As far as I know the main benefits are fixes in the CPU microcode, as basically the service will update the CPU microcode with more recent versions, if necessary. I don't know if this could bring also some performance improvements or better powersaving. I doubt that the kernel already handles this, since the microcode data is shipped by Intel or AMD themselves. As far as I understand from the AMD documentation, the microcode update is performed by the microcode module and I don't recall it being running in any AMD installation, so I would exclude that the microcode update is automatically handled by the kernel. As far as I can tell from the services files and lsmod output, that module is also needed for microcode_ctl, and it wasn't running before I activated that service (actually, if there is no change in the /etc/conf.d/microcode_ctl file, that module will be unloaded as soon as the first microcode update is performed).
I would add it to the boot rulevel since this operation should be performed early in the boot sequence, but I don't think that it would hurt putting it in the default runlevel. Also, usually any Linux distribution (like OpenSuSE, for example) usually has it active by default. On a separate note, another related service that could be useful is: /etc/init.d/irqbalance and usually that service is enabled by default on other distributions too. Of course I don't mean that just because other distros do enable it, we should too :) Il giorno sab, 17/09/2011 alle 15.10 +0200, Fabio Erculiani ha scritto: > I've been always resilient to the addition of new boot services. > > What are the benefits of having microcode updates? Just CPU bug fixes? > I never felt the need of updating the microcode of my CPU actually. > Isn't it something that the kernel already takes care of? > -- Lorenzo Cogotti
