#8089 NORM 8.2.0 (: /dev/hwrng isn't random.

Zarro Boogs per Child bugtracker at laptop.org
Fri Sep 12 11:12:49 EDT 2008


#8089: /dev/hwrng isn't random.
-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------
   Reporter:  cscott               |       Owner:  cscott                 
       Type:  defect               |      Status:  new                    
   Priority:  normal               |   Milestone:  8.2.0 (was Update.2)   
  Component:  ofw - open firmware  |     Version:  not specified          
 Resolution:                       |    Keywords:  blocks?:8.2.0 cjbfor8.2
Next_action:  qa signoff           |    Verified:  0                      
  Blockedby:                       |    Blocking:  8024                   
-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------

Comment(by cscott):

 OK, after looking at the output, I have a theory:  there seem to be "too
 many" zeros in the output, and especially *strings of zeros*.  The kernel
 documentation:
 http://dev.laptop.org/git?p=olpc-2.6;a=blob;f=Documentation/hw_random.txt;h=690f52550c80096bb54cd7c7b292399aed63d890;hb=testing
 says:
    "Data is only output if the hardware "has-data" flag is set..."

 but I suspect this isn't the case for our current kernel/firmware -- I
 think we're outputting *zero* if the hardware "has-data" flag isn't set.

 Tested on 714, and I got 115, 117, 117, 117, and 122 different values (and
 still the strings of zeros).  Build 714 has the same E17 firmware, but a
 2.6.22 kernel.  I'll try to downgrade the firmware to Q2Dxx and see if
 that affects the results.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/8089#comment:20>
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