[Bug 1435695] Re: intel-microcode could use better docs about upstream versions per CPU

[Jason Mills]

~ 2 years later ... :-)

For item 2, Intel now* documents what CPU family and stepping(s) are
covered by each "Intel Processor Microcode" data file bundle. However,
it would be better just point to the authoritative location, rather than
engaging in lots of copy-pasta (yes pun) from the upstream source. See
additional comment below.

(*) As of the 20180312 release, which is the first non-emergency release
since Spectre/Meltdown et al surfaced.


For item 3, I'd suggest adding that sentence + code example to the README, if not already added.


For item 1, 2, and 4, this again could be a single line in the .deb Description or README that points back to the canonical (lower-case-C) URL for each data file bundle release upstream.

  For example, the 20171117 release was
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/27337/Linux-Processor-
Microcode-Data-File

  ... and the 20180312 release is
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/27591/Linux-Processor-
Microcode-Data-File


Intel also has a far more human consumable form of the information in their "Microcode Update Guidance" document, which (at present -- 2018.03.17) gets revised on a quasi-weekly cadence. Unfortunately it does not have a long-lived URL, as older editions get retired out.

March 2018 URL is https://newsroom.intel.com/wp-
content/uploads/sites/11/2018/03/microcode-update-guidance.pdf

Perhaps Canonical could lobby for some form of longer-lived URL.

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Title:
  intel-microcode could use better docs about upstream versions per CPU

Status in intel-microcode package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  Journalctl have logged:

  ****** kernel: CPU0 microcode updated early to revision 0x70a, date =
  2010-09-29

  which is quite different from the latest intel-microcode upgrade:

  *******
  intel-microcode (3.20150121.1) unstable; urgency=critical

    * New upstream microcode data file 20150121
      * Downgraded microcodes (to a previously shipped revision):
        sig 0x000306f2, pf mask 0x6f, 2014-09-03, rev 0x0029, size 28672
      * The microcode downgrade fixes a very nasty regression on Xeon E5v3
        processors (closes: #776431)
    * critical urgency: the broken sig 0x306f2, rev 0x2b microcode shipped
      in release 20150107 caused CPU core hangs and Linux boot failures.
      The upstream fix was to downgrade it to the same microcode revision
      that was shipped in release 20140913
    * source: remove superseded upstream data file: 20150107.
    * initramfs.hook: do not mix arrays and lists.
      Avoid echo "foo $@", use echo "foo $*" instead.  This is unlikely
      to be expĺoitable, but it makes ShellCheck happier.

   -- Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh at debian.org>  Wed, 28 Jan 2015 20:03:20 -0200
  *******

  both 'date' and 'rev' are not the same, which let me think that the
  'builtin microcode'is loaded instead of the intel-microcode file.

  So i also wonder if iucode-tool is able to deal with systemd, as its
  latest upgrade is quite older than the ubuntu's systemd use.

  *****
  iucode-tool (1.1.1-1) unstable; urgency=medium

    * New upstream release
      + Fix issues found by the Coverity static checker:
      + CID 72165: An off-by-one error caused an out-of-bounds write to a
        buffer while loading large microcode data files in ascii format
      + CID 72163: The code could attempt to close an already closed file
        descriptor in certain conditions when processing directories
      + CID 72161: Stop memory leak in error path when loading microcode
        data files
      + CID 72159, 72164, 72166, 72167, 72168, 72169: Cosmetic issues
        that could not cause problems at runtime
    * debian/control: bump standards version to 3.9.6

   -- Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh at debian.org>  Tue, 28 Oct 2014 17:02:42 -0200
  ******

  intel cpu q9550 : http://ark.intel.com/products/33924/Intel-Core2
  -Quad-Processor-Q9550-12M-Cache-2_83-GHz-1333-MHz-FSB

  oem at u32:~$ ubuntu-drivers devices
  == cpu-microcode.py ==
  driver   : intel-microcode - distro non-free
  ....

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.04
  Package: ubuntu-drivers-common 1:0.4.1
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.19.0-10.10-generic 3.19.2
  Uname: Linux 3.19.0-10-generic i686
  NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
  ApportVersion: 2.16.2-0ubuntu4
  Architecture: i386
  CurrentDesktop: GNOME
  Date: Tue Mar 24 08:12:05 2015
  SourcePackage: ubuntu-drivers-common
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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