[pkg-cryptsetup-devel] Bug#579932: Bug#579932: cryptsetup: clarify /dev/random hang in README.Debian

[Jonas Meurer]

On 02/05/2010 Brice Goglin wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I started encrypting my swap today.
> I followed /usr/share/doc/cryptsetup/README.Debian.gz
> but it didn't work. It hung at boot while creating the encrypted
> device and I had to ctrl-c. Talking to some people and reading
> some webpages, it seems to be caused by /dev/random not generating
> enough entropy. And, as suggested in the README, changing to
> /dev/urandom fixed the problem.
> I think this should be explained much better in the README:
> * say that it would hang (I didn't write the exact message but it may help)
> * maybe say that touching the mouse/keyboard may generate entropy,
>   making it clear that it's an entropy problem?

hey brice,

i changed the default example in README.Debian to /dev/urandom now, and
adjusted the explanation accordingly:

> That's it! You have a crypted swap device. Note that /dev/urandom provides
> only pseudo-random entropy. So if you're paranoid rather use /dev/random as
> source for random data. Be aware though that /dev/random might not provide
> enough random bytes for your key, causing your system to hang at boot, waiting
> for more entropy. Moving mouse and keyboard typing might help in this case.

feel free to modify or exend this text. i'm not a native english
speaker, and am happy about improvments and advices for the
documentation i wrote.

greetings,
 jonas
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