[ Thanks to Falko
Timme for this link. ]
“You might know this situation: you want to generate a
GPG or SSL key, and during that operation, your system tells you
that no more random bytes are available and that it needs to
collect more entropy, and you are stuck. This short guide tells you
how to solve this problem with the package rng-tools on Debian
Lenny.“I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!
“1 Preliminary Note
“Let’s assume you want to generate a GPG key:
“gpg –gen-key
“If you are unlucky, the command might stop in the middle with a
message like this:“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.”