From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S262427AbTJXRrw (ORCPT ); Fri, 24 Oct 2003 13:47:52 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S262429AbTJXRrw (ORCPT ); Fri, 24 Oct 2003 13:47:52 -0400 Received: from tmr-02.dsl.thebiz.net ([216.238.38.204]:3596 "EHLO gatekeeper.tmr.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S262427AbTJXRru (ORCPT ); Fri, 24 Oct 2003 13:47:50 -0400 To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Path: gatekeeper.tmr.com!davidsen From: davidsen@tmr.com (bill davidsen) Newsgroups: mail.linux-kernel Subject: Re: [RFC] frandom - fast random generator module Date: 24 Oct 2003 17:37:44 GMT Organization: TMR Associates, Schenectady NY Message-ID: References: <3F8E552B.3010507@users.sf.net> <20031022025602.GH17713@pegasys.ws> <20031022122251.A3921@borg.org> <3F97498D.9050704@storm.ca> X-Trace: gatekeeper.tmr.com 1067017064 4395 192.168.12.62 (24 Oct 2003 17:37:44 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@tmr.com Originator: davidsen@gatekeeper.tmr.com Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org In article <3F97498D.9050704@storm.ca>, Sandy Harris wrote: | Do you think you need this before there's a file system? Why? | Or are you thinking of boxes that don't have a file system? | Or not writable? Not local? | | > --and even speed), | | I suspect that's the real issue. People report using other | things because /dev/urandom is too slow. | | Can we speed up /dev/urandom? Or perhaps write a PRNG daemon? I know someone noted that frandom couldn't just replace urandom, but I don't recall why. The values appear to be at least a good, the speed is much higher, and since it's already in use, there would be no opposition to having it, since we need to have something. Could someone clarify why this isn't a drop-in replacement? | If all we need is a library, there's an RC4-based one named | prng.c in the FreeS/WAN libraries. | http://www.freeswan.org/freeswan_snaps/CURRENT-SNAP/doc/manpage.d/ipsec_prng.3.html | | Two threads discussing the desin start at: | http://lists.freeswan.org/pipermail/design/2002-March/002166.html | http://lists.freeswan.org/pipermail/design/2002-March/002207.html | | > but the Kent who doesn't | > want the kernel to be exploded into a catalogue of competing random | > number generators. | | I'm with you there. No argument, but the performance of urandom is quite poor in terms of speed and having every application generate their own number using their own possibly badly flawed algorithm certainly qualifies as undesirable. -- bill davidsen CTO, TMR Associates, Inc Doing interesting things with little computers since 1979.