From owner-freebsd-current Sun Nov 26 18:25:28 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from outmail.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp (outmail.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp [160.12.196.3]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 62E5037B479 for ; Sun, 26 Nov 2000 18:25:25 -0800 (PST) Received: from zodiac.mech.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp (IDENT:q/K6LHf25SmOD7c47lkakIC0yIPCzVTb@zodiac.mech.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp [160.12.42.1]) by outmail.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp (8.11.0/3.7Wpl2) with ESMTP id eAR2PDk14469; Mon, 27 Nov 2000 11:25:14 +0900 (JST) Received: from zodiac.mech.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp (IDENT:BcGRBPzXj4PO3Xj0wPWiNYVZrJOTyxs/@zodiac.mech.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp [160.12.42.1]) by zodiac.mech.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp (8.9.3+3.2W/3.7W/zodiac-May2000) with ESMTP id LAA19383; Mon, 27 Nov 2000 11:32:25 +0900 (JST) Message-Id: <200011270232.LAA19383@zodiac.mech.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp> To: David Malone Cc: Mark Murray , Andrew Kenneth Milton , freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG, yokota@zodiac.mech.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp Subject: Re: Syscons flag to turn off random_harvest in scmouse? In-reply-to: Your message of "Sun, 26 Nov 2000 23:17:19 GMT." <20001126231719.A32978@walton.maths.tcd.ie> References: <20001127024056.F14398@zeus.theinternet.com.au> <200011262120.eAQLKfe01568@gratis.grondar.za> <20001126231719.A32978@walton.maths.tcd.ie> Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2000 11:32:24 +0900 From: Kazutaka YOKOTA Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG >To be fair, if the random module depends that badly on getting >entropy from the mouse it isn't much good for many of our users >who may not even have a mouse, keyboard or console. (Even when >using X, personally I use the mouse as little as possible. On some >of our servers the console is rarely used). I tend to agree. Moused is an optional component in FreeBSD, thus, we cannot expect that it is always running. It may be a good source of randomness, but the random module cannot and should not depend on it so heavily. Kazu >I think the yarrow stuff is probably somewhat more roubust than >requiring the mouse - as long as there is some source of entropy. >What other sources does the random device currently use? > > David. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message