[arch-general] Intel microcode - latest version not loading

[Doug Newgard]

On Wed, 28 Feb 2018 11:46:23 -0600
Dutch Ingraham <stoa at gmx.us> wrote:

> Hi all:
> 
> I'm having an issue with Intel microcode loading.  Specifically, the microcode
> does not appear to be loading the latest version:
> 
> ~ $ dmesg | grep microcode
> [    0.000000] microcode: microcode updated early to revision 0x19, date = 2013-06-21
> [    0.931272] microcode: sig=0x106a5, pf=0x2, revision=0x19
> [    0.931319] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.2.
> 
> 
> My processor is:
> 
> ~ $ grep -E 'family|model|stepping' -m 4 /proc/cpuinfo
> cpu family      : 6
> model           : 26
> model name      : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           W3503  @ 2.40GHz
> stepping        : 5
> 
> The Intel website indicates the latest version of microcode for this processor
> is version 20171117 [1].  However, as indicated above, the version loaded at
> boot is dated 2013-06-21.
> 
> I have the latest stable version of intel-ucode installed:
> 
> ~ $ pacman -Q intel-ucode
> intel-ucode 20180108-1
> 
> I have updated GRUB with <grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg>, and rebooted.
> The grub.cfg file shows, as the last line in the menuentry:
> 'initrd  /boot/intel-ucode.img /boot/initramfs-linux.img'
> 
> I am using a stock kernel:
> 
> ~ $ uname -a
> Linux arch2 4.15.5-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Feb 22 22:15:20 UTC 2018 x86_64 GNU/Linux
> 
> 
> Can someone help me determine what is going on here?
> 
> 
> [1] https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/27337/Linux-Processor-Microcode-Data-File?product=40799

You're looking at the dates that the last *bundle* was released. That says
nothing about what firmware is available for your processor. Your microcode was
"updated early", so it is being loaded just fine.

Scimmia