[Devel] Re: microcode_ctl-1.15.tar.gz incorporates broken microcode?

[Konstantin Khorenko]

Hello Tigran,

thank you very much for your help!

Is it true that following patch is responsible for the messages?
http://linux.bkbits.net:8080/linux-2.6/gnupatch@451a9864jKk9Jk5CliEBE9pB86swnw
(which applies after clean-up patch 
http://linux.bkbits.net:8080/linux-2.6/gnupatch@451a9861MOurp8RhosNAAOMcAIh9bw)

Pity that the idea to check the driver itself didn't come to me earlier, but 
those messages on the site (http://urbanmyth.org/microcode/) are so optimistic:
-------------------------------------
# microcode_ctl-1.15.tar.gz (264K)
     * (19th September 2006) Updated microcode within archive, but really the 
code is unchanged from 1.11
-------------------------------------

and the idea that no any code that deals with the microcode is needed to be 
upgraded was so evident at the first glance, especially looking at the notices 
about which utility versions are required for each particular microcode version 
and a calming note that:
"This utility requires the Linux kernel IA32 microcode driver (2.4.0-test1-ac10 
or 2.2.18 onwards)."

How do you think is it makes sense to mention explicitly on the site that 
microcode from microcode_ctl-1.15.tar.gz and higher requires patches XXX to be 
applied to the microcode kernel driver?
(It might be simpler to say that it requires microcode kernel driver version 
YYY, but the version number was not modified yet...)

Thank you once again!

-- 
Best regards,
Konstantin Khorenko

SWsoft Virtuozzo/OpenVZ Linux kernel team


Tigran Aivazian wrote:
> Hello Konstantin,
> 
> This has been fixed in the latest version of the kernel device driver. 
> So, upgrade your kernel and the message will go away.
> 
> Kind regards
> Tigran
> 
> On Thu, 2 Nov 2006, Konstantin Khorenko wrote:
> 
>> Hello Tigran,
>>
>> i'm afraid there is something wrong with microcode in latest 1.15 
>> archive, it fails to be loaded on at least 2 completely different nodes
>> while microcode from 1.14 can be written successfuly.
>> Could you please have a look?
>>
>> [root at svconsole firmware]# microcode_ctl -u -f 
>> microcode_ctl-1.14/intel-ia32microcode-10May2006.txt
>> microcode_ctl: writing microcode (length: 252928)
>> microcode_ctl: microcode successfuly written to /dev/cpu/microcode
>>
>> [root at svconsole firmware]# dmesg | tail -n 3
>> IA-32 Microcode Update Driver: v1.14 <tigran at veritas.com>
>> microcode: CPU0 already at revision 0xe (current=0xe)
>> microcode: No new microdata for cpu 0
>>
>> [root at svconsole firmware]# microcode_ctl -u -f 
>> microcode_ctl-1.15/intel-ia32microcode-07Sep2006.txt
>> microcode_ctl: writing microcode (length: 265216)
>> microcode_ctl: error writing to '/dev/cpu/microcode' errno=22 (Invalid 
>> argument)
>> microcode_ctl: there may be messages from the driver in your system log.
>>
>> [root at svconsole firmware]# dmesg |tail -n 6
>> IA-32 Microcode Update Driver: v1.14 <tigran at veritas.com>
>> microcode: CPU0 already at revision 0xe (current=0xe)
>> microcode: No new microdata for cpu 0
>> microcode: CPU0 already at revision 0xe (current=0xe)
>> microcode: error! Bad data in microcode data file
>> microcode: Error in the microcode data
>>
>> [root at svconsole firmware]# ls -Flaio /dev/cpu/microcode
>> 9658 crw-------  1 root 10, 184 Nov  2 09:37 /dev/cpu/microcode
>>
>> [root at svconsole firmware]# md5sum microcode_ctl-1.15.tar.gz 
>> microcode_ctl-1.15/intel-ia32microcode-07Sep2006.txt
>> 9c8e602295a55260aee2c2f1c701ac09  microcode_ctl-1.15.tar.gz
>> 30e65074b4e9c0a43ef7a07d22a62506 
>> microcode_ctl-1.15/intel-ia32microcode-07Sep2006.txt
>>
>> [root at svconsole firmware]# uname -a
>> Linux svconsole 2.6.9-34.EL #1 Fri Feb 24 16:44:51 EST 2006 i686 i686 
>> i386 GNU/Linux
>>
>> [root at svconsole firmware]# cat /proc/cpuinfo
>> processor       : 0
>> vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
>> cpu family      : 6
>> model           : 7
>> model name      : Pentium III (Katmai)
>> stepping        : 3
>> cpu MHz         : 501.193
>> cache size      : 512 KB
>> fdiv_bug        : no
>> hlt_bug         : no
>> f00f_bug        : no
>> coma_bug        : no
>> fpu             : yes
>> fpu_exception   : yes
>> cpuid level     : 2
>> wp              : yes
>> flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 mtrr pge mca cmov 
>> pat pse36 mmx fxsr sse
>> bogomips        : 1003.29
>>
>> Please, let me know if you need any other info.
>>
>> Thank you!
>>
>> -- 
>> Best regards,
>> Konstantin Khorenko
>>
>> SWsoft Virtuozzo/OpenVZ Linux kernel team
>>
> 
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