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

[Henrique de Moraes Holschuh]

~ Two years later... :-)

Intel does not keep their microcode guidance docs up-to-date, a new one
is issued when they deem it necessary, and they're related to a specific
issue being addressed.

The processor specification updates are still as opaque as always, and
are slowly getting even harder to locate.  They're also not necessarily
synchronized with the availability of public microcode updates
addressing public errata.

We include the Intel release notes in the package, as well as our own
changelog of the contents.

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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    * source: remove superseded upstream data file: 20150107.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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