Re: [dm-crypt] [RFC] dm-crypt and hardware-optimized crypto modules

[Arno Wagner <arno@wagner.name>]

On Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 08:29:57AM +0200, Milan Broz wrote:
> On 10/24/2011 01:30 AM, Jonas Meurer wrote:
[...]
> If the modules are present at this time (either compiled-in or as separate
> modules) this seems to be kernel cryptoAPI bug.

So if it is loaded by the autoloader it should try the HW module first
and only if that fails load the SW module? Makes sense.

> If it is not present (in intramfs) then available module is used and later
> it is not replaced by hw accelerated driver.
> 
> Anyway, I am using aesni_intel loaded from Debian initramfs and it works
> with no hacks. Wonder what is the difference...
> (kernel 3.0.3 but compiled with own config to own kernel deb package.)

Ah, yes, I fogot: There is an organized and documented process for 
rolling your own Debian kernel package. I have not used it though.

> > I'm happy to extend the initramfs scripts to load hardware-optimized
> > modules in case they're available before cryptsetup is invoked. But
> > that an implementation would be ugly and hard to maintain as it needs
> > to be updated for possible kernel crypto driver changes. I would
> > prefer a solution where the kernel crypto api took responsibility for
> > this task.
> 
> I think it should load modules automatically according to its priorities
> (hw has always higher priority). Anyway, this is the question
> for linux-crypto (kernel) list.
> 
> There is no way how to force dm-crypt load specific driver.

You could do a wrapper and unload the software AES module if loaded. 
That would be a pretty dirty hack though.

BTW, nice to see RH folks using Debian ;-)

Arno
 
-- 
Arno Wagner, Dr. sc. techn., Dipl. Inform., CISSP -- Email: arno@wagner.name 
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