Are there any hardware gurus reading this who can shed some enlightenment
on a minor but annoying issue?
My new computer has an Intel ICH7 chipset. The ICH7 includes a hardware
random number generator, which Linux recognizes when it boots ("Intel
82802 RNG detected", according to dmesg).
Its output, however, is rather less than useful: the only "random" number
I've ever been able to get out of it is 56. If I say
dd if=/dev/hw_random count=1 | od -b
I get 512 bytes of "070" (octal, which is 56 decimal). Increasing the
count doesn't help...I just get more 56's. Rebooting doesn't help either,
nor does powering off...when it comes back, it continues delivering 56's.
Of course a "random number generator" that only knows about the number 56
has a rather difficult time passing statistical tests of randomness.
If there are any relevant settings int the BIOS setup, I haven't been able
to find them.
So does anybody out there have any idea why the random number generator
isn't producing random numbers, or if there's some magical incantation I
need (above and beyond the driver's initialization procedure) to kick it
into functionality? Is this something that might be fixable by flashing
an updated BIOS?
(I confess I have absolutely no practical need to get this thing
working...it just bothers me that I haven't been able to get it to work.
I feel like that old Dilbert cartoon where Dilbert is introduced to a
"random number generator" that turns to be a guy sitting at a table saying
"Nine, nine, nine, nine, ...")
- Neil Parker
P.S. If it's relevant,
CPU: Intel Pentium Core Duo ("Conroe"), 2.13GHz
Motherboard: Intel D946GZIS
Kernel version: 2.6.18
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