On Tue, Jan 10, 2006 at 01:46:41PM +0000, David Brooks said:
> Marc Haber wrote:
> >>Missing entropy?
> >>
> >>Just to test it: (re)move /dev/random and symlink
> >>/dev/urandom as /dev/random.
> >
> > A better test on Linux would be to check the entropy pool itself, cat
> > /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail.
> >
> > Also I'd like to know which OS/Distribution the OP is using.
>
> Thanks for the advice. Entropy does sound like a plausible reason,
> although I have plenty of other crypto apps and I didn't notice any of
> them hanging in this way. The server in question is a 'user mode linux'
> virtual server, and there has been mention of lack of entropy as a
> possible problem with this setup.
>
> I'll keep an eye on entropy_avail if them problem happens again. I
> assume a low number means badness?
Any number greater than 0 is usable, and it has a maximum of 4096, IIRC.
Generally, bigger numbers are better.
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