linux-kernel - Re: [v3 PATCH] hwrng: core - Remove add_early

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Date: Thu, 23 May 2024 13:07:17 +0300
From: "Jarkko Sakkinen" <jarkko@...nel.org>
To: "Herbert Xu" <herbert@...dor.apana.org.au>
Cc: "Linus Torvalds" <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
 Nícolas F. R. A. Prado <nfraprado@...labora.com>,
 "Eric Biggers" <ebiggers@...nel.org>, "James Bottomley"
 <James.Bottomley@...senpartnership.com>, "Ard Biesheuvel"
 <ardb@...nel.org>, "Linux Crypto Mailing List"
 <linux-crypto@...r.kernel.org>, <linux-integrity@...r.kernel.org>,
 <keyrings@...r.kernel.org>, <regressions@...ts.linux.dev>,
 <kernel@...labora.com>, "Tejun Heo" <tj@...nel.org>, "Linux Kernel Mailing
 List" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>, "Kees Cook" <keescook@...omium.org>,
 "Torsten Duwe" <duwe@....de>, "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>, "Theodore
 Ts'o" <tytso@....edu>, "Jason A. Donenfeld" <Jason@...c4.com>
Subject: Re: [v3 PATCH] hwrng: core - Remove add_early_randomness

On Thu May 23, 2024 at 12:58 PM EEST, Herbert Xu wrote:
> On Thu, May 23, 2024 at 12:53:04PM +0300, Jarkko Sakkinen wrote:
> >
> > Just throwing something because came to mind, not a serious suggestion.
> > 
> > In crypto_larval_lookup I see statements like this:
> > 
> > 	request_module("crypto-%s", name);
> > 
> > You could potentially bake up a section/table to vmlinux which would
> > have entries like:
> > 
> > 	"module name", 1/0
> > 
> > '1' would mean built-in. Then for early randomness use only stuff
> > that is built-in.
>
> This early random stuff is obsolete not just because we have a
> kernel thread doing the same thing, but moreover random.c itself
> has been modified so that it is no longer starved of entropy on
> startup.  There is no reason to feed any early randomness.

As a feature that would still sometimes nice to have. I've
sometimes wished there was "lsmod -b" or similar to display
built-in stuff ;-)

So overally I think it was good to have at least documented
here... 

BR, Jarkko