Re: [PATCH v2] mips/malta: pass RNG seed to to kernel via env var

[Jason A. Donenfeld]

On Tue, Oct 4, 2022 at 12:56 PM Jason A. Donenfeld <Jason@zx2c4.com> wrote:
> > > So, as you can see, it works perfectly. Thus, setting this in QEMU
> > > follows *exactly* *the* *same* *pattern* as every other architecture
> > > that allows for this kind of mechanism. There's nothing weird or unusual
> > > or out of place happening here.
> >
> > I think the unusual thing here is that this patch isn't
> > "this facility is implemented by u-boot [commit whatever,
> > docs whatever], and here is the patch adding it to QEMU's
> > handling of the same interface". That is, for boards like
> > Malta the general expectation is that we're emulating
> > a piece of real hardware and the firmware/bootloader
> > that it would be running, so "this is a patch that
> > implements an interface that the real bootloader doesn't
> > have" is a bit odd.
>
> Except it's not different from other platforms that get bootloader
> seeds as such. A bootloader can easily pass this; QEMU most certainly
> should pass this. (I sincerely hope you're not arguing in favor of
> holding back progress in this area for yet another decade.)

Also, in case you've missed the actual context of this patch, it
happens for `-kernel ...`. So we're now strictly in the realm of QEMU
things. This is how things work on all platforms. If you use
`-kernel`, then QEMU will put things in the right place to directly
boot the kernel, or pass some prepared blob to an option ROM, or
whatever else. This isn't related to running `-bios u-boot.bin`,
except insofar as U-Boot can implement the same thing, as I've shown.

Jason