[CentOS] /lib/firmware/microcode.dat update on CentOS 6

Wed Jan 17 23:56:55 UTC 2018
Leon Fauster <leonfauster at googlemail.com>

> Am 17.01.2018 um 23:22 schrieb Johnny Hughes <johnny at centos.org>:
> 
> On 01/17/2018 03:24 PM, Valeri Galtsev wrote:
>> Dear All,
>> 
>> An update just brought on my CenOS 6 boxes updated microcode.dat files:
>> 
>>  /lib/firmware/microcode.dat
>> 
>> Does anybody know off hand what (how critical) is that, as, if it is
>> related to most famous these days trouble with CPU hardware, I will need
>> to reboot relevant boxes to have new microcode loaded. But if it is not
>> that critical, it can wait till next reboot.
>> 
>> Thanks a lot and apologies for laziness (not looking into details of
>> this particular update myself).
> 
> As Phil said, this basically REMOVES the new microcode.dat file and
> reverts to the last stable one before the spectre / meltdown update set.
> 
> Please see my tweet about this:
> 
> 
> https://twitter.com/JohnnyCentOS/status/953734648764477440
> 
> For those of you without twitter (WHAT .. who doesn't have twitter :D )
> 
> Look at:
> 
> https://t.co/6fT61xgtGH
> 
> Get the latest microcode.dat file from here:
> 
> https://t.co/zPwagbeJFY
> 
> See how to update the microcode from the links at the bottom of this page:
> 
> https://t.co/EOgclWdHCw
> 
> An before anyone asks .. I have no idea why Red Hat chose this path,
> they did.  It doesn't matter if I (or anyone else) agrees with the
> decision.  It is what it is.


BTW: Will the microcode loaded from microcode.dat or from the intel-ucode directory (for EL6)?

--
LF