[Bug 706011] Re: gpg --key-gen doesn't have enough entropy and rng-tools install/start fails

[Jon Stevens]

It is people like you that make novices hate computers. You get all
uptight about stupid security restrictions and then go on a random
diatribe on an issue that is more than a year old and is marked as
'invalid'. This is exactly why Linux will never be a desktop os for the
masses.

Anyway, my usecase doesn't need strong crypto... all I need f*cking keys
for is to sign debians which are behind a f*cking firewall so that I
don't have to deal with the f*cking 'this package isn't signed' warning.
I'm running in a VM... not even real hardware... I certainly am not
going to buy a piece of f*cking hardware just to generate some keys I
don't give a sh*t about.  You're absurd to even suggest that.

Maybe the bigger issue with with the way gnupg works... the user
experience is terrible. Just freezing up and not doing anything isn't
useful for anyone.  If Ubuntu cared about user experience, then they'd
work with the gnupg group to find a better solution to this issue.  Even
if I got a warning that this key isn't 100% secure and then pop out an
insecure key, that would be better than just freezing up waiting for
input.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/706011

Title:
  gpg --key-gen doesn't have enough entropy and rng-tools install/start
  fails

Status in “gnupg” package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: gnupg

  Description:	Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS
  Release:	10.04

  
  If you install gpg and then type: gpg --gen-key, it 'freezes up' during the entropy gathering phase.

  ....
  We need to generate a lot of random bytes. It is a good idea to perform
  some other action (type on the keyboard, move the mouse, utilize the
  disks) during the prime generation; this gives the random number
  generator a better chance to gain enough entropy.

  Not enough random bytes available.  Please do some other work to give
  the OS a chance to collect more entropy! (Need 278 more bytes)
  ....
  (freeze here)

  I found some reference on the interwebs suggesting to install rng-
  tools so that the rngd daemon can gather more entropy for the system
  because by default cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail has a
  very very low number.

  Thus, installation of rng-tools, fails to start the rngd daemon...

  Setting up rng-tools (2-unofficial-mt.12-1ubuntu3) ...
  Trying to create /dev/hwrng device inode...
  Starting Hardware RNG entropy gatherer daemon: (failed).
  invoke-rc.d: initscript rng-tools, action "start" failed.

  It is then required to do this: echo "HRNGDEVICE=/dev/urandom" >> /etc/default/rng-tools
  and then start rngd: /etc/init.d/rng-tools start

  After this process is done, gpg --gen-key is immediate...

  
  We need to generate a lot of random bytes. It is a good idea to perform
  some other action (type on the keyboard, move the mouse, utilize the
  disks) during the prime generation; this gives the random number
  generator a better chance to gain enough entropy.
  .........+++++
  ...+++++
  We need to generate a lot of random bytes. It is a good idea to perform
  some other action (type on the keyboard, move the mouse, utilize the
  disks) during the prime generation; this gives the random number
  generator a better chance to gain enough entropy.
  +++++
  .+++++

  And cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail has a much higher
  number.

  All in all, I think this process should be simplified by maybe making
  gpg depend on rng-tools. The whole reason why I need to generate a gpg
  key is because I want to sign the .deb debians that I'm creating for
  my repository.

  Thanks for your time.

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