intel_rng: FWH not detected (and no entropy)

[Pierre Chifflier <p.chifflier@inl.fr>]

Hi,

I have a problem with a 82801DB chipset, the intel-rng module refuses to
load with the following error:
intel_rng: FWH not detected

The problem is that there is almost no entropy available for
/dev/random, and so SSL operations take a loooooooong time.

I have tried to look at the intel-rng module, and added some debug code
to check for the command results:

intel_rng:   mfc: 0x00ea (should be 0x0089)
intel_rng:   dvc: 0x0045 (should be 0x00ac or 0x00ad)
intel_rng: FWH not detected
intel_rng: XXX Trying to continue anyway
intel_rng:   hw_status: 0x00 (should contain 0x40)

Then, again a -ENODEV.

Tried with 2.6.19.4 and 2.6.22.3, no result. For what I can tell, 2.6.8
had no RNG but had more entropy available.

I'm not sure the mhat a hardware RNG is present, so I want to check.
How can I know if this motherboard contains a RNG ? (which seems not to
be the case). This is a MB for servers (with a compact flash slot), and
has no soudn card, for ex.

lshw shows:
       description: Motherboard
       product: i845GV-83628HF


Alternatively, how can I make more entropy available ? (other than
tricks like using find() or similar, I do not think this is a serious
solution for a server to run "find /" in a cron every minute ..).

Maybe I have not understood, but it seems that entropy generators try to
create a new device /dev/erandom, for ex, so it would need a
modification of applications to work.

Thanks for your help,
Pierre



lspci:
0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL (ICH4/ICH4-L) LPC
Bridge (rev 02)

lspci -s 00:1f.0 -xxx
0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL (ICH4/ICH4-L) LPC
Bridge (rev 02)
00: 86 80 c0 24 0f 00 80 02 02 00 01 06 00 00 80 00
10: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
20: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
30: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
40: 01 40 00 00 10 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
50: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 81 40 00 00 10 00 00 00
60: 0c 0a 0b 05 d0 00 00 00 80 80 80 09 00 00 00 00
70: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
80: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
90: 75 54 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
a0: 20 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 0d 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
b0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 55 41 05 00 00 00 00
c0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
d0: 86 21 00 00 02 0f 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
e0: 10 00 00 c0 00 00 0f 34 33 22 11 00 91 02 67 45
f0: 0f 00 60 00 00 00 00 00 60 0f 02 00 00 00 81 00