Re: random() in kernel

H. Peter Anvin (hpa@freya.yggdrasil.com)
28 May 1996 08:16:07 GMT


Followup to: <199605271747.SAA08584@oberon>
By author: Pedro Roque Marques <roque@di.fc.ul.pt>
In newsgroup: linux.dev.kernel
>=20
> I need to obtain random numbers in the kernel, to be more clear i'm
> looking for statistic random numbers. Since there are a lot of people
> out there that got some handly algorithms i would like a pointer to
> them. The generator doesn't need to be very good, size and speed are
> major concerns. The reason why the phisical event counter based
> entropy is not too good for my purposes is that the generator will be
> called right after system initialization and the fact that the
> objective is obtaining equally distributed numbers.
>=20
> What is in question here is the right time to send packets to the
> network to avoid colisions.
>=20

Why not snatch the value of the RTC as a seed for a plain ole
polynomial congruence generator?

-hpa
--=20
PGP public key available - finger hpa@zytor.com
I don't work for Yggdrasil, but they sponsor the linux.* hierarchy.
"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens." -- Bah=E1'u=
'll=E1h
Just Say No to Morden * Save Babylon 5: http://www.babylon5.com/cmp/sup=
port/