How To: Early-loading of Intel Microcode

BernieK · 05-30-2022, 09:25 PM

After slogging thru Linux forums and Wiki-pages, and Intel's website, I pieced together a process for obtaining and installing (for early-loading) appropriate Intel microcode for the processor on my Slackare Linux box.

So I do not have to worry about forgetting the process I "wrote" it down. The process - which can be mostly-completed by copying-n-pasting example shell commands in the document - is available at:

https://www.bernieland.com/share/how...y_loading.html

enorbet · 06-01-2022, 11:02 AM

Thank you BernieK. I hadn't updated in a long time and the reminder was appreciated. I never use initrd so I had to dig a bit deeper to first recall lilo.conf entry (for older installs) and then adapt to rEFInd (for newer). This was just to confirm it loaded the newest but apparently once the /boot/intel-ucode.cpio directory and the /lib/firmware/ has an entry, it apparently just loads, maybe not as early as other methods, but sufficient for my requirements.

zeebra · 06-01-2022, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BernieK

After slogging thru Linux forums and Wiki-pages, and Intel's website, I pieced together a process for obtaining and installing (for early-loading) appropriate Intel microcode for the processor on my Slackare Linux box.

So I do not have to worry about forgetting the process I "wrote" it down. The process - which can be mostly-completed by copying-n-pasting example shell commands in the document - is available at:

https://www.bernieland.com/share/how...y_loading.html

Howdy, that's great. I was actually doing something similar (but without initrd).. And I was documenting the process. I have't yet gotten around to do the initrd version, hah.

Ehm.. Is there any chance you could add the information to docs.slackware?

I made this article there:
https://docs.slackware.com/howtos:se...rocode_loading

And there is still a rather empty initrd section. I didn't yet get around to it, but at some point I will for sure. Or perhaps you could help me get it done?

BernieK · 06-01-2022, 06:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zeebra

Is there any chance you could add the information to docs.slackware?

Any Slackware Documentation project contributor is welcome to include on the project's pages the microcode-loading document I wrote - in whole or in part, or by reference (as you kindly did).

Thank you for writing the microcode-loading page for the Slackware Documentation Project at docs.slackware.com

Good news regarding the reference on that page to manually creating the /lib/firmware/amd-ucode/ directory; As of Slackware 15.0 that directory is created and populated during Slackware installation and subsequent kernel-firmware package updates.

Code:

$ cat /etc/slackware-version
Slackware 15.0

$  grep -e "lib/firmware/amd-ucode/$" -e "lib/firmware/intel-ucode/$" /var/adm/packages/kernel-firmware-20220124_eb8ea1b-noarch-1
lib/firmware/amd-ucode/

zeebra · 06-02-2022, 03:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BernieK

Any Slackware Documentation project contributor is welcome to include on the project's pages the microcode-loading document I wrote - in whole or in part, or by reference (as you kindly did).

Thank you. I'll include it as soon as I can and credit you for it. Meanwhile I will leave the reference there

Quote:

Originally Posted by BernieK

Good news regarding the reference on that page to manually creating the /lib/firmware/amd-ucode/ directory; As of Slackware 15.0 that directory is created and populated during Slackware installation and subsequent kernel-firmware package updates.

hmm. you sure?

I added that section because I didn't have those folders in the standard Slackware 15 installation

BernieK · 06-02-2022, 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zeebra

hmm. you sure? I added that section because I didn't have those folders in the standard Slackware 15 installation

Thank you for double-checking.
I am sure with respect to the full Slackware 15.0 installations on one each of my AMD and Intel boxes. The kernel.org GIT repository suggests so as well since it includes a populated amd-ucode directory (but no intel-ucode directory):

Code:

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/tree/

I cannot say when the amd-ucode directory was added to the source tree, but it is present on my Slackware 14.2 box (also a full installation).

kjhambrick · 06-02-2022, 02:29 PM

All --

Just to add a me too ... there is an amd-ucode/ directory in the official Slackware64 15.0 a/kernel-firmware-20220124_eb8ea1b-noarch-1.txz Package ...

HTH

-- kjh

Code:

# pwd
/dld/15.0/slackware/slackware-15.0-64/slackware64/a    # my local Slackware 65 15.0 repo

# tar -tvf kernel-firmware-20220124_eb8ea1b-noarch-1.txz |grep /amd-ucode/

drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2022-01-24 23:03 lib/firmware/amd-ucode/
-rw-r--r-- root/root     12684 2022-01-24 23:03 lib/firmware/amd-ucode/microcode_amd.bin
-rw-r--r-- root/root       490 2022-01-24 23:03 lib/firmware/amd-ucode/microcode_amd.bin.asc
-rw-r--r-- root/root      7876 2022-01-24 23:03 lib/firmware/amd-ucode/microcode_amd_fam15h.bin
-rw-r--r-- root/root       473 2022-01-24 23:03 lib/firmware/amd-ucode/microcode_amd_fam15h.bin.asc
-rw-r--r-- root/root      3510 2022-01-24 23:03 lib/firmware/amd-ucode/microcode_amd_fam16h.bin
-rw-r--r-- root/root       473 2022-01-24 23:03 lib/firmware/amd-ucode/microcode_amd_fam16h.bin.asc
-rw-r--r-- root/root      6476 2022-01-24 23:03 lib/firmware/amd-ucode/microcode_amd_fam17h.bin
-rw-r--r-- root/root       488 2022-01-24 23:03 lib/firmware/amd-ucode/microcode_amd_fam17h.bin.asc
-rw-r--r-- root/root     16804 2022-01-24 23:03 lib/firmware/amd-ucode/microcode_amd_fam19h.bin
-rw-r--r-- root/root       488 2022-01-24 23:03 lib/firmware/amd-ucode/microcode_amd_fam19h.bin.asc

brianL · 06-03-2022, 08:31 AM

There is another method, mentioned in a previous thread (I haven't searched for it, but I made notes at the time):
Install iucode_tool & intel-microcode from SBo.
Then (as root,of course) check your present microcode:

Code:

dmesg -t | grep 'microcode'

Then run:

Code:

iucode_tool -S -l /tmp/SBo/intel-microcode-20220510/intel-ucode/*

To see if it's been updated.
Then (this is assuming you already have a /boot/initrd.gz):

Code:

cp /boot/initrd.gz /tmp/

Then:

Code:

cat /boot/intel-ucode.cpio /tmp/initrd.gz > /boot/initrd.gz

Run lilo (or whatever), reboot and check dmesg again.
Thanks to whoever I got this information from.

zeebra · 06-03-2022, 09:06 AM

Iucode tool is not available in Slackware by default. But ok, interesting enough.

brianL · 06-03-2022, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brianL

Install iucode_tool & intel-microcode from SBo.

https://slackbuilds.org/repository/1...m/iucode_tool/

https://slackbuilds.org/repository/1...tel-microcode/

zeebra · 06-03-2022, 09:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brianL

https://slackbuilds.org/repository/1...m/iucode_tool/

https://slackbuilds.org/repository/1...tel-microcode/

That's fine as a side note. But best practices when recommending someone do something, is to get things done with the default tools in Slackware, if possible. If not, then..

brianL · 06-03-2022, 10:27 AM

TIMTOWTDI as somebody said.

zeebra · 06-03-2022, 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brianL

TIMTOWTDI as somebody said.

KISS

slackmensch · 06-07-2022, 09:06 AM

For those using alternative bootloaders or just too lazy to muck about with initrds, there isn't much to do. You can load intel microcode "late":

echo 1 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/microcode/reload

as described in section 22.2 here:

https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/late...microcode.html

Of course intel-microcode from slackbuilds has to be installed. Why isn't intel microcode included in the binary blob monster package called kernel-firmware? It's got blobs for 20-year-old USB tv tuners in there but not Intel's latest CPU updates?!

Edit: Sorry, I didn't see that it said "Early" in the subject line. Maybe my head needs a micorcode update.

zeebra · 06-07-2022, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slackmensch

For those using alternative bootloaders or just too lazy to muck about with initrds, there isn't much to do. You can load intel microcode "late":

It is certainly possible, but it doesn't always/often "help" mitigate anything. From my reading, this method is mostly useful for servers that want to test the load without rebooting. But I could be wrong, it could also not just load, but also mitigate issues in some setups/situations.