Beige G3, /dev/random and entropy

[Ron Murray <rjmx@rjmx.net>]

   I'm using my beige G3 as a mail/web/etc server, where it's a lot
faster than the 133MHZ Pentium I was using before :-). One problem,
though, is that /dev/random seems to run out of entropy a lot faster
than any of my other machines, which means that apps will usually hang
unless I'm around to move the mouse. This happens on bootup when it
tries to start up krb5-kdc, and also when I try to collect mail from
the cyrus imap server (here it's probably tied up with sasl, I think).

Checking using sysctl (three times in quick succession):

tinkerbell:~# sysctl -A | grep entropy
kernel.random.entropy_avail = 110
tinkerbell:~# sysctl -A | grep entropy
kernel.random.entropy_avail = 6
tinkerbell:~# sysctl -A | grep entropy
kernel.random.entropy_avail = 6

   If I move the mouse a little, it improves temporarily, but drops
fast:
tinkerbell:~# sysctl -A | grep entropy
kernel.random.entropy_avail = 77
tinkerbell:~# sysctl -A | grep entropy
kernel.random.entropy_avail = 5


   Doing the same thing on my 1200MHz Athlon:
khufu:~# sysctl -A | grep entropy
kernel.random.entropy_avail = 3712
khufu:~# sysctl -A | grep entropy
kernel.random.entropy_avail = 3456
khufu:~# sysctl -A | grep entropy
kernel.random.entropy_avail = 3200

   which is a lot closer to what I'd expect.

   I'm running sarge, using a vanilla (i.e. non-Debian) 2.6.7 kernel,
with no patches applied. Is this a known ppc problem (this is the only
ppc linux machine I've ever seen), or should I start troubleshooting?
Any suggestions/workarounds?

Thanks,

 .....Ron

--
Ron Murray   (rjmx@rjmx.net)
http://www.rjmx.net/~ron
GPG Public Key Fingerprint: F2C1 FC47 5EF7 0317 133C  D66B 8ADA A3C4 D86C 74DE