On Tue, Jan 31, 2017 at 05:16:33PM +0100, Havard Eidnes wrote: > >> Meanwhile the hardware random generator sits there unused. > > > > Does it sit there completely unused, or did it get used a little at > > boot time? > > It generated some bits at boot time, but apparently not early > enough, because on each reboot the kernel log looks like this:
It looks like nothing's actually calling for bits except the start-up statistical test (which itself creates demand) before the hardware RNG attaches, so there shouldn't be a practical problem. The question is, could the hardware RNG attach earlier or the statistical test happen later -- or doesn't it matter? The statistical failures later in system run might indicate a memory integrity issue, a race condition of some kind, or just be the expected roughly 3/10000 random occurrences. Hard to say without more information. Thor
