Bug#684569: linux-image-3.5-trunk-686-pae: microcode module loaded on Celeron CPU
On Mon, Aug 13, 2012 at 09:44:48AM +0200, Paul Menzel wrote:
> Looking into this some more, this seems unlikely in Debian because the
> microcode packages are in non-free [1] and therefore not available for
> Debian users not having enabled non-free repositories
>
> Because of that the microcode packages are also non-essential, that
> means not installed by default even when non-free packages are allowed.
> And normal users will never install them by themselves.
Sounds like a problem. They actually fix bugs so it's recommended.
BIOSes are not normally updated regularly, so the microcode update
gives you a faster path to that.
>
> So currently I am pretty sure 99,9999 % of Debian users do not have it
> installed.
>
> > With the latest mainline kernel the microcode driver should be automatically
> > loaded by CPUID probing through udev.
>
> How can I find out, if the microcode provided by my BIOS is older than
> the one provided by the processor vendor? I am pretty sure, that for
> example Intel does not release any updates for the Celeron CPU in my
> ASUS Eee PC 701 4G.
The newer kernels report the microcode version in /proc/cpuinfo
If not you can probably use some tool like x86info.
Check version. Load the latest microcode. Compare versions.
-Andi
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