From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Mark Smith Subject: Re: [net-next PATCH] etherdevice.h: random_ether_addr update Date: Sun, 13 Sep 2009 09:44:09 +0930 Message-ID: <20090913094409.2dd88212@opy.nosense.org> References: <20090911014757.19631.66570.stgit@localhost.localdomain> <20090910190703.25d14533@nehalam> <1252638163.4355.35.camel@Joe-Laptop.home> <20090911.121542.45333246.davem@davemloft.net> <1252700442.15292.62.camel@Joe-Laptop.home> <20090911141554.0072d365@nehalam> <1252717067.29420.22.camel@Joe-Laptop.home> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Stephen Hemminger , David Miller , jeffrey.t.kirsher@intel.com, netdev@vger.kernel.org, gospo@redhat.com, gregory.v.rose@intel.com, donald.c.skidmore@intel.com To: Joe Perches Return-path: Received: from smtp4.adam.net.au ([202.136.110.247]:53917 "EHLO smtp4.adam.net.au" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1752747AbZIMAOR (ORCPT ); Sat, 12 Sep 2009 20:14:17 -0400 In-Reply-To: <1252717067.29420.22.camel@Joe-Laptop.home> Sender: netdev-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:57:47 -0700 Joe Perches wrote: > On Fri, 2009-09-11 at 14:15 -0700, Stephen Hemminger wrote: > > On Fri, 2009-09011 at 13:20 -0700 Joe Perches wrote: > > > Do not use get_random_bytes to avoid drawing down entropy pool. > > Getting 6 bytes once is not going to be enough of a problem > > to drain the pool. I prefer not to weaken the randomness here. > > I see no reason to draw down the entropy pool. > > I have a hard time imagining that a random mac address > needs more than reasonably random values. > One factor to consider is the amount of effort involved in troubleshooting duplicate mac address problems. They don't happen very often, and most people won't encounter them at all. That means they're very low on the list of things you suspect when troubleshooting, so you spend a lot of time investigating other things first, without that time providing any value once you work out what the actual fault it. Once you work out what the problem is, working out which devices are causing it can also be an effort, as, of course, they now don't have unique identifiers. > Why do you think it's reasonable to draw from the > entropy pool? > > cheers, Joe > > -- > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe netdev" in > the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org > More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html