diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 8409629be..39ab54fbe 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -214,6 +214,15 @@ RUN wget -O /linux.tar.xz "https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v${LINUX_VERS
 	ln -sT "linux-$LINUX_VERSION" /usr/src/linux; \
 	[ -d /usr/src/linux ]
 
+# apply kernel entropy patch from 5.4; this same patch was backported in Debian in 5.3.9-1
+#   - https://git.kernel.org/linus/50ee7529ec4500c88f8664560770a7a1b65db72b
+#   - https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/linux/commit/c323c453b2485a33bfb33635a07f3a50bc1db1ee
+#   - https://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2019/11/msg00077.html
+# specifically, this solves the problem of early-boot entropy (SSH key generation, for example), avoiding the need for userspace solutions like haveged
+RUN wget -O kernel-entropy.patch 'https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/patch/?id=50ee7529ec4500c88f8664560770a7a1b65db72b'; \
+	patch -p1 --input "$PWD/kernel-entropy.patch" --directory /usr/src/linux; \
+	rm kernel-entropy.patch
+
 RUN { \
 		echo '#!/usr/bin/env bash'; \
 		echo 'set -Eeuo pipefail'; \
@@ -331,20 +340,6 @@ RUN echo 'for i in /usr/local/etc/profile.d/*.sh ; do if [ -r "$i" ]; then . $i;
 # install kernel headers so we can use them for building xen-utils, etc
 RUN make -C /usr/src/linux INSTALL_HDR_PATH=/usr/local headers_install
 
-# https://lkml.org/lkml/2018/4/12/711 (https://github.com/boot2docker/boot2docker/pull/1322)
-# https://github.com/jirka-h/haveged/releases
-ENV HAVEGED_VERSION 1.9.4
-RUN wget -O /haveged.tgz "https://github.com/jirka-h/haveged/archive/${HAVEGED_VERSION}.tar.gz"; \
-	mkdir /usr/src/haveged; \
-	tar --extract --file /haveged.tgz --directory /usr/src/haveged --strip-components 1; \
-	rm /haveged.tgz
-# https://debbugs.gnu.org/11064 (libtool eats "-static", gcc doesn't mind getting "--static" even more than once)
-RUN ( cd /usr/src/haveged && ./configure LDFLAGS='-static --static' ); \
-	make -C /usr/src/haveged/src -j "$(nproc)" haveged; \
-	cp -v /usr/src/haveged/src/haveged usr/local/sbin/; \
-	strip usr/local/sbin/haveged; \
-	tcl-chroot haveged --run 1
-
 # http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/
 # updated via "update.sh"
 ENV VBOX_VERSION 5.2.34
diff --git a/files/bootsync.sh b/files/bootsync.sh
index 3a20be937..39f59425f 100755
--- a/files/bootsync.sh
+++ b/files/bootsync.sh
@@ -71,10 +71,6 @@ done
 
 /usr/local/etc/init.d/acpid start
 
-# https://github.com/boot2docker/boot2docker/pull/1322
-/etc/init.d/haveged conditional
-# (if the system doesn't have enough entropy, "dockerd" hangs without any output until it get a sufficient amount)
-
 if [ -e /var/lib/boot2docker/bootsync.sh ]; then
 	sh /var/lib/boot2docker/bootsync.sh
 fi
diff --git a/files/init.d/haveged b/files/init.d/haveged
deleted file mode 100755
index 64d1e52d5..000000000
--- a/files/init.d/haveged
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,78 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/sh
-set -e
-
-# https://lkml.org/lkml/2018/4/12/711
-# https://github.com/boot2docker/boot2docker/pull/1322
-
-if [ "$(id -u)" != 0 ]; then
-	echo >&2 "error: must be root to invoke $0"
-	exit 1
-fi
-
-# https://github.com/jirka-h/haveged/blob/1.9.4/init.d/sysv.lsb
-
-PIDFILE='/var/run/haveged.pid'
-pid() {
-	if [ -s "$PIDFILE" ]; then
-		local pid
-		pid="$(cat "$PIDFILE")"
-		if ps "$pid" > /dev/null 2>&1; then
-			echo "$pid"
-			return 0
-		fi
-	fi
-	return 1
-}
-
-start() {
-	if pid="$(pid)"; then
-		echo >&2 "error: haveged is already running ($pid)"
-		exit 1
-	fi
-
-	echo 'Starting haveged'
-
-	mkdir -p /var/lib/boot2docker/log
-
-	# https://github.com/jirka-h/haveged/blob/1.9.4/init.d/sysv.lsb#L41
-	haveged -w 1024 -v 1 -p "$PIDFILE"
-}
-
-stop() {
-	if pid="$(pid)"; then
-		echo "Stopping haveged ($pid)"
-		kill "$pid"
-	fi
-}
-
-restart() {
-	stop
-	start
-}
-
-# only start the daemon if it's determined that we probably need to
-conditional() {
-	# https://bugs.debian.org/923675#72
-	if [ -e /sys/devices/virtual/misc/hw_random/rng_current ] && rngCurrent="$(cat /sys/devices/virtual/misc/hw_random/rng_current)" && [ "${rngCurrent:-none}" != 'none' ]; then
-		# hardware RNG likely present, do not start software RNG
-		return
-	fi
-	if grep -q '^flags\b.*\brdrand\b' /proc/cpuinfo; then
-		# CPU has RNG functionality, do not start software RNG
-		return
-	fi
-
-	# given the default poolsize of 4096, 120 is ~3% of the total pool
-	if currentEntropy="$(cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail)" && [ "$currentEntropy" -gt 120 ]; then
-		# if we appear to have an OK amount of entropy already, skip software RNG
-		return
-	fi
-
-	# "fire it up"
-	start
-}
-
-case "$1" in
-	start|stop|restart|conditional) "$1" ;;
-	*) echo "Usage $0 {start|stop|restart|conditional}"; exit 1 ;;
-esac