Post by @marshray@infosec.exchange

2026-08-09 22:45 UTC

@jackemled@furry.engineer Any OS that can’t extract from the background activity of a 2011-era laptop enough entropy to initialize its RNG within a few seconds is broken. Possibly the system is making an overly-conservative assessment based on portability to some worst-case embedded hardware scenario.

Replies (2)

@netbsd@mastodon.sdf.org 2026-08-10 07:38

@marshray@infosec.exchange @jackemled@furry.engineer It does do that. It just doesn't count it as increasing the entropy estimate because there isn't a scientific paper detailing how much entropy a hard disk produces. Writing 256 bits to /dev/random should be enough to shut the estimator up permanently, providing safe shutdowns (with shutdown -p now).

Open ##4481768
@jackemled@furry.engineer 2026-08-09 22:52

@marshray@infosec.exchange This isn't an issue with NetBSD, this is an issue with the laptop. It's old & does not have the necessary hardware for that. If you really think the operating system is the problem, what do you suggest I use instead? This is a 32 bit laptop, 9front is not compatible, I will not use Haiku, & I am not the target audience of OpenBSD. NetBSD is the only reasonable option.

Open ##5349610