How To Install rng-tools-debian on Ubuntu 20.04
Introduction
In this tutorial we learn how to install rng-tools-debian
on Ubuntu 20.04.
What is rng-tools-debian
rng-tools-debian is:
The rngd daemon acts as a bridge between a Hardware TRNG (true random number generator), such as the ones in some Intel/AMD/VIA chipsets, and the kernel’s PRNG (pseudo-random number generator).
It tests the data received from the TRNG using the FIPS 140-2 (2002-10-10) tests to verify that it is indeed random, and feeds the random data to the kernel entropy pool.
This increases the bandwidth of the /dev/random device, from a source that does not depend on outside activity. It may also improve the quality (entropy) of the randomness of /dev/random.
A TRNG kernel module such as hw_random, or some other source of true entropy that is accessible as a device or fifo, is required to use this package.
This is an unofficial version of rng-tools which has been extensively modified to add multithreading and a lot of new functionality. However, most users of newer or high-bandwidth HWRNGs might wish to install the 5.x version of rng-tools, also packaged as rng-tools5, instead; while it lacks some of the new functionality from this version, it offers more performant support for those.
There are three methods to install rng-tools-debian
on Ubuntu 20.04. We can use apt-get
, apt
and aptitude
. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.
Install rng-tools-debian Using apt-get
Update apt database with apt-get
using the following command.
sudo apt-get update
After updating apt database, We can install rng-tools-debian
using apt-get
by running the following command:
sudo apt-get -y install rng-tools-debian
Install rng-tools-debian Using apt
Update apt database with apt
using the following command.
sudo apt update
After updating apt database, We can install rng-tools-debian
using apt
by running the following command:
sudo apt -y install rng-tools-debian
Install rng-tools-debian 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 Ubuntu. Update apt database with aptitude
using the following command.
sudo aptitude update
After updating apt database, We can install rng-tools-debian
using aptitude
by running the following command:
sudo aptitude -y install rng-tools-debian
How To Uninstall rng-tools-debian on Ubuntu 20.04
To uninstall only the rng-tools-debian
package we can use the following command:
sudo apt-get remove rng-tools-debian
Uninstall rng-tools-debian And Its Dependencies
To uninstall rng-tools-debian
and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Ubuntu 20.04, we can use the command below:
sudo apt-get -y autoremove rng-tools-debian
Remove rng-tools-debian Configurations and Data
To remove rng-tools-debian
configuration and data from Ubuntu 20.04 we can use the following command:
sudo apt-get -y purge rng-tools-debian
Remove rng-tools-debian configuration, data, and all of its dependencies
We can use the following command to remove rng-tools-debian
configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:
sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge rng-tools-debian
References
Summary
In this tutorial we learn how to install rng-tools-debian
package on Ubuntu 20.04 using different package management tools: apt
, apt-get
and aptitude
.