Re: [gentoo-user] rng-tools

[Michael Mol <mikemol@gmail.com>]

On Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 5:32 AM, Sebastian Pipping <sping@gentoo.org> wrote:
> Hello Michael,
>
>
> On 03/03/2012 02:48 PM, Michael Mol wrote:
>> The version of the rng-tools Debian package I'm using is
>> '2-unofficial-mt.14-1~60squeeze1'. Are the -T and -R parameters unique
>> to Debian, or is the Gentoo package simply out of date?
>
> Yes, version 2-unofficial-mt.14* is a Debian fork.  Quoting from its
> README file:
>
>  rng-tools, unofficial Debian fork
>  =================================
>
>  NOTICE:
>  This is an unofficial version of rng-tools with a lot of added
>  functionality and bugs, for which I assume total blame.  Don't bother
>  rng-tools upstream with problems you find in this version of
>  rng-tools.
>
>  rng-tools unofficial-mt is a living reminder to myself to not modify
>  upstream code without sending the changes upstream at every step.
>  Suddenly, you have a mass of changes too big to send upstream, and
>  yet you find yourself without the energy to break them into smallish
>  patches to submit upstream (i.e. to "unfork").
>
>  [..]
>
> If you would rather use Debian's version in Gentoo, give
>
>  sys-apps/rng-tools-2_p14
>
> a try, which I have just added to overlay betagarden:
>
>  # layman -a betagarden
>  # emerge =sys-apps/rng-tools-2_p14
>
> If you would like to see features from Debian's fork in rng-tools 3.x
> and beyond, please step up and help rng-tools' upstream integrate
> Debian's changes.

Thanks to all who replied...I haven't pursued rng-tools on gentoo as I
got a TRNG that's plugged into one of my Gentoo systems.

Meanwhile, I've been working on a package called etools, which may be
of interest and use to people who care about their system's entropy.

https://github.com/mikemol/etools

entwatch works and is useful now.

entbuff worked before I started putting stuff in git. When I've got it
working again, and once I've written manpages for it, the etools
package will be ready for a 1.0 release.

entmesh doesn't have a single line of code written yet, but it's going
to be the jewel of the thing, intended to help solve entropy
starvation issues in servers and virtual machines in environments
where a trusted external entropy source might be found.

-- 
:wq