My Linux Adventure

[Argent Stonecutter]

What does systemd need a random number generator for that early in the boot process that a simple permuted linear congruential generator wouldn't work for?

 

[Chalice Yao]

What does systemd need a random number generator for that early in the boot process that a simple permuted linear congruential generator wouldn't work for?

From what it looks like, SystemD uses random hash tables rather early for its functionality.

Amusingly enough, systemd *used* to wait for the Kernel, but this could cause boot stalls because said unavailability early on:

Systemd Will Now Use RdRand Directly If The Kernel Can't Deliver Entropy - Phoronix

www.phoronix.com

There seems to be a flag that can be set so Systemd returns to that behavior.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

From what it looks like, SystemD uses random hash tables rather early for its functionality.

That's something that a pseudorandom number generator could absolutely work for: there's no need for cryptographically secure random numbers in a hash table. Heck, my most recent use of a PRNG was in an embedded system database index.

(not to mention that if systemd was properly designed the init() process itself would be nothing but a message switch passing PIDs and signals to a manager process that did all the heavy lifting)