On Fri, 18 Nov 2016 18:15:58 +0100
Clemens Gruber <clemens.gru...@pqgruber.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> On Fri, Nov 18, 2016 at 02:21:36PM +0100, David Jander wrote:
> > Or is there a way (that I ignore) to speed-up the generation of entropy in 
> > the
> > Linux kernel?  
> 
> Did you build your kernel with CONFIG_CRYPTO_JITTERENTROPY=y and
> CONFIG_CRYPTO_DRBG_HASH=y ?

Yes I had those.

> Also, depending on your platform, there might be hardware support.
> We use an i.MX6 which also includes a hardware RNG in its Cryptographic
> Acceleration And Assurance Module (CAAM).
> So we enabled CONFIG_CRYPTO_DEV_FSL_CAAM and use rngd to feed /dev/hwrng
> into the kernel's entropy pool.

Ah. There it is. I was already wondering if there wasn't any CAAM support. I
expected it under drivers/char/hwrng. Instead it is hidden under /crypto/.

> Could you try with above options and rngd started early? There should be
> much more entropy available in a short time.

Will try that out.

> It's probably a bad idea to just patch python for every PTXdist user.

Yes, I was thinking about making that patch configurable somehow.

> Not everybody is willing to trade security for faster start times.

I agree.

> Besides, not having enough entropy will lead to other problems as well.
> 
> If you are using systemd, verify that
> PTXCONF_SYSTEMD_DISABLE_RANDOM_SEED is not set.
> systemd-random-seed restores the random seed of the system at early boot
> and saves it at shutdown. So only the first boot would take longer.

Thanks a lot.

Best regards,

-- 
David Jander
Protonic Holland.

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