On Wed, Apr 02, 2008 at 12:50:07AM +0200, Nomen Nescio wrote: > I used the Ubuntu wiki's instructions to set up encrypted swap on my > computer, then I noticed whenever I booted it up, it would sit for a > while until I hit return a few times. > > I think I figured out that the problem is /dev/random is "close to > empty" when the computer's just booted, so I changed the line in > /etc/crypttab to use /dev/urandom instead. That fixed it, so now it > keeps going through the boot-up stuff right away. > > Has anyone else noticed this? It is standard behaviour. /dev/random fills up relatively slowly. > How insecure is it? Depends. I think /dev/urandom also has some minimal-standards, before it begins to give you data, but you might have significantly less entropy in your key. This might allow a brute-force attack. If paranoid, stay with /dev/random. Or run a swapless system (I do). Arno -- Arno Wagner, Dipl. Inform., CISSP --- Email: arno@xxxxxxxxxxx GnuPG: ID: 1E25338F FP: 0C30 5782 9D93 F785 E79C 0296 797F 6B50 1E25 338F ---- Cuddly UI's are the manifestation of wishful thinking. -- Dylan Evans If it's in the news, don't worry about it. The very definition of "news" is "something that hardly ever happens." -- Bruce Schneier --------------------------------------------------------------------- dm-crypt mailing list - http://www.saout.de/misc/dm-crypt/ To unsubscribe, e-mail: dm-crypt-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxx For additional commands, e-mail: dm-crypt-help@xxxxxxxx
