How To Install entropybroker on Debian 10

Learn how to install entropybroker on Debian 10 with this tutorial. entropybroker is infrastructure for distributing random numbers (entropy data)

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install entropybroker on Debian 10.

What is entropybroker

entropybroker is:

Entropy Broker is an infrastructure for distributing cryptographically secure random numbers (entropy data) from one or more servers to one or more clients.

It allows you to distribute entropy data (random values) to /dev/random devices from other systems (real servers or virtualised systems). It helps preventing that the /dev/random device gets depleted; an empty /dev/random-device can cause programs to hang (waiting for entropy data to become available).

This is useful for systems that need to generate encryption keys, run VPN software or run a casino website. Also virtual systems that have no good sources of entropy like virtual servers (e.g. VMware, XEN and KVM (although KVM has the virtio_rnd driver)).

Entropy Broker is an infrastructure consisting of client-daemons that fill /dev/random and server-daemons that feed the central entropy broker-server. The server-daemons can gather random values by measuring timer frequency noise, analysing noise from a unused audio-device, noise from a video source (webcam, tv-card) and random values from a real hardware RNG (random number generator).

There are three methods to install entropybroker on Debian 10. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.

Install entropybroker Using apt-get

Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.

sudo apt-get update

After updating apt database, We can install entropybroker using apt-get by running the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install entropybroker

Install entropybroker Using apt

Update apt database with apt using the following command.

sudo apt update

After updating apt database, We can install entropybroker using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install entropybroker

Install entropybroker Using aptitude

If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Debian. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.

sudo aptitude update

After updating apt database, We can install entropybroker using aptitude by running the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install entropybroker

How To Uninstall entropybroker on Debian 10

To uninstall only the entropybroker package we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get remove entropybroker

Uninstall entropybroker And Its Dependencies

To uninstall entropybroker and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Debian 10, we can use the command below:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove entropybroker

Remove entropybroker Configurations and Data

To remove entropybroker configuration and data from Debian 10 we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y purge entropybroker

Remove entropybroker configuration, data, and all of its dependencies

We can use the following command to remove entropybroker configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge entropybroker

Dependencies

entropybroker have the following dependencies:

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install entropybroker package on Debian 10 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.