System halts when entropy exhausted, continues when it receivews new entropy

The system halts when entropy is exhausted, then continues when it receives more entropy.

This happens during boot, necessitating key-twiddling or mouse-jiggling in order to boot.

Once the system is fully booted, if one pings it, pings work at first, then halt when the entropy is exhausted. When new entropy is provided (mouse jiggle/key twiddle) they continue.

I'm checking entropy by looking in /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail, and on this system it rarely peeks 200, and us usually wavering around 100. That's really low, but it _should_not_matter_ if there is entropy or not for booting, normal operation, or basic TCP/IP usage.

Note, I do not own this laptop, I was asked to fix it, and will return it to it's owner now, suggesting they install ubuntu 10.04 (which worked), or a different distro. Hopefully there will be enough information in the bug report to track down why the system is using entropy all the time.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: linux-image-2.6.35-22-generic 2.6.35-22.35
Regression: Yes
Reproducible: Yes
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-22.35-generic 2.6.35.4
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-22-generic i686
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.23.
AplayDevices:
 **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC272 Analog [ALC272 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Architecture: i386
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC272 Analog [ALC272 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: pcguru 1515 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xf0440000 irq 46'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC272'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0272,1179ff6e,00100001'
   Controls : 17
   Simple ctrls : 10
Date: Mon Oct 25 15:33:16 2010
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=70b13820-2fc4-47d5-babb-5dc71a8ff6eb
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release i386 (20101007)
MachineType: TOSHIBA TOSHIBA NB205
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic root=UUID=4716231a-7aea-4e58-80fb-97ee1710ed9b ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
RelatedPackageVersions: linux-firmware 1.38
SourcePackage: linux
dmi.bios.date: 04/07/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.bios.version: V1.20
dmi.board.name: KAVAA
dmi.board.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.board.version: 1.00
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: *
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnTOSHIBA:bvrV1.20:bd04/07/2009:svnTOSHIBA:pnTOSHIBANB205:pvrPLL25U-009018:rvnTOSHIBA:rnKAVAA:rvr1.00:cvnTOSHIBA:ct10:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: TOSHIBA NB205
dmi.product.version: PLL25U-009018
dmi.sys.vendor: TOSHIBA