A quick follow-up: microcode package release 20171117 did not include
mitigation to Meltdown, but 20180108 (
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/27431/Linux-Processor-Microcode-Data-File?v=t)
does. By the way it seems it could cause random reboots on Broadwell and
Haswell CPUs (see
https://newsroom.intel.com/news/intel-security-issue-update-addressing-reboot-issues/
).

I think that, having such CPU models, is more safe to update the firmware
via microcode_ctl (and thus the OS) before flashing a new BIOS with the new
microcode update in it; this should make possible to test the new microcode
and easily revert to the previous version in case of issues without the
need to perform a firmware downgrade, at least until the situation becomes
more clear.

Cheers,
Daniele



On Sat, Jan 6, 2018 at 5:23 PM, Daniele Viganò <
[email protected]> wrote:

> A temporary solution could be manually updating the content of
> /lib/firmware/intel-ucode/, getting the ucode bins directly from the Intel
> website​: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/27337/Linux-
> Processor-Microcode-Data-File?product=873
>
> intel-ucode dirctory contains binary microcode files named in
>> family-model-stepping pattern. The file is supported in most modern Linux
>> distributions. It's generally located in the /lib/firmware directory,
>> and can be updated throught the microcode reload interface.
>>
>> To update the intel-ucode package to the system, one need:
>> 1. Ensure the existence of /sys/devices/system/cpu/microcode/reload
>> 2. Copy intel-ucode directory to /lib/firmware, overwrite the files in
>> /lib/firmware/intel-ucode/
>> 3. Write the reload interface to 1 to reload the microcode files, e.g.
>>   echo 1 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/microcode/reload
>>
>
> This should contains _all_ latest available microcodes, including pieces
> not shipped by microcode_ctl-2.1-22.2 (and in fact the Intel package has
> more bin files in it). Not sure if this is enough.
>
> Cheers,
> Daniele
>
> --
> *DANIELE VIGANÒ* | System Administrator | *Skype* dennyv85 | *+39-0382-5169882
> <+39%200382%20516%209882>*
> *GLOBAL EARTHQUAKE MODEL *| working together to assess risk
> *GEM -* globalquakemodel.org <http://www.globalquakemodel.org/> | *T -*
> @GEMwrld <http://twitter.com/GEMwrld> | *F -* GEMwrld
> <http://www.facebook.com/GEMwrld>
>



-- 
*DANIELE VIGANÒ* | System Administrator | *Skype* dennyv85 |
*+39-0382-5169882*
*GLOBAL EARTHQUAKE MODEL *| working together to assess risk
*GEM -* globalquakemodel.org <http://www.globalquakemodel.org/> | *T -*
@GEMwrld <http://twitter.com/GEMwrld> | *F -* GEMwrld
<http://www.facebook.com/GEMwrld>
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