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- amd64-microcode for Debian
- --------------------------
-
- Introduction:
-
- AMD AMD64 processors are capable of field-upgrading their control program
- (microcode). These microcode updates correct processor errata, and are
- often important for safe, correct system operation.
-
- While most of the microcode updates fix problems that happen extremely
- rarely, there are enough updates fixing issues that would cause system
- lockup, memory corruption, or unpredictable system behavior, to warrant
- taking it seriously.
-
- Microcode updates are ephemeral: they will be lost after a processor hard
- reset or after the processor is powered off. They must be reapplied at
- every boot and after the system wakes up from suspend to RAM or disk.
-
- Updating the processor microcode is the responsibility of the system
- firmware (BIOS or EFI). However, not all vendors will release timely
- updates for their firmware when AMD releases updated microcode, and most
- users don't update their system firmware in a timely fashion (or at all)
- anyway.
-
- The end result is that, unless some other method of distributing microcode
- updates is in place, the processor in many systems will be running with
- outdated microcode, increasing the chances of incorrect system operation.
-
- Debian can apply microcode updates to the system processors during the
- operating system boot. The following configurations are supported for
- the microcode driver:
-
- 1. When an initramfs image is used (Debian default), both modular and
- built-in configs for the microcode driver will work, and microcode
- will be updated by the initramfs. You must run "update-initramfs -u"
- when new microcode is manually installed to /lib/firmware (this will
- be done automatically when new microcode is installed by a package
- upgrade).
-
- 2. When an initramfs image is not used, only the modular microcode
- driver is supported. If it doesn't autoload by itself in your kernel
- version, you should add it to /etc/modules. You must install either
- the kmod or module-init-tools package, and the root filesystem with
- /lib/firmware must be available when the modules are loaded.
-
- -- Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@debian.org>, 2012-07-09
-