[Openswan Users] /dev/random question

[Nick]

> On Wed, 23 Nov 2005 17:50:31 +0100 (CET)
> Paul Wouters <paul at xelerance.com> wrote:
>
> If you don't have a hw rng (see linux/Documentation/hw_random.txt), you
> can do something like:
>
> rngd --rng-device=/dev/urandom  #if you had a hw rng, you'd use
> /dev/hwrandom

Tried that, it works well (for speed anyway), so I will stick with that.


> Ideally, one would find a true source of entropy, like an ethernet
> controller's interruption rate.  There is a flag you can set in the
> ethernet driver's request_irq() call.  Add '| SA_SAMPLE_RANDOM' to the 3rd
> parameter in the call, recompile the kernel, run, and /dev/random should
> have it's lights on _and_ be home :-)
>

In my box there is an intel e1000 and an intel e100.  the intel e1000
looks like it is the only one that still does the SA_SAMPLE_RANDOM.  I
added it to the e100 driver as well, but with both interfaces on the
network it still took 45 minutes (without rngd).  There isn't much traffic
on that box so I guess that's understandable.


Thanks for your help, I feel better about this now.  I really do just wish
that those new intel boards had the hardware random device, but hopefully
this will do just fine.