Arch Linux

dice

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2014-02-10

Posts: 413

[solved] Intel microcode not current version

I have an Intel Core i5-4200M. According to intel's download center the latest microcode for this cpu is from 2014-09-13. In dmesg I can see that a version from 2014-07-03 is loaded.

Is the download I found not the correct file? It is what their search function gave me and the i5-4200M is listed on the product list at the bottom.
Am I misinterpreting something? Maybe one of the dates is not describing the actual release date?
Or is the version in intel-ucode outdated?

dmesg |grep microcode
[    0.000000] microcode: CPU0 microcode updated early to revision 0x1c, date = 2014-07-03
[    0.103782] microcode: CPU2 microcode updated early to revision 0x1c, date = 2014-07-03
[    0.221821] microcode: CPU0 sig=0x306c3, pf=0x10, revision=0x1c
[    0.221828] microcode: CPU1 sig=0x306c3, pf=0x10, revision=0x1c
[    0.221832] microcode: CPU2 sig=0x306c3, pf=0x10, revision=0x1c
[    0.221839] microcode: CPU3 sig=0x306c3, pf=0x10, revision=0x1c
[    0.221873] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.00 <tigran@aivazian.fsnet.co.uk>, Peter Oruba
[ 1563.632641] microcode: CPU0 microcode updated early to revision 0x1c, date = 2014-07-03
[ 1563.659269] microcode: CPU2 microcode updated early to revision 0x1c, date = 2014-07-03

Not really an issue as my system is stable so far but I am curious if something is not working the way it should.

Last edited by dice (2015-11-23 01:08:18)

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I put at button on it. Yes. I wish to press it, but I'm not sure what will happen if I do.  (Gune | Titan A.E.)

ukhippo

Member

From: Non-paged pool

Registered: 2014-02-21

Posts: 366

Re: [solved] Intel microcode not current version

You're confusing package date with the firmware date.
The date displayed in the dmesg output is the actual date of the processor's microcode. That date will only update whenever Intel release an updated firmware for that processor.
The firmware package on the Intel site is a collection of all the individual firmwares for the listed processors. It is NOT a single firmware that supports all the processors. The package date relates to when the package is released. FYI, the Intel firmware package in Arch's intel-ucode package is (currently) the 2015-01-21 version: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/downlo … -Data-File

R3DKn16h7

Member

Registered: 2010-12-30

Posts: 15

Re: [solved] Intel microcode not current version

Anyway the package is outdated:
https://www.archlinux.org/packages/extr … tel-ucode/

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/downlo … -Data-File

But I think this update disables the faulty instructions on Skylake.

graysky

Wiki Maintainer

From: :wq

Registered: 2008-12-01

Posts: 10,731

Website

Re: [solved] Intel microcode not current version

Build your own from ABS.  Apply this patch to the PKGBUILD and build:

--- a/PKGBUILD	2015-11-22 06:58:28.765542596 -0500
+++ b/PKGBUILD	2015-11-22 06:59:35.993678222 -0500
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 # Maintainer: Thomas Bächler <thomas@archlinux.org>
 
 pkgname=intel-ucode
-pkgver=20150121
+pkgver=20151106
 pkgrel=1
 pkgdesc="Microcode update files for Intel CPUs"
 arch=('any')
@@ -11,11 +11,11 @@ url="http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Sea
 replaces=('microcode_ctl')
 license=('custom')
 # Some random "download id" that intel has in their downloadcenter
-_dlid=24661
+_dlid=25512
 source=(http://downloadmirror.intel.com/${_dlid}/eng/microcode-${pkgver}.tgz
         LICENSE
         intel-microcode2ucode.c)
-sha256sums=('23353b93bb421971496cea5e9f9d390ce0ed22580a8cc45ae7b3b322dcd8f6b3'
+sha256sums=('096e39489eef67666be652e81fa372a06b74f39ea3d565dc0287242c668717e7'
             '6983e83ec10c6467fb9101ea496e0443f0574c805907155118e2c9f0bbea97b6'
             '03a13a966316a4d3d9c7e1b46007fd4b80911aea5ddd957ddf33ce660efe03de')
 build() {

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AUR packages • Zsh and other configs

dice

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2014-02-10

Posts: 413

Re: [solved] Intel microcode not current version

Thanks, Graysky it worked fine.

 dmesg  |grep microcode
[    0.000000] microcode: CPU0 microcode updated early to revision 0x1e, date = 2015-08-13
[    0.101682] microcode: CPU2 microcode updated early to revision 0x1e, date = 2015-08-13
[    0.222846] microcode: CPU0 sig=0x306c3, pf=0x10, revision=0x1e
[    0.222857] microcode: CPU1 sig=0x306c3, pf=0x10, revision=0x1e
[    0.222860] microcode: CPU2 sig=0x306c3, pf=0x10, revision=0x1e
[    0.222868] microcode: CPU3 sig=0x306c3, pf=0x10, revision=0x1e
[    0.222900] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.00 <tigran@aivazian.fsnet.co.uk>, Peter Oruba

Apparently the processor list on the pages to the individual version seem to only include those processors for which the firmware was updated in this exact release of the bundle. Or maybe it is just wrong.
And when using their search function for a specific cpu it does not give a good result either.

Well, at least I understand what is going on now. Thank you for your hints!

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I put at button on it. Yes. I wish to press it, but I'm not sure what will happen if I do.  (Gune | Titan A.E.)