[arch-general] [arch-dev-public] Changes to microcode updates

[Mike Cloaked]

On Thu, Oct 23, 2014 at 1:01 AM, Marko Hauptvogel <
marko.hauptvogel at googlemail.com> wrote:

> Referring to the comments from october 16th on the ck kernel package
> page [0] and the config of said package [1], your version of the ck
> kernel has not yet been configured to do early microcode updates. But
>

 I have just updated my arch linux system to the new kernel and new
microcode packages (linux 3.17.1-1 intel-ucode 20140913-1). This system
boots with rEFInd. The /boot/refind_linux.conf file was edited to include
the microcode image file as an initrd= entry with lines as:

cat /boot/refind_linux.conf
"Boot to X" "root=PARTUUID=b0c9c220-0f8d-49c1-b306-873d2519ce47 rw
rootfstype=ext4 add_efi_memmapinitrd=/boot/intel-ucode.img
initrd=/boot/initramfs-linux.img systemd.unit=graphical.target"
"Boot to console" "root=PARTUUID=b0c9c220-0f8d-49c1-b306-873d2519ce47 rw
rootfstype=ext4 add_efi_memmap initrd=/boot/intel-ucode.img
initrd=/boot/initramfs-linux.img systemd.unit=multi-user.target"
"Boot Fallback to console"
"root=PARTUUID=b0c9c220-0f8d-49c1-b306-873d2519ce47 rw rootfstype=ext4
add_efi_memmap initrd=/boot/intel-ucode.img
initrd=/boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img systemd.unit=multi-user.target"

The system boots in the same time as previously with kernel 3.16 and the
journal log confirms early microcode update.

journalctl -b | grep microcode
Oct 23 15:41:56 localhost kernel: CPU0 microcode updated early to revision
0x1b, date = 2014-05-29
Oct 23 15:41:56 localhost kernel: CPU1 microcode updated early to revision
0x1b, date = 2014-05-29
Oct 23 15:41:56 localhost kernel: microcode: CPU0 sig=0x306a9, pf=0x2,
revision=0x1b
Oct 23 15:41:56 localhost kernel: microcode: CPU1 sig=0x306a9, pf=0x2,
revision=0x1b
Oct 23 15:41:56 localhost kernel: microcode: CPU2 sig=0x306a9, pf=0x2,
revision=0x1b
Oct 23 15:41:56 localhost kernel: microcode: CPU3 sig=0x306a9, pf=0x2,
revision=0x1b
Oct 23 15:41:56 localhost kernel: microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.00
tigran at aivazian.fsnet.co.uk, Peter Oruba

So the updated kernel works fine for early microcode update, with the small
amendment to the refind_linux.conf file as the rEFInd author suggested it
would. I have tested this on three different machines all of which use
rEFInd to boot. I note that the arch wiki has already been edited to
include the change needed for the rEFInd boot manager. So this works fine.
It is presumed that the latest microcode for the CPU in this machine is
dated correctly as 2014-05-29.
-- 
mike c