why might debian install require constant pressing of ENTER?

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Wed, 1 Jul 2009, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:

> | From: D. Hugh Redelmeier <hugh-pmF8o41NoarQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org>
>
> | I seem to vaguely remember there being occasions where my systems have
> | perked up when I hit the keyboard.
>
> There is one case where this can be explained: when the system is
> generating keys (eg. for IPSec or BIND or SSHD) it needs random
> numbers.
>
> /dev/random will only yield bytes if the system thinks that it has
> enough "entropy"; otherwise, a read will hang until enough entropy
> has accumulated.  One source of entropy is keystroke timing and
> another is mouse events.

  the *instant* i saw the aforementioned behaviour (cripplingly slow
install unless i kept pressing ENTER or, in the case of a graphical
install, moving the mouse), my absolutely first reaction was, "crap,
it needs entropy for something."  seriously, i did think that but it
just seemed weird because it needed that *constantly*.  i could see
maybe occasionally having to pause but this was non-stop.  literally,
this morning, installing debian 5.01 on my gateway laptop, i just put
something heavy on the ENTER key and left it there, that's how absurd
it was.

  does anyone have a solid explanation for this?  entropy sounds like
a good guess, but i'm feeling it's still a guess.

rday
--


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Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA

        Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry.

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