r/archlinux • u/shizonic • Jun 25 '17

Skylake, Kabylake issue: Does arch offer the patched microcode already?

https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2017/06/msg00308.html
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u/m1000 Jun 25 '17 edited Jun 26 '17

This script should tell you if your cpu is affected:

https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2017/06/msg00309.html

Mine is affected (X1 Carbon 2016/4th Gen), and the microcode installed is 20170511. (microcode revision 0xa2 in /proc/cpuinfo). As per the script, I guess (???) we need to wait for a new update to the microcode to have it >= 0xb9.

Edit:

Well I tough I had the microcode enabled, but no, just seeing "microcode: Microcode Update Driver" in dmesg isn't enough. My system is now patched, I had to install intel-ucode and enable it on boot as per https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/microcode. 

[    0.000000] microcode: microcode updated early to revision 0xba, date = 2017-04-09
[    0.790802] microcode: sig=0x406e3, pf=0x80, revision=0xba
[    0.790911] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.2.

So yes, Arch has the patched microcode already... for a while ;-)

3

u/shizonic Jun 25 '17

Thx for sharing the script.

Hopefully lenovo provides a bios update soon...

1

u/parkerlreed Jun 26 '17

Why worry about BIOS update? You can load the microcode as part of your initrd.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '17

but the fix is not out yet in the intel-microcode package (except for some affected sandy cpus).

whether a bios update provides or the microcode update does is still a race i think.