[NCLUG] My attempts using /dev/random...

[Sean Reifschneider]

>Unfortunately, the harsh truth is that both /dev/random and /dev/urandom
>are flawed.  They're PRNGs -- they do not provide *true* random numbers.

/dev/random on Linux is *NOT* simply a PRNG.  Which is why it took nearly a
day to gather enough entropy for 1.6MB worth of /dev/random output.
See the comments at the top of the /dev/random driver source for
information about how it collects entropy, or it's approximation of it.

Sean
-- 
 "Sometimes Omaha can't be avoided."
                 -- Howard Borden the navigator, _Bob_Newhart_
Sean Reifschneider, Member of Technical Staff <jafo at tummy.com>
tummy.com, ltd. - Linux Consulting since 1995: Ask me about High Availability