diff --git a/drivers/char/random.c b/drivers/char/random.c
index 693640de7271..e7fc274a9608 100644
--- a/drivers/char/random.c
+++ b/drivers/char/random.c
@@ -799,16 +799,11 @@ early_param("random.trust_cpu", parse_trust_cpu);
 early_param("random.trust_bootloader", parse_trust_bootloader);
 
 /*
- * The first collection of entropy occurs at system boot while interrupts
- * are still turned off. Here we push in latent entropy, RDSEED, a timestamp,
- * utsname(), and the command line. Depending on the above configuration knob,
- * RDSEED may be considered sufficient for initialization. Note that much
- * earlier setup may already have pushed entropy into the input pool by the
- * time we get here.
+ * This is called extremely early, before time keeping functionality is
+ * available, but arch randomness is. Interrupts are not yet enabled.
  */
-int __init random_init(const char *command_line)
+void __init random_init_early(const char *command_line)
 {
-	ktime_t now = ktime_get_real();
 	unsigned int i, arch_bits;
 	unsigned long entropy;
 
@@ -821,22 +816,41 @@ int __init random_init(const char *command_line)
 	     i < BLAKE2S_BLOCK_SIZE; i += sizeof(entropy)) {
 		if (!arch_get_random_seed_long_early(&entropy) &&
 		    !arch_get_random_long_early(&entropy)) {
-			entropy = random_get_entropy();
 			arch_bits -= sizeof(entropy) * 8;
+			continue;
 		}
 		_mix_pool_bytes(&entropy, sizeof(entropy));
 	}
-	_mix_pool_bytes(&now, sizeof(now));
-	_mix_pool_bytes(utsname(), sizeof(*(utsname())));
-	_mix_pool_bytes(command_line, strlen(command_line));
-	add_latent_entropy();
 
+	_mix_pool_bytes(command_line, strlen(command_line));
+
+	/* Reseed if already seeded by earlier phases. */
 	if (crng_ready())
 		crng_reseed();
 	else if (trust_cpu)
 		_credit_init_bits(arch_bits);
+}
 
-	return 0;
+/*
+ * This is called a little bit after the prior function, and now there is
+ * access to timestamps counters. Interrupts are not yet enabled.
+ */
+void __init random_init(void)
+{
+	unsigned long entropy = random_get_entropy();
+	ktime_t now = ktime_get_real();
+
+	_mix_pool_bytes(utsname(), sizeof(*(utsname())));
+	_mix_pool_bytes(&now, sizeof(now));
+	_mix_pool_bytes(&entropy, sizeof(entropy));
+	add_latent_entropy();
+
+	/* Reseed if already seeded by earlier phases. */
+	if (crng_ready())
+		crng_reseed();
+
+	WARN(!entropy, "Missing cycle counter and fallback timer; RNG "
+		       "entropy collection will consequently suffer.");
 }
 
 /*
diff --git a/include/linux/random.h b/include/linux/random.h
index 8ed2e245d51e..7e742ef51a83 100644
--- a/include/linux/random.h
+++ b/include/linux/random.h
@@ -64,7 +64,8 @@ static inline unsigned long get_random_canary(void)
 	return get_random_long() & CANARY_MASK;
 }
 
-int __init random_init(const char *command_line);
+void __init random_init_early(const char *command_line);
+void __init random_init(void);
 bool rng_is_initialized(void);
 int wait_for_random_bytes(void);
 int register_random_ready_notifier(struct notifier_block *nb);
diff --git a/init/main.c b/init/main.c
index d283c689496a..cb6c59db4188 100644
--- a/init/main.c
+++ b/init/main.c
@@ -625,6 +625,9 @@ asmlinkage __visible void __init start_kernel(void)
 		parse_args("Setting init args", after_dashes, NULL, 0, -1, -1,
 			   NULL, set_init_arg);
 
+	/* Architectural and non-timekeeping rng init, before allocator init */
+	random_init_early(command_line);
+
 	/*
 	 * These use large bootmem allocations and must precede
 	 * kmem_cache_init()
@@ -687,17 +690,13 @@ asmlinkage __visible void __init start_kernel(void)
 	hrtimers_init();
 	softirq_init();
 	timekeeping_init();
-	kfence_init();
 	time_init();
 
-	/*
-	 * For best initial stack canary entropy, prepare it after:
-	 * - setup_arch() for any UEFI RNG entropy and boot cmdline access
-	 * - timekeeping_init() for ktime entropy used in random_init()
-	 * - time_init() for making random_get_entropy() work on some platforms
-	 * - random_init() to initialize the RNG from from early entropy sources
-	 */
-	random_init(command_line);
+	/* This must be after timekeeping is initialized */
+	random_init();
+
+	/* These make use of the fully initialized rng */
+	kfence_init();
 	boot_init_stack_canary();
 
 	perf_event_init();