More on root passwords

We're on a root password roll!

You may get the following interesting "error" message if you do the "boot into single user to change root password" process:

entropy device blocking. Dance fandago on keyboard to unlock

Well, FreeBSD isn't kidding. Basically, it needs to "seed" the random number generator, and perhaps you just haven't done enough to do that. It can use a combination of what you type and the nearly perfectly random times between keys to jumpstart the random number generator. So you can do a few things before running passwd to change root's password:

• Just type away for a bit, randomly. You can even redirect it to /dev/null:
  
  

  
  # cat >/dev/null
  

  
  
  Just type stuff away, and when you're done, hit ctrl-d to stop the cat'ing to /dev/null. Then re-run passwd.


• As Matthew Seaman pointed on on the -questions list, you can just run vipw and delete the stuff between the second and third ':', leaving a blank password. Then you can reboot normally, login to root immediately(!!) and run passwd. The generator will be nice and warmed up.


• I guess on FreeBSD 5.x, which I haven't tried to install yet, you can run:
  

  
  # /etc/rc.d/preseedrandom
  

  
  
  Which, in fact, preseeds the random number generator.