Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Intel/AMD x86 CPU microcode update system in non-free
On 05/11/12 22:12, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I would like to bring to your attention the improved support for system
> processor (CPU) microcode updates, for x86/i686/x86-64/amd64 systems
> that was recently added to [non-free] Wheezy.
>
> System Processors from Intel and AMD may need updates to their microcode
> (sort of a control sequence for the processor) to operate correctly.
> These updates fix bugs/errata that can cause anything from incorrect
> processing, to code and data corruption, and system lockups.
>
> [...]
>
> You can check which version of the microcode your processors are running
> by looking for "microcode" lines on /proc/cpuinfo. This information is
> only available on recent kernels (such as the Wheezy kernel).
Hello.
My CPU is an AMD Turion(tm)X2 Dual Core Mobile RM-76, cpu family: 17, so
it doesn't need the amd64-microcode package which contains microcode
updates only for cpu families: 10h - 14h & 15h. But the microcode kernel
module gets loaded regardless of the fact that my CPU doesn't need it.
This leads to the following message being shown at boot, taining the
boot process messages (basicaly it uglifies the boot process :D):
microcode: failed to load file amd-ucode/microcode_amd.bin
So, shouldn't the microcode module be loaded only for the CPUs that need
it? I know I can blacklist the module from loading, but I think this
should be handled more elegantly - read automatically - by Debian so
users wouldn't have to manually fiddle with blacklisting modules. I
don't exactly know how this should be done, but seeing that the
microcode.ko belongs to the linux-image package, maybe there should be
some script that runs when the package is installed that checks if the
CPU needs a microcode update, and if it doesn't it should blacklist the
module.
--
Adrian Fita
Reply to: