Processor microcode update packages (was: Towards d-i wheezy beta 3)
Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@debian.org> writes:
> On Thu, 13 Sep 2012, Wolodja Wentland wrote:
>> On Mon, Sep 10, 2012 at 11:44 +0200, Marco d'Itri wrote:
>> > Also, we should mention somewhere (the install documentation?) that
>> > non-free should be enabled to install microcode fixes which may be
>> > critical to maintain the system stability.
>>
>> Could you elaborate on this please? I have been running systems just fine
>> even though microcode.ctl (and corresponding microcode) was not installed and
>> a look at microcode.ctl's popcon [0] confirms that a majority of users do the
>> same.
>
[...]
>
> System stability depends critically on the presence of microcode that is as
> up-to-date as required to cover all serious bugs on all features of the
> processor that your workload uses.
I think this should be mentioned somewhere *much* more prominent. I
consider myself pretty tech-savy, but only stumbled upon this just now
on the this list. Can a non-free package be made essential or
required? It seems there is really absolutely no-reason other than
non-freeness for not installing this by default.
Best,
-Nikolaus
--
»Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a Banana.«
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