Re: entropy-file

[Taylor R Campbell <riastradh%NetBSD.org@localhost>]

> Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2020 09:15:55 +0300
> From: Dima Veselov <kab00m%lich.phys.spbu.ru@localhost>
> 
> I have a small question why we have /etc/entropy-file in boot.cfg after
> every install but it always tries to update to /var/db/entropy-file on
> every build of -STABLE?

The idea of this logic in sysinst was to ensure that the entropy file
is on the root file system so that the bootloader can get to it.

The default location is /var/db/entropy-file, but if /var is on a
separate file system, the bootloader won't be able to get at it.  So
in that case, sysinst tries to add

	random_file=/etc/entropy-file

to /etc/rc.conf, and

	rndseed /etc/entropy_file

to boot.cfg.

(It's not a huge problem if the bootloader can't get at the seed --
/etc/rc.d/random_seed runs after mountcritlocal, so as long as /var is
in critical_filesystems_local as it is by default, the random seed
will be used, just a bit later at boot than it would have been if the
bootloader could get it.)

However, you say

> but it always tries to update to /var/db/entropy-file

Can you expand on this?  Can you confirm that /etc/rc.conf and
boot.cfg both agree on /etc/entropy-file, and can you say what
symptoms suggest that the system is nevertheless trying to use
/var/db/entropy-file?