carry entropy pool  
infor???
       mation  across shut-downs and start-ups.  To do this, add the following
       lines to an appropriate script which is run  during  the  Linux  system
       start-up sequence:

           echo "Initializing random number generator..."
           random_seed=/var/run/random-seed
           # Carry a random seed from start-up to start-up
           # Load and then save the whole entropy pool
           if [ -f $random_seed ]; then
               cat $random_seed >/dev/urandom
           else
 touch $random_seed
           fi
           chmod 600 $random_seed
           poolfile=/proc/sys/kernel/random/poolsize
           [ -r $poolfile ] && bytes=`cat $poolfile` || bytes=512
           dd if=/dev/urandom of=$random_seed count=1 bs=$bytes

       Also,  add  the  following  lines in an appropriate script which is run
       during the Linux system shutdown:

           # Carry a random seed from shut-down to start-up
           # Save the whole entropy pool
           echo "Saving random seed..."
           random_seed=/var/run/random-seed
           touch $random_seed
           chmod 600 $random_seed
           poolfile=/proc/sys/kernel/random/poolsize
           [ -r $poolfile ] && bytes=`cat $poolfile` || bytes=512
           dd if=/dev/urandom of=$random_seed count=1 bs=$bytes



-- 
Paul Cartwright
Registered Linux user # 367800
Registered Ubuntu User #12459