[arch-dev-public] Reorganizing CPU ucode updates

[Thomas Bächler]

After some talk on IRC with Tom and Dan, I created new ucode packages.
This is the plan so far:

1) Drop microcode_ctl - this Intel-only tool used the microcode.dat file
provided by Intel to update the ucode.

2) Add the split firmware files in /lib/firmware/intel-ucode in a new
package ([1]).

3) Add the AMD firmware file in /lib/firmware/amd-ucode in a new package
([2]).

With this setup, a user simply needs to add the 'microcode' module in
rc.conf, and the ucode update will be applied automatically. As Tom
tells me, future linux versions will even autoload microcode when
appropriate.

One issue is package naming: We could stick with the usual "source
tarball == package name" paradigm, but that means that the Intel package
is named 'microcode', while the AMD package is named 'amd-ucode' (like
it is commited to SVN now). I would prefer calling the Intel package
'intel-ucode', which would be consistent with the AMD version and also
match the name of the /lib/firmware/ subdirectory.

Please throw opinions at me.

[1]
https://projects.archlinux.org/svntogit/packages.git/tree/trunk/?h=packages/microcode
[2]
https://projects.archlinux.org/svntogit/packages.git/tree/trunk/?h=packages/amd-ucode

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 900 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <http://mailman.archlinux.org/pipermail/arch-dev-public/attachments/20120108/1d389724/attachment.asc>