Re: random(4) update causes mips compile fail | mips boot fail

On 7 Sep 2013, at 22:31, Ian Lepore <ian_at_FreeBSD.org> wrote:
> Those of us who have to cope with limited systems will fix our config
> for those systems; that part of it shouldn't be your problem beyond
> providing us with a knob.

If there is NO random number generator, then /dev/random blocks. Period.
If you don't want to block, don't read /dev/random.

If you have an RNG loaded (like Yarrow), the intent is that it will
block-until-secure, but you can insta-unblock it by writing to it.

The intent is that early in the boot, while running all the /etc/rc.d/*
stuff, you write anything you like (hopefully random crud) to the device
and it seeds itself with what it gets. At file close after the write,
it unblocks.

So at the minimum, you can unblock Yarrow by doing

$ echo '' > /dev/random

... as soon as the device is active. There is your knob.

M
-- 
Mark R V Murray