Entropy Key on Centos 6.2 & EGD

[Paul Martin]

On Wed, May 02, 2012 at 10:41:46AM +0100, Daniel Silverstone wrote:
> I think the egd-linux code defaults to requesting 3 packets of 1024
> bits every time it wakes up, so I'd set the threshold to 1024 bits
> so that it doesn't overfill the pool and waste entropy.  Other than
> that, yes.  I think the Debian packaging does the echo in the
> egd-linux startup script.

Indeed it does:

       test "x$WATERMARK" = "x" && WATERMARK=1024
       
       sysctl kernel.random.write_wakeup_threshold=$WATERMARK >/dev/null 2>&1

So adding the line

kernel.random.write_wakeup_threshold = 1024

to /etc/sysctl.conf might be a good move.

Many thanks, Daniel. It would have taken me a good while to spot the
solution to this one.

-- 
Paul Martin <pm at simtec.co.uk>
Simtec Electronics         Tel: +44 1772 978010
http://www.simtec.co.uk/   Fax: +44 1772 816426