Frandom
From ArchWiki
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Summary
frandom is a fast alternative to /dev/urandom. It can be used wherever fast random number generation is required, eg for randomising large hard drives prior to encryption.
From the frandom page: "The frandom suite comes as a Linux kernel module for several kernels, or a kernel patch for 2.4.22. It implements a random number generator, which is 10-50 times faster than what you get from Linux' built-in /dev/urandom."
Does frandom generate good random numbers? Refer to the frandom page for this and other technical info.
Installation
Frandom is available as a package from the AUR.
Once the daemon has been started, it is available from /dev/frandom. It is run in the normal way:
# /etc/rc.d/frandom {start|stop|restart}
Or if you prefer, it can be started at boot by adding it /etc/rc.conf:
DAEMONS=(... frandom ...)
Wiping a drive/partition
Use the following dd command. This will wipe all the data on the specified device, take care!
# dd if=/dev/frandom of=/dev/sdx1
Example
On a 1.73 GHZ Thinkpad T43 with 2 GB ram:
# time dd if=/dev/frandom of=/dev/sdb2 dd: writing to `/dev/sdb2': No space left on device 587384596+0 records in 587384595+0 records out 300740912640 bytes (301 GB) copied, 12844.6 s, 23.4 MB/s real 214m4.620s user 3m34.693s sys 77m28.660s
Summary: 300 GB in approx 3.5 hours