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#1 2018-03-19 08:09:43

blue_tiger300
Member
From: Vienna, Austria
Registered: 2018-03-19
Posts: 6

intel-ucode 20180312-1 installed but not active [SOLVED]

I have installed the latest intel-ucode package for my PC (Core i5 Skylake 6400).
But for some reason it does get loaded on boot time.

[peter@rohan ~]$ sudo dmesg | head -n10
[sudo] Passwort für peter: 
[    0.000000] microcode: microcode updated early to revision 0xc2, date = 2017-11-16
[    0.000000] Linux version 4.15.9-1-ARCH (builduser@heftig-13420) (gcc version 7.3.0 (GCC)) #1 SMP PREEMPT Sun Mar 11 17:54:33 UTC 2018
[    0.000000] Command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=0568f6ea-b6f3-4ab2-8bbd-5a915e443fcb rw quiet
[    0.000000] KERNEL supported cpus:
[    0.000000]   Intel GenuineIntel
[    0.000000]   AMD AuthenticAMD
[    0.000000]   Centaur CentaurHauls
[    0.000000] Intel Spectre v2 broken microcode detected; disabling Speculation Control
[    0.000000] x86/fpu: Supporting XSAVE feature 0x001: 'x87 floating point registers'
[    0.000000] x86/fpu: Supporting XSAVE feature 0x002: 'SSE registers'
[peter@rohan ~]$ sudo pacman -Ss microcode
extra/intel-ucode 20180312-1 [Installiert]
    Microcode update files for Intel CPUs

I have also followed the advice in the wiki by running:

# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Rebooted the machine but the microcode still points to the old buggy version from 2017.
Any ideas how to fix that?
BTW, my machine boots via GRUB, which was generated automatically (so no manual edits from me).
Thank you

Last edited by blue_tiger300 (2018-03-19 09:17:15)

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#2 2018-03-19 08:14:20

V1del
Forum Moderator
Registered: 2012-10-16
Posts: 21,427

Re: intel-ucode 20180312-1 installed but not active [SOLVED]

 microcode: microcode updated early to revision 0xc2, date = 2017-11-16

It does get loaded, there's simply not a newer version available. The microcode package release does not have a direct correlation with the date of the microcode release for your specific processor.

I'm not entirely sure on the buggy claim, afaik it's fixed for most models with that version, apart from a few newer models, but the kernel devs decided to not want to differentiate on that and simply disabled the speculation code for that revision, although it might be sufficient for your particular processor.

Last edited by V1del (2018-03-19 08:16:48)

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#3 2018-03-19 08:25:18

blue_tiger300
Member
From: Vienna, Austria
Registered: 2018-03-19
Posts: 6

Re: intel-ucode 20180312-1 installed but not active [SOLVED]

Maybe there is a misunderstanding on my side.

But you can see that I have the package "intel-ucode20180312-1" installed.
So I am under the impression that this is the latest
microcode update from 2018 that we Linux users have been waiting for?!

And I have just checked on the Intel homepage, my processor is supposed to be supported by this version!
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/downlo … -Data-File

So why would the new intel-ucode img not be loaded at boot?
Thanks

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#4 2018-03-19 08:36:01

loqs
Member
Registered: 2014-03-06
Posts: 17,196

Re: intel-ucode 20180312-1 installed but not active [SOLVED]

Please post the entire output of dmesg.

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#5 2018-03-19 08:41:17

blue_tiger300
Member
From: Vienna, Austria
Registered: 2018-03-19
Posts: 6

Re: intel-ucode 20180312-1 installed but not active [SOLVED]

Really the whole output, just checked that would be nearly 53kb of text output?!

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#6 2018-03-19 08:46:16

loqs
Member
Registered: 2014-03-06
Posts: 17,196

Re: intel-ucode 20180312-1 installed but not active [SOLVED]

At least all the dmesg entries containing microcode then although posting a 60k dmesg in code tags is not unusual.

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#7 2018-03-19 08:49:02

blue_tiger300
Member
From: Vienna, Austria
Registered: 2018-03-19
Posts: 6

Re: intel-ucode 20180312-1 installed but not active [SOLVED]

I believe the first 50 lines should also do the trick

[peter@rohan ~]$ sudo dmesg | head -n50
[    0.000000] microcode: microcode updated early to revision 0xc2, date = 2017-11-16
[    0.000000] Linux version 4.15.9-1-ARCH (builduser@heftig-13420) (gcc version 7.3.0 (GCC)) #1 SMP PREEMPT Sun Mar 11 17:54:33 UTC 2018
[    0.000000] Command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=0568f6ea-b6f3-4ab2-8bbd-5a915e443fcb rw quiet
[    0.000000] KERNEL supported cpus:
[    0.000000]   Intel GenuineIntel
[    0.000000]   AMD AuthenticAMD
[    0.000000]   Centaur CentaurHauls
[    0.000000] Intel Spectre v2 broken microcode detected; disabling Speculation Control
[    0.000000] x86/fpu: Supporting XSAVE feature 0x001: 'x87 floating point registers'
[    0.000000] x86/fpu: Supporting XSAVE feature 0x002: 'SSE registers'
[    0.000000] x86/fpu: Supporting XSAVE feature 0x004: 'AVX registers'
[    0.000000] x86/fpu: Supporting XSAVE feature 0x008: 'MPX bounds registers'
[    0.000000] x86/fpu: Supporting XSAVE feature 0x010: 'MPX CSR'
[    0.000000] x86/fpu: xstate_offset[2]:  576, xstate_sizes[2]:  256
[    0.000000] x86/fpu: xstate_offset[3]:  832, xstate_sizes[3]:   64
[    0.000000] x86/fpu: xstate_offset[4]:  896, xstate_sizes[4]:   64
[    0.000000] x86/fpu: Enabled xstate features 0x1f, context size is 960 bytes, using 'compacted' format.
[    0.000000] e820: BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x000000000009c7ff] usable
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x000000000009c800-0x000000000009ffff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000000e0000-0x00000000000fffff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000100000-0x0000000085e1bfff] usable
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000085e1c000-0x0000000085e1cfff] ACPI NVS
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000085e1d000-0x0000000085e46fff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000085e47000-0x000000008e95bfff] usable
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x000000008e95c000-0x000000008ec38fff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x000000008ec39000-0x000000008ee41fff] usable
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x000000008ee42000-0x000000008f599fff] ACPI NVS
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x000000008f59a000-0x000000008fbfefff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x000000008fbff000-0x000000008fbfffff] usable
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000e0000000-0x00000000efffffff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000fe000000-0x00000000fe010fff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000fec00000-0x00000000fec00fff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000fee00000-0x00000000fee00fff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000ff000000-0x00000000ffffffff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000100000000-0x000000026effffff] usable
[    0.000000] NX (Execute Disable) protection: active
[    0.000000] random: fast init done
[    0.000000] SMBIOS 3.0 present.
[    0.000000] DMI: MSI MS-7971/Z170-A PRO (MS-7971), BIOS 1.70 12/16/2015
[    0.000000] e820: update [mem 0x00000000-0x00000fff] usable ==> reserved
[    0.000000] e820: remove [mem 0x000a0000-0x000fffff] usable
[    0.000000] e820: last_pfn = 0x26f000 max_arch_pfn = 0x400000000
[    0.000000] MTRR default type: write-back
[    0.000000] MTRR fixed ranges enabled:
[    0.000000]   00000-9FFFF write-back
[    0.000000]   A0000-BFFFF uncachable
[    0.000000]   C0000-FFFFF write-protect
[    0.000000] MTRR variable ranges enabled:
[    0.000000]   0 base 00C0000000 mask 7FC0000000 uncachable

And here is the grep for "microcode" on dmesg

[peter@rohan ~]$ sudo dmesg | grep microcode
[    0.000000] microcode: microcode updated early to revision 0xc2, date = 2017-11-16
[    0.000000] Intel Spectre v2 broken microcode detected; disabling Speculation Control
[    0.651266] microcode: sig=0x506e3, pf=0x2, revision=0xc2
[    0.651484] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.2.

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#8 2018-03-19 08:54:05

V1del
Forum Moderator
Registered: 2012-10-16
Posts: 21,427

Re: intel-ucode 20180312-1 installed but not active [SOLVED]

Again the 20180312 part simply means, this package includes all microcode updates released up until 20180312 . Whether your specific processor's newest microcode release was 2017-11 or 2018-01 is up to the releases for that specific processor. In this case, no new microcode update apart from the 2017-11 one was released for first generation Skylake processors. If you have another skylake or a kabylake or similar you might have a 2018 released microcode.

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#9 2018-03-19 08:54:48

progandy
Member
Registered: 2012-05-17
Posts: 5,184

Re: intel-ucode 20180312-1 installed but not active [SOLVED]

The date on the ucode package is for the complete release, the updates for specific processors may be older. Not all processors have received a meltdown/spectre mitigation patch yet. (Mine is still in beta according to the update guidance of this month)
https://newsroom.intel.com/wp-content/u … idance.pdf

Edit: Apparently 0xC2 is the version that includes the mitigation for skylake (6th gen).

Last edited by progandy (2018-03-19 08:59:27)


| alias CUTF='LANG=en_XX.UTF-8@POSIX ' |

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#10 2018-03-19 09:01:36

loqs
Member
Registered: 2014-03-06
Posts: 17,196

Re: intel-ucode 20180312-1 installed but not active [SOLVED]

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/ke … 1ae47fd085
As per the link progandy for the Skylake c2 revision

Lines with “***” were previously recommended to discontinue use.  Subsequent testing by Intel has determined that these were unaffected by the stability issues and have been re-released without modification.

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#11 2018-03-19 09:11:02

blue_tiger300
Member
From: Vienna, Austria
Registered: 2018-03-19
Posts: 6

Re: intel-ucode 20180312-1 installed but not active [SOLVED]

The commit messages from the kernel are a bit over my head.

So that means, everything is as it should be?
I just have to wait and will eventually get the Spectre v2 fixes?
Thanks

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#12 2018-03-19 09:15:00

V1del
Forum Moderator
Registered: 2012-10-16
Posts: 21,427

Re: intel-ucode 20180312-1 installed but not active [SOLVED]

Yes. Please don't forget to mark as [SOLVED] by editing the title in your initial post.

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#13 2018-03-19 09:18:18

loqs
Member
Registered: 2014-03-06
Posts: 17,196

Re: intel-ucode 20180312-1 installed but not active [SOLVED]

In accordance with Intel's microcode revision guidance from March 6 MCU rev 0xc2 is cleared on both Skylake H/S and Skylake Xeon E3 processors that share CPUID 506E3.

That commit removes your cpu and microcode release combination from the list that is used for

Intel Spectre v2 broken microcode detected; disabling Speculation Control

Your system has the correct microcode it just needs to be removed from the kernels list of combinations with known broken Spectre v2 microcode.

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