Re: [stable] [PATCH 46/61] fix Intel RNG detection

[Jan Beulich]

>>> dean gaudet <dean@xxxxxxxxxx> 14.12.06 09:40 >>>
>On Thu, 14 Dec 2006, Jan Beulich wrote:
>
>> >with the patch it boots perfectly without any command-line args.
>> 
>> Are you getting the 'Firmware space is locked read-only' message then?
>
>yep...
>
>so let me ask a naive question... don't we want the firmware locked 
>read-only because that protects the bios from viruses?  honestly i'm naive 
>in this area of pc hardware, but i'm kind of confused why we'd want 
>unlocked firmware just so we can detect a RNG.

Indeed, these are contradicting requirements. The RNG detection, as
outlined by Intel documentation, requires being able to write to firmware
hub space (which in turn is hidden behind BIOS space). But I agree that
this is not a good solution (and even without that, it is not good to
require temporarily making invisible the entire BIOS code/data in order
to detect a non-essential device like an RNG).

Jan
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