On Fri, 9 Nov 2012, Thor Lancelot Simon wrote: > On Fri, Nov 09, 2012 at 05:07:38PM +0000, Iain Hibbert wrote: > > I get the above message during boot up. Every boot. Twice. At the same > > place.. > > > > Why is it necessary to SHOUT a warning, about what seems to be a normal > > occurrence? > > It should not be a normal occurrence. Does your port support loading > entropy from the bootblocks? If so, you probably want to turn that on.
It is an i386 machine.. how do I know if the port supports that? also - how do I turn that on? - why do I want to turn that on? - how serious is it, in reality? - if the port does not support it then how can I disable the warning? - if it is necessary, why is it not the default? - how do I generate the 'entropy' that is loaded? - how can it be entropy, if it is loaded from the bootblocks? - what stored it in the bootblocks? I'm asking these questions because I can't find any documentation about this warning, which appears twice during every normal boot on my laptop (which is shutdown -p when unused, since I am off grid). I guess that if this is part of the rnd(4) pseudo-device then there should be a DIAGNOSTICS section there explaining what this message means and what to do about it.. thanks, iain
