GPG does not have enough entropy

I've got a ton of processes running in the background to try and get enough entropy, but I am still failing.

**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.
Not enough random bytes available.  Please do some other work to give
the OS a chance to collect more entropy! (Need 210 more bytes)**

I need a method to generate the key that works, cause what I'm trying to do is failing apparently.

Solution 1:

Have you had a look at RNG?

Fedora/Rh/Centos types: sudo yum install rng-tools

On deb types: sudo apt-get install rng-tools to set it up.

Then run sudo rngd -r /dev/urandom before generating the keys.

Reference: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/lim/how-to-generate-enough-entropy-for-gpg-key-generation-process-on-fedora-linux-38022

Solution 2:

I was able to generate the key by

apt-get install rng-tools

In another SSH window open

 gpg --gen-key

Go back to your first SSH session and run

sudo rngd -r /dev/urandom

Let this run till gpg generates your keys!

Solution 3:

To check the amount of bytes of entropy currently available, use

cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail

The entropy bucket is 4096 bytes large, which can very quickly be depleted.

Using this small 'readspeed' tool (http://1wt.eu/tools/readspeed/), you can measure how fast the entropy bucket is filled with different methods.

For example, launch :

$ ./readspeed < /dev/random

and move your mouse around. You will see that 'readspeed' empties the entropy bucket as soon as it is filled, and when you move the mouse, it fills up a bit.

Trying different methods, it seems that keyboard input and mouse movements are the most efficients to replenish that bucket. Network transfers and hard drive copies don't have much influence.

Finally, there are entropy generation devices available, such as this one: http://www.entropykey.co.uk/.

Solution 4:

+1 for rng-tools

In case you are stuck in situation as I am - not having permissions to install new software (rng-tools) on a headless server with virtually no input hardware (sound card, keyboard, mouse) attached. You can run this simple code from another terminal connect to same server, to add to the entropy. It does not matters if you start running this before or after starting gpg --gen-key

$ nice -n 19 bash
$ until [ $COUNT -lt 1 ]; do
  let COUNT=`cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail`
  echo "`date` COUNTER $COUNT"
done

First line is to start a new bash shell, with lower priority (I needed to be nice on a server shared by many users). The until loop is infinite, so remember to break it once the key is generated. All it is doing is causing the network traffic to increase the entropy. It also monitors the entropy_avail counter to show how it gets filled and emptied on other side by gpg. In my case, the counter filled up quickly to 64 and got emptied back to 0 (guess gpg picks up in chunk of 64). I was waiting for 4096 bit key generation for over 3 hours on the server. After starting to run this script, it got finished in under 5 min.