Arch Linux

buchankn

Member

Registered: 2023-10-27

Posts: 2

[Solved] Issue loading Intel microcode with rEFind

I'm attempting to install Arch on one SSD, and Windows 11 on the other SSD, and using rEFind instead of grub. I have an EFI partition on both SSDs, and a single root partition for Arch.

refind_linux.conf has the following:

"Boot with standard options"  "root=UUID=f3e454fb-d6cd-4f90-a4f1-88a564568e6f rw add_efi_memmap initrd=/boot/intel-ucode.img initrd=/boot/initramfs-linux.img quiet"
"Boot to single-user mode"    "root=UUID=f3e454fb-d6cd-4f90-a4f1-88a564568e6f rw add_efi_memmap initrd=/boot/intel-ucode.img initrd=/boot/initramfs-linux.img quiet single"
"Boot with minimal options"   "ro root=/dev/nvme1n1p3"

Arch boots fine, but when I check to see if the microcode was updated, I don't see any microcode versions, or anything besides the Microcode Update Driver version:

[kevin@arch-pc ~]$ sudo dmesg | grep -i microcode
[    0.219298] SRBDS: Mitigation: Microcode
[    0.219299] GDS: Mitigation: Microcode
[    0.661767] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.2.

Does this just mean that there are no new updates for my CPU, or is the microcode updater not set up correctly? I'm not seeing any errors related to the microcode, just an absence of messages.

Last edited by buchankn (2023-10-27 04:26:49)

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 11,896

Re: [Solved] Issue loading Intel microcode with rEFind

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Microc … ode_update

buchankn

Member

Registered: 2023-10-27

Posts: 2

Re: [Solved] Issue loading Intel microcode with rEFind

Thanks, I missed that! It looks like my bios already has the latest microcode:

[kevin@arch-pc Documents]$ bsdtar -Oxf /boot/intel-ucode.img | iucode_tool -tb -lS -
iucode_tool: system has processor(s) with signature 0x000a0652
microcode bundle 1: (stdin)
selected microcodes:
  001/204: sig 0x000a0652, pf_mask 0x20, 2023-02-23, rev 0x00f8, size 97280
  001/205: sig 0x000a0653, pf_mask 0x22, 2023-02-23, rev 0x00f8, size 97280
  001/206: sig 0x000a0655, pf_mask 0x22, 2023-02-23, rev 0x00f8, size 97280
[kevin@arch-pc Documents]$ grep microcode /proc/cpuinfo
microcode	: 0xf8
microcode	: 0xf8
microcode	: 0xf8
microcode	: 0xf8
microcode	: 0xf8
microcode	: 0xf8
microcode	: 0xf8
microcode	: 0xf8
microcode	: 0xf8
microcode	: 0xf8
microcode	: 0xf8
microcode	: 0xf8
microcode	: 0xf8
microcode	: 0xf8
microcode	: 0xf8
microcode	: 0xf8