From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1PfG09-0006NY-IZ for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Tue, 18 Jan 2011 18:09:53 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 2C563E0AB6 for ; Tue, 18 Jan 2011 18:09:53 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-bw0-f53.google.com (mail-bw0-f53.google.com [209.85.214.53]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 63600E0975 for ; Tue, 18 Jan 2011 17:48:25 +0000 (UTC) Received: by bwg12 with SMTP id 12so5101803bwg.40 for ; Tue, 18 Jan 2011 09:48:24 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=googlemail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:message-id:from:to:subject:date :x-kmail-transport:x-kmail-fcc:x-kmail-drafts:x-kmail-templates :x-kmail-link-message:x-kmail-link-type:user-agent:in-reply-to :references:mime-version:content-transfer-encoding:content-type; bh=rOVU6KmvyATbjMDBWSgn3IlJ+kFH7L0DRb5fZhb3Et4=; b=U+fn8/gN/Ezy6S6ZbpyoYgDC2hHT0m3wvGF5DAuYd6HXj3OZwItuk5hgzXzRff3y5z Tvms7ojQoJSJhIzJi7wTKxYYPUb6LMxU0HwtW78wKXz0RVdhk2GQZa1xpVWZXcW9r4Cd qsvqT1tvC47EOO6Rwzq7fMJIQevUBZVPeRILg= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=googlemail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:from:to:subject:date:x-kmail-transport:x-kmail-fcc :x-kmail-drafts:x-kmail-templates:x-kmail-link-message :x-kmail-link-type:user-agent:in-reply-to:references:mime-version :content-transfer-encoding:content-type; b=LlZN2Fs6FmLLSkHpG/uBXCgckVINdrFNXevZ2RpxAVtvW4bOz/7+0WeCUIfkU83v2g 6qR9ArtP9jk1FLWQCmU4Hls85FM/+TQZhlM/bFNCCJ6dU8X/XEtyTwvuYFf2EmVG74Bh 9+AqIGRnDQSiuOc2BrwE881IYqb1ctYZCEB4M= Received: by 10.204.32.216 with SMTP id e24mr3740694bkd.204.1295372904440; Tue, 18 Jan 2011 09:48:24 -0800 (PST) Received: from energy.localnet (p4FC74B26.dip0.t-ipconnect.de [79.199.75.38]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id z18sm581993bkf.20.2011.01.18.09.48.22 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Tue, 18 Jan 2011 09:48:23 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <4d35d267.9232cc0a.1735.3ff0@mx.google.com> From: Volker Armin Hemmann To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Microcode update AMD Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2011 18:48:20 +0100 X-KMail-Transport: googlemail X-KMail-Fcc: 32 X-KMail-Drafts: 14 X-KMail-Templates: 35 X-KMail-Link-Message: 125036 X-KMail-Link-Type: reply User-Agent: KMail/4.6 beta3 (Linux/2.6.36.3r4; KDE/4.5.95; x86_64; ; ) In-Reply-To: References: <20110117172148.GD5748@solfire> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Archives-Salt: X-Archives-Hash: d25596a55f9b58849729781d70ed55ca On Tuesday 18 January 2011 09:34:14 Mark Knecht wrote: > On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 8:16 AM, Mark Knecht wrote: > > On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 7:38 AM, Paul Hartman > > > > wrote: > >> On Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 10:29 PM, William Kenworthy wrote: > >>> The bios microcode update is likely an enable setting rather than > >>> the > >>> bios actually updating the cpu. You need to do some reading/asking > >>> of > >>> the manufacturers (not here) if it bothers you. > >> > >> Thanks for the links, I didn't realize they made the microcode data > >> available separately. > >> > >> From Intel's download site for the microcode data: > >> > >> "The microcode data file contains the latest microcode definitions for > >> all Intel processors. Intel releases microcode updates to correct > >> processor behavior as documented in the respective processor > >> specification updates. While the regular approach to getting this > >> microcode update is via a BIOS upgrade, Intel realizes that this can > >> be an administrative hassle. The Linux Operating System and VMware ESX > >> products have a mechanism to update the microcode after booting. For > >> example, this file will be used by the operating system mechanism if > >> the file is placed in the /etc/firmware directory of the Linux > >> system." > > > > Thanks for the info Paul. > > > > For kicks I tried it on an Intel DH55HC MB running an Core i5-661. > > > > 1) Created /etc/firmware > > 2) Downloaded the Intel microcode-20101123.tgz file > > 3) Enabled the /dev/cpu/microcode option under Processor Types and > > Features 4) Rebuilt the kernel and rebooted > > > > I see this in dmesg: > > > > mark@firefly ~ $ dmesg | grep micro > > [ 0.495337] microcode: CPU0 sig=0x20652, pf=0x2, revision=0x9 > > [ 0.495436] microcode: CPU1 sig=0x20652, pf=0x2, revision=0x9 > > [ 0.495535] microcode: CPU2 sig=0x20652, pf=0x2, revision=0x9 > > [ 0.495635] microcode: CPU3 sig=0x20652, pf=0x2, revision=0x9 > > [ 0.495751] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.00 > > , Peter Oruba > > mark@firefly ~ $ > > > > On this machine the message doesn't change whether the microcode file > > is located in /etc/firmware or not so I don't know how to tell if the > > process worked but the processor doesn't need any updates or whether > > it didn't work at all. > > > > - Mark > > OK, I got it to load by hand: > > 1) emerge microcode-ctl > > which also emerges microcode-data. Unfortunately microcode-data looks > to be out of date. Add microcode_ctl to the boot level: > > rc-update add microcode_ctl boot > > 2) Unzip and untar the microcode file from Intel. > > 3) The above emerge placed the microcode.dat file in /lib/firmware, > not /etc/firmware as suggested by the kernel, so I loaded the newer > one from Intel by hand using microcode-ctl: > > > firefly firmware # microcode_ctl -f /etc/firmware/microcode-20101123.dat > microcode_ctl: writing microcode (length: 430080) > microcode_ctl: microcode successfuly written to /dev/cpu/microcode > firefly firmware # dmesg | grep micro > [ 0.495755] microcode: CPU0 sig=0x20652, pf=0x2, revision=0x9 > [ 0.495853] microcode: CPU1 sig=0x20652, pf=0x2, revision=0x9 > [ 0.495952] microcode: CPU2 sig=0x20652, pf=0x2, revision=0x9 > [ 0.496050] microcode: CPU3 sig=0x20652, pf=0x2, revision=0x9 > [ 0.496168] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.00 > , Peter Oruba > [ 2647.731262] microcode: CPU0 updated to revision 0xc, date = 2010-06-10 > [ 2647.731982] microcode: CPU1 updated to revision 0xc, date = 2010-06-10 > [ 2647.732815] microcode: CPU2 updated to revision 0xc, date = 2010-06-10 > [ 2647.733608] microcode: CPU3 updated to revision 0xc, date = 2010-06-10 > firefly firmware # > > Now the microcode revision appears to be updated. > > I suspected that if I renamed the file in /etc/firmware to > 'microcode.dat' maybe it would load automatically at boot time but it > didn't so I moved it to lib/firmware where microcode_ctl does load it. > > NOTE: There is a /etc/conf.d/microcode_ctl config file but it doesn't > see to include a path for microcode so I guess at this time I'm stuck > overwriting the /lib/firmware directory until I learn more. > > Cheers, > Mark and that is all the intel stuff. For AMD all you have to do is: modprobe -r microcode && modprobe microcode