it at boot time closer to the way we want it to be in the final version.
* Move the default directory to /var/db/entropy
* Run the entropy saving cron job every 11 minutes. This seems
to be a better default, although still bikeshed material.
* Feed /dev/random some cheesy "entropy" from various commands
and files before the disks are mounted. This gives /dev/random
a better chance of running without blocking early.
* Move the reseeding with previously stored entropy to the point
immediately after the disks are mounted.
* Make the harvesting script a little safer in regards to the
possibility of accidentally overwriting something other
than a regular file.
it can be used to reseed at boot time. This will greatly increase
the chances that there will be sufficient entropy available at
boot time to prevent long delays.
For /etc/rc, remove the vmstat and iostat runs from the attempt
to provide some cheesy randomness if the files fail, since
those programs are dynamically linked, and ldd seems to want
some randomness to do its magic.
Guidance and parameters for this project were provided by
Mark Murray, based on the requirements of the Yarrow
algorithm. Some helpful suggestions for implementation
(including the tip about iostat and vmstat) were provided
by Sheldon Hearn. All blame for problems or mistakes is
mine of course.
