[Bug 218986] random harvesting on older i386 causing boot failure

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https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=218986

            Bug ID: 218986
           Summary: random harvesting on older i386 causing boot failure
           Product: Base System
           Version: 11.0-STABLE
          Hardware: i386
                OS: Any
            Status: New
          Severity: Affects Some People
          Priority: ---
         Component: kern
          Assignee: freebsd-bugs at FreeBSD.org
          Reporter: dewayne at heuristicsystems.com.au

Created attachment 182205
  --> https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/attachment.cgi?id=182205&action=edit
VIA C3 dmesg.boot verbose

Using a build process that is successful on amd64 and i386 boxes with 
FreeBSD  11.0-STABLE FreeBSD 11.0-STABLE #0 r317498M: Fri Apr 28 03:52:30 AEST
2017     root at hathor:/110007/P/C3/sys   i386 1100512 1100512

The same usb drive was inserted into VIA C7 (i386) processor and booted as
expected.  With the older VIA C3 boxes the system stopped somewhere between
kernel and init.

The sequence of booting: bios, da0 was recognised, loader, kernel were
successful and the memory filesystem was loaded.  However, the harvestor is
unable to complete its work and impacts the recognition of da0 (usb), refer
enclosed dmesg.  Around the 300-310 second mark, the "random: unblocking
device" kicked in.  

Ultimately this is a workaround, in loader.conf
kern.cam.boot_delay="320000"

It seems that 
random: harvesting attach, 8 bytes (4 bits) from umass0
causes the booting sequence to block.  Without the delay, the usb is loaded but
can't proceed with the handover from the kernel.  My guess is that init isn't
started (I've placed logging into /etc/rc to see if that starts, it doesn't).

I know that kern.random.harvest.mask is picked up via sysctl.conf, the value
there is 256, for SWI and CACHED; however we also tried a value of 0 in
loader.conf.  This didn't help :(  

>From the verbose boot log, it seems that very many devices (all?) are harvested
for entropy during the boot.  Unfortunately the umass device doesn't seem to
want to play.  

This is a slow 800MHz system with 1G memory which acts as a firewall device. 
It is a reliable old plug (workhorse) and we test it last, as its been the
least problematic.

I've included a "boot -v" log as it may shed further light.

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