RE: [Gumstix-users] problem: /dev/random is empty, perl can't get hash seed

[John P. <pa...@be...>]

I see the perl "Your random numbers are not that random" issue also.

-----Original Message-----
From: gum...@li...
[mailto:gum...@li...] On Behalf Of Dave
Hawthorne
Sent: Friday, November 18, 2005 2:27 AM
To: gum...@li...
Subject: [Gumstix-users] problem: /dev/random is empty, perl can't get hash
seed

Hi,

I think this is a single problem, but might be wrong.

I have built kernel and tools, including miniperl, with revision 649 of 
buildroot, and have installed them on my 200MHz Gumstix Basix (with 
waysmall board only).  Around 50% of the time I run the perl binary it 
dies immediately with the following message:
  Your random numbers are not that random

I can only stop this happening by running
  export PERL_HASH_SEED=xxx
beforehand (where xxx is some non-zero integer).

Guessing that the cause might be the gumstix's limited stores of entropy 
I ran:
  cat /dev/random
which gave absolutely nothing - ever.  I then checked the values in 
/proc/sys/kernel/random/ which are:

boot_id:de136bd0-2606-4239-90a8-a4408c4d75cb
entropy_avail:0
poolsize:512
read_wakeup_threshold:64
uuid:94d3bf6e-66c0-4b81-8359-ae6b7d4b8011
write_wakeup_threshold:128

The entropy level never rises.  (I would have thought the USB port I'm 
using should be able to provide at least a little.)

I tried fudging things by making /dev/random psuedo-random with
  mknod /dev/random c 1 9
but perl still complained.

Having not seen any forum traffic about this sort of behaviour, I'm 
getting worried I'm missing something obvious.  What I'd like to know is:
1/ Have I broken something or shouldn't we expect anything from /dev/random?
2/ Is the perl failure a separate issue?  (library related perhaps?)
and possibly:
3/ How can I pump more entropy into the kernel?  (assuming I can scratch 
some up from peripherals)

Thanks

Dave

http://www.awma.au.com


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