[geeks] Entropy

[Alois Hammer]

I'm looking for cheap sources from which I can fill my Linux kernel
entropy pool.  The standard net/disk/keyboard/mouse just doesn't seem to
be cutting it, especially for a firewall system that doesn't have a
mouse or keyboard attached.  Also, my results with Intel hardware so far
seem to indicate that RNGs came with a very few i810/i815 ICHes, and
don't get put in modern production at all.  So much for the i8x0 driver.
 (Unless I'm just doing something wrong.)

Because -- so far -- all the add-on RNG products I'm finding are way,
way outside my budget, I'm looking to test out audio-entropyd, and
possibly supplement with video-entropyd.

Can anyone comment on the quality of entropy from those sources, or
whether there's some other cheap way I can fill the kernel entropy pool
faster?  I'm aware of the existence of LavaRng, but the documentation is
frankly terrible, and I'm still not even clear on whether it can be used
to fill the kernel entropy pool, or if applications have to be written
to the LavaRng API to get random bits.