Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1751822AbWLNKLV (ORCPT ); Thu, 14 Dec 2006 05:11:21 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751839AbWLNKLV (ORCPT ); Thu, 14 Dec 2006 05:11:21 -0500 Received: from public.id2-vpn.continvity.gns.novell.com ([195.33.99.129]:29875 "EHLO public.id2-vpn.continvity.gns.novell.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751822AbWLNKLV (ORCPT ); Thu, 14 Dec 2006 05:11:21 -0500 Message-Id: <45813194.76E4.0078.0@novell.com> X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise Internet Agent 7.0.1 Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:12:20 +0000 From: "Jan Beulich" To: "dean gaudet" Cc: "Zwane Mwaikambo" , "Michael Buesch" , "Metathronius Galabant" , , "Michael Krufky" , "Justin Forbes" , , "Theodore Ts'o" , "Chris Wedgwood" , , , "Chuck Wolber" , "Dave Jones" , "Chris Wright" , "Greg Kroah-Hartman" , , "Randy Dunlap" Subject: Re: [stable] [PATCH 46/61] fix Intel RNG detection References: <20061101053340.305569000@sous-sol.org> <20061101054343.623157000@sous-sol.org> <20061120234535.GD17736@redhat.com> <20061121022109.GF1397@sequoia.sous-sol.org> <4562D5DA.76E4.0078.0@novell.com> <20061122015046.GI1397@sequoia.sous-sol.org> <45640FF4.76E4.0078.0@novell.com> <20061124202729.GC29264@redhat.com> <456D56E7.76E4.0078.0@novell.com> <20061213203325.GL10475@sequoia.sous-sol.org> <45811163.76E4.0078.0@novell.com> In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1173 Lines: 27 >>> dean gaudet 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 - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/