Re: random pool entropy starvation in initrd with parse-kickstart

On 11/23/2015 03:08 PM, Brian C. Lane wrote:
> Trying to write down some of the things I know so that I don't forget
> and so that maybe someone else can figure this out.
>
> I've been testing with a PXE setup using rawhide boot.iso's that I've
> created. I'm injecting the modified code into the initrd by adding
> ,/path/to/extra.img to the initrd PXE entry. This also works for adding
> the kickstart at /
>
> If parse-kickstart is run before the kernel initializes the nonblocking
> random pool it appears to starve the system and it takes anywhere from
> several minutes to forever for the pool to be initialized and for the
> boot to continue.
 >    [[snip]]

How many execve()?  Each consumes 16 bytes from the pool for AT_RANDOM.
A shell script that invokes helper utility programs instead of builtin
string operations is one likely culprit.