With a standard install of Ubuntu 12.04 how is the entropy for /dev/random
gathered.
Is the install smart enough set up any hardware generation available, will it use user based sources like keyboard interupts by default?
Edit: Just to be clear, I'm looking for the specific configuration that comes with the install (or how to find it), I'm not looking how it might be done in theory.
Best Answer
This is complicated question. I will answer by quoting from few sources.
From Linux manpage
In Ubuntu 12.04 default kernel is 3.11.
From wiki
From Linux manpage
Quote from
random
sources, from kernel 3.11.10.10Yes it is smart enough to use user based sources, but you can configure more if you want.
There are kernels with random generators that have more entropy sources such including noise on audio inputs and others like video, coolers censors, etc. Look here if interesting in audio entropy. I hope you will find others kernels by yourself.
But
/dev/random
should be enough for most tasks by default.Also read this question on stackoverflow