Tim <ignored_mailbox@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes: > On Sat, 2010-08-21 at 23:43 -0500, Thomas Cameron wrote: >> I've always heard that you can get faster random numbers by generating >> a lot of interrupts. I usually do something like >> run /etc/cron.daily/mlocate to generate a lot of disk activity. > > I've always wondered whether that would provide it with real random > seeding, or seeding with a pattern that might be determinable. After > all, you're basing it on the disk contents. Now that you mention it, I wonder how that works too. The inter-interupt timing for the disk will probably also be quite biased. Interrupts that come at a one per sector rate will probably have strong spikes in their probability functions for "(rotation-time / number-of-sectors-per-track)". Even with disk zones, there probably won't be that many different sectors-per-track values. -wolfgang -- Wolfgang S. Rupprecht http://www.wsrcc.com/wolfgang/ (IPv6-only) -- users mailing list users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
