In the event that random_get_entropy() can't access a cycle counter or similar, falling back to returning 0 is really not the best we can do. Instead, at least calling random_get_entropy_fallback() would be preferable, because that always needs to return _something_, even falling back to jiffies eventually. It's not as though random_get_entropy_fallback() is super high precision or guaranteed to be entropic, but basically anything that's not zero all the time is better than returning zero all the time. If CONFIG_X86_TSC=n, then it's possible that we're running on a 486 with no RDTSC, so we only need the fallback code for that case. Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@xxxxxxxx> Cc: x86@xxxxxxxxxx Signed-off-by: Jason A. Donenfeld <Jason@xxxxxxxxx> --- arch/x86/include/asm/timex.h | 10 ++++++++++ 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+) diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/timex.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/timex.h index a4a8b1b16c0c..fac180359693 100644 --- a/arch/x86/include/asm/timex.h +++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/timex.h @@ -5,6 +5,16 @@ #include <asm/processor.h> #include <asm/tsc.h> +static inline unsigned long random_get_entropy(void) +{ +#ifndef CONFIG_X86_TSC + if (!boot_cpu_has(X86_FEATURE_TSC)) + return random_get_entropy_fallback(); +#endif + return rdtsc(); +} +#define random_get_entropy random_get_entropy + /* Assume we use the PIT time source for the clock tick */ #define CLOCK_TICK_RATE PIT_TICK_RATE -- 2.35.1