The Quest For Faster getrandom() Performance Continues Two Years Later

[phoronix]

Phoronix: The Quest For Faster getrandom() Performance Continues Two Years Later

Going back just under two years was the propsal for adding getrandom() to the vDSO in the quest to achieve faster performance for obtaining random numbers in user-space. That effort while seemingly simple remains an ongoing and contentious matter...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-Random-vDSO-2024

[timofonic]

It's great to see there is light at the end of the tunnel

WireGuard pun?

[Kjell]

User updates Linux after 1 year: <free performance in every metric>

User updates Android after 1 year: -11%

User:

dudes-been-making-the-pikachu-face-the-entire-match-v0-ahsuy4pk7wqa1.jpg

[coder]

Does io_uring support getrandom ? That could at least make the syscall less painful, if you wanted more than one at a time (or could afford to maintain a buffer).

[zexelon]

I have found this random number generator code to truly have the best performance: random_number.png

[Mitch]

I have found this random number generator code to truly have the best performance: random_number.png

I ran this 10,000,000 times and got 4 every single time. You know what that means?
That's so unlikely! What an insane coincidence!

And it's lightning fast!

Hopefully the Linux people accept your PR in it's infinite brilliance

Ack - some random person on the internet

[kylew77]

The person talking about Android slowness.

First of all be lucky your android gets updates, some are locked on one version forever and get no updates, not even security updates. My HTC Android 5 phone for example.
My new modern Pixel 7 pro gets updates and they don't seem slower.

Also, while Linux for desktops and servers gets faster every release it also uses more RAM. It is hard to get a gui based desktop under 200MB of RAM used on a modern 6.x series kernel. (cue someone walking in with their 50MB RAM used system because that's how it always goes...)

[dlq84]

The person talking about Android slowness.

First of all be lucky your android gets updates, some are locked on one version forever and get no updates, not even security updates. My HTC Android 5 phone for example.
My new modern Pixel 7 pro gets updates and they don't seem slower.

Also, while Linux for desktops and servers gets faster every release it also uses more RAM. It is hard to get a gui based desktop under 200MB of RAM used on a modern 6.x series kernel. (cue someone walking in with their 50MB RAM used system because that's how it always goes...)

It's much better today. A lot of them now promise X years of updates.

[muncrief]

I just attach a gyroscope to my foot with a wire hooked to a DAC, drink 4 beers, and then stumble around to generate truly random numbers.

It may not be the fastest way, but it works every time

[nivag]

I just attach a gyroscope to my foot with a wire hooked to a DAC, drink 4 beers, and then stumble around to generate truly random numbers.

It may not be the fastest way, but it works every time

By observing your random numbers, a malicious individual may be able to deduce the brand of beer you drink, so probably not too secure!