Re: Kernel for Spectre and Meltdown

On 29 January 2018 at 18:02, Michael Lange <klappnase@freenet.de> wrote:

On Mon, 29 Jan 2018 10:47:57 -0500
rhkramer@gmail.com wrote:

> Again, checking / confirming my understanding, if you download a kernel
> image (which is normal for me), there is no need for me to have any
> version of GCC as the image is pre-compiled.

Sure.

>
> On the other hand, if I download kernel source, I would need GCC, and a
> version that is sufficient for the code.

That is point here, at least as far as I understood for that new "spectre
fix" one needs a compiler that is "retpoline-aware" (as the
"checker"-script calls it, whatever that means) and currently this is only
true for gcc >= 7.3. So if you compile the kernel on Stretch with gcc-6
this "retpoline" fix will not work.

For me, the realisation of this felt as if a person had drunk too much alcohol the night before,

and woke the next morning with a hangover.

After groping around in the medicine cabinet and finding the alka seltzer one would realise that they

needed to take two tablets not just one to recover and face the reality of the moment.

One could perhaps argue that the fact that one could use a live distribution to run sid

and produce a kernel that could be ported to stretch plus the fact that some

kernels that address only the meltdown problem are knocking around in stretch

etc might make one feel that perhaps one alka seltzer tablet might suffice instead of two here.

Perhaps otherwise.

I am not really so sure what the correct dosage ought to be now.

Cheers

Regards

Michael

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