Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S932468Ab2FTX7W (ORCPT ); Wed, 20 Jun 2012 19:59:22 -0400 Received: from out3-smtp.messagingengine.com ([66.111.4.27]:45517 "EHLO out3-smtp.messagingengine.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1754530Ab2FTX7U (ORCPT ); Wed, 20 Jun 2012 19:59:20 -0400 X-Sasl-enc: cLMDLC6f4b/JFcXRxl9xl6vQ0FsfQu4cppmQmqrmr1Od 1340236760 Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2012 20:59:18 -0300 From: Henrique de Moraes Holschuh To: Borislav Petkov Cc: "H. Peter Anvin" , Peter Zijlstra , "Yu, Fenghua" , X86-ML , Ingo Molnar , Thomas Gleixner , LKML , Andreas Herrmann Subject: Re: [PATCH 2/2] x86, microcode: Make reload interface per system Message-ID: <20120620235918.GF4223@khazad-dum.debian.net> References: <3E5A0FA7E9CA944F9D5414FEC6C7122007737623@ORSMSX105.amr.corp.intel.com> <20120619232857.GH5996@aftab.osrc.amd.com> <1340182778.21745.75.camel@twins> <20120620230856.GA4223@khazad-dum.debian.net> <4FE2585A.3000505@zytor.com> <20120620232359.GD2016@aftab.osrc.amd.com> <4FE25C7E.9030109@zytor.com> <4FE25DF9.2020305@zytor.com> <20120620234611.GA3440@aftab.osrc.amd.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20120620234611.GA3440@aftab.osrc.amd.com> X-GPG-Fingerprint: 1024D/1CDB0FE3 5422 5C61 F6B7 06FB 7E04 3738 EE25 DE3F 1CDB 0FE3 User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1522 Lines: 35 On Thu, 21 Jun 2012, Borislav Petkov wrote: > * we don't need the userspace tool to split the blob - we have one > single file we load and the driver picks out what it needs. Yes. A smarter userspace tool is useful to reduce the size of the microcode blob that ends up linked to the kernel or added to the initramfs in distros that generate the initramfs at the target system when you install a kernel (like Debian does), but it is in no way *required*. Typically you go from ~512KiB uncompressed (all binary microcodes) to 8-32KiB uncompressed when you target only the [online] processors of the current system. Nice for embedded, I suppose. > In the end, we have one unified ucode loading procedure: > > 1. put the blob in /lib/firmware/... > 2. echo 1 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/microcode/reload > > That's it - it can't be simpler than that. Indeed. And with an invariant microcode name for the Intel driver, one can use the standard userspace tooling that detects which firmware needs to go into the initramfs when no special tooling is installed. -- "One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot Henrique Holschuh -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/