[elrepo] kernel-lt and microcode updates

[John Pilkington]

On 01/07/2020 18:01, Phil Perry wrote:
> On 01/07/2020 17:49, Orion Poplawski wrote:
>>>
>>> I just re-installed kernel-lt on my laptop:
>>>
>>> # grep -i microcode dmesg-3.10.0-1127.13.1.el7.x86_64
>>> [    0.000000] microcode: microcode updated early to revision 0xd6, 
>>> date = 2020-04-27
>>> [    0.021352] SRBDS: Mitigation: Microcode
>>> [    1.542686] microcode: sig=0x806ea, pf=0x80, revision=0xd6
>>> [    1.542918] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.01 
>>> <tigran at aivazian.fsnet.co.uk>, Peter Oruba
>>>
>>> # grep -i microcode dmesg-4.4.228-2.el7.elrepo.x86_64
>>> [    0.035312] SRBDS: Vulnerable: No microcode
>>> [    0.992458] microcode: CPU0 sig=0x806ea, pf=0x80, revision=0xb4
>>> [    0.992471] microcode: CPU1 sig=0x806ea, pf=0x80, revision=0xb4
>>> [    0.992491] microcode: CPU2 sig=0x806ea, pf=0x80, revision=0xb4
>>> [    0.992511] microcode: CPU3 sig=0x806ea, pf=0x80, revision=0xb4
>>> [    0.992530] microcode: CPU4 sig=0x806ea, pf=0x80, revision=0xb4
>>> [    0.992550] microcode: CPU5 sig=0x806ea, pf=0x80, revision=0xb4
>>> [    0.992569] microcode: CPU6 sig=0x806ea, pf=0x80, revision=0xb4
>>> [    0.992588] microcode: CPU7 sig=0x806ea, pf=0x80, revision=0xb4
>>> [    0.992673] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.01 
>>> <tigran at aivazian.fsnet.co.uk>, Peter Oruba
>>>
>>> and /proc/cpuinfo indicates that microcode is not updated
>>>
>>> Orion
>>
>> turning on dracut logging it apprears that:
>>
>> I:     microcode_ctl: kernel version "4.4.228-2.el7.elrepo.x86_64" 
>> failed early load check for "intel", skipping
>>
>> I: *** Generating early-microcode cpio image contents ***
>> I: *** No early-microcode cpio image needed ***
>>
>> that check is done in /usr/libexec/microcode_ctl/check_caveats
>>
>> that is for early loading.  not sure why the microcode.service also 
>> seems to fail to load the firmware.
>>
>>
> 
> Interesting. Any idea why early updating appears to work on the distro 
> kernel, but not for kernel-lt? I wonder what check it is failing.
> 
> I will try to run some more tests on my hardware to find out if it's 
> specific to you/your hardware.

For info:

[john at HP_Box ~]$ uname -r
4.4.228-2.el7.elrepo.x86_64
[john at HP_Box ~]$ dmesg | grep -i microcode
[    0.008291] MDS: Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode
[    1.551836] microcode: CPU0 sig=0x1067a, pf=0x1, revision=0xa0e
[    1.551843] microcode: CPU1 sig=0x1067a, pf=0x1, revision=0xa0e
[    1.551888] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.01 
<tigran at aivazian.fsnet.co.uk>, Peter Oruba
[john at HP_Box ~]$

John P