Re: /dev/random blocked

[Jeffrey Siegal <jbs quiotix com>]

On Jun 1, 2004, at 03:32, Jos Vos wrote:

> On Tue, Jun 01, 2004 at 06:09:55AM -0400, Ken Snider wrote:
>
> > /dev/random *WILL* block if there isn't enough entropy available to 
> > generate
> > random data. For an unblocking /dev/random, use /dev/urandom, which 
> > will use
> > "pseudo-random" data when system entropy is low.
>
> Well, we're talking about a busy ftp server that handles continuous
> 200+ Mbps traffic read from 30+ SCSI disks, etc.
>
> Do you *really* think entropy is too low on that system? ;-)

At one time Linux did not use SCSI disk accesses to refill the entropy 
pool (but IDE disk accesses did).  On a server without a mouse/keyboard 
and with limited network traffic, it was easy to exhaust the entropy 
pool.  Not sure if that is still the case.