Pkg xen devel - May 2015 - Bug#785187: xen-hypervisor-4.5-amd64: Option ucode=scan is not working

Package: xen-hypervisor-4.5-amd64
Version: 4.5.0-1
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

according to the documentation the option ucode=scan should tell XEN to 
look for a microcode update in an uncompressed initrd.

While I don?t use the Debian kernel the tools to generate the initrd are 
part of Debian. The command ?cpio -i < /boot/initrd.img-4.0.2-Dom0? 
creates the directory structure ?kernel/x86/microcode/GenuineIntel.bin?, 
so I think the initrd is allright.

But according to /proc/cpuinfo the microcode update doesn?t happen. If 
I copy GenuineIntel.bin to /boot, create a new module section in grub.cfg 
and boot with ucode=-1, then the update is working. In both cases dmesg 
or ?xl dmesg? don?t tell anything about microcode updates (successfull or 
not).

The option ucode=scan doesn?t work with XEN 4.4 either or with 3.6 
kernels.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: stretch/sid
  APT prefers oldoldstable-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'oldoldstable-updates'), (500, 'testing'),
(500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 4.0.2-Dom0 (SMP w/8 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: sysvinit (via /sbin/init)

xen-hypervisor-4.5-amd64 depends on no packages.

Versions of packages xen-hypervisor-4.5-amd64 recommends:
ii  xen-utils-4.5  4.5.0-1

xen-hypervisor-4.5-amd64 suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information

-- 
| Stephan Seitz          E-Mail: stse at fsing.rootsland.net |
| Public Keys: http://fsing.rootsland.net/~stse/keys.html |
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I think I remember some discussion of something in this area not too
long ago on xen-devel. CC-s added.

Konrad, do you know of any issues with ucode=scan in 4.4? 

On Wed, 2015-05-13 at 10:27 +0200, Stephan Seitz wrote:
> Package: xen-hypervisor-4.5-amd64
> Version: 4.5.0-1
> Severity: normal
> 
> Dear Maintainer,
> 
> according to the documentation the option ucode=scan should tell XEN to 
> look for a microcode update in an uncompressed initrd.
> 
> While I don?t use the Debian kernel the tools to generate the initrd are 
> part of Debian. The command ?cpio -i < /boot/initrd.img-4.0.2-Dom0? 
> creates the directory structure ?kernel/x86/microcode/GenuineIntel.bin?, 
> so I think the initrd is allright.
> 
> But according to /proc/cpuinfo the microcode update doesn?t happen. If 
> I copy GenuineIntel.bin to /boot, create a new module section in grub.cfg 
> and boot with ucode=-1, then the update is working. In both cases dmesg 
> or ?xl dmesg? don?t tell anything about microcode updates (successfull or 
> not).
> 
> The option ucode=scan doesn?t work with XEN 4.4 either or with 3.6 
> kernels.
> 
> -- System Information:
> Debian Release: stretch/sid
>   APT prefers oldoldstable-updates
>   APT policy: (500, 'oldoldstable-updates'), (500,
'testing'), (500, 'stable')
> Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
> Foreign Architectures: i386
> 
> Kernel: Linux 4.0.2-Dom0 (SMP w/8 CPU cores)
> Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
> Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
> Init: sysvinit (via /sbin/init)
> 
> xen-hypervisor-4.5-amd64 depends on no packages.
> 
> Versions of packages xen-hypervisor-4.5-amd64 recommends:
> ii  xen-utils-4.5  4.5.0-1
> 
> xen-hypervisor-4.5-amd64 suggests no packages.
> 
> -- no debconf information
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Pkg-xen-devel mailing list
> Pkg-xen-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org
> http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pkg-xen-devel

> > according to the documentation the option ucode=scan should tell XEN
to
> > look for a microcode update in an uncompressed initrd.
> > 
> > While I don?t use the Debian kernel the tools to generate the initrd
are
> > part of Debian. The command ?cpio -i < /boot/initrd.img-4.0.2-Dom0?
> > creates the directory structure
?kernel/x86/microcode/GenuineIntel.bin?,
> > so I think the initrd is allright.

Is the initramfs compressed? The scanning code can't deal if the initramfs
is compressed - so you either have to glue the compressed initramfs and
the cpio with the microcode together (where the microcode has to go first).

Thanks Atom2, thanks for the refs, I've added the Debian bug and the
submitter back to the CC.

On Wed, 2015-05-13 at 22:11 +0200, Atom2 wrote:
> Am 13.05.15 um 15:41 schrieb Ian Campbell:
> > I think I remember some discussion of something in this area not too
> > long ago on xen-devel. CC-s added.
> I assume you refer to this discussion which happend to be on the 
> xen-users mailing list:
> http://lists.xen.org/archives/html/xen-users/2014-05/msg00052.html
> 
> Especially look at the first answer 
> (http://lists.xen.org/archives/html/xen-users/2014-05/msg00053.html).
This says "not 'cpio -o c' as some information on the internet
suggests", do you have a link? Is it to something the xenproject
controls and could update (i.e. our wiki and/or in tree docs?)

Cheers,
Ian.
> Following those points mentioned in there should get you up and running 
> - unless there's really a bug lurking somewhere.
> 
> My guess is that the cpio archive was not created with the (required) 
> cpio option "-H newc".
> 
> Regards Atom2
> > Konrad, do you know of any issues with ucode=scan in 4.4?
> >
> > On Wed, 2015-05-13 at 10:27 +0200, Stephan Seitz wrote:
> >> Package: xen-hypervisor-4.5-amd64
> >> Version: 4.5.0-1
> >> Severity: normal
> >>
> >> Dear Maintainer,
> >>
> >> according to the documentation the option ucode=scan should tell
XEN to
> >> look for a microcode update in an uncompressed initrd.
> >>
> >> While I don?t use the Debian kernel the tools to generate the
initrd are
> >> part of Debian. The command ?cpio -i <
/boot/initrd.img-4.0.2-Dom0?
> >> creates the directory structure
?kernel/x86/microcode/GenuineIntel.bin?,
> >> so I think the initrd is allright.
> >>
> >> But according to /proc/cpuinfo the microcode update doesn?t
happen. If
> >> I copy GenuineIntel.bin to /boot, create a new module section in
grub.cfg
> >> and boot with ucode=-1, then the update is working. In both cases
dmesg
> >> or ?xl dmesg? don?t tell anything about microcode updates
(successfull or
> >> not).
> >>
> >> The option ucode=scan doesn?t work with XEN 4.4 either or with 3.6
> >> kernels.
> >>
> >> -- System Information:
> >> Debian Release: stretch/sid
> >>    APT prefers oldoldstable-updates
> >>    APT policy: (500, 'oldoldstable-updates'), (500,
'testing'), (500, 'stable')
> >> Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
> >> Foreign Architectures: i386
> >>
> >> Kernel: Linux 4.0.2-Dom0 (SMP w/8 CPU cores)
> >> Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
> >> Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
> >> Init: sysvinit (via /sbin/init)
> >>
> >> xen-hypervisor-4.5-amd64 depends on no packages.
> >>
> >> Versions of packages xen-hypervisor-4.5-amd64 recommends:
> >> ii  xen-utils-4.5  4.5.0-1
> >>
> >> xen-hypervisor-4.5-amd64 suggests no packages.
> >>
> >> -- no debconf information
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Pkg-xen-devel mailing list
> >> Pkg-xen-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org
> >>
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pkg-xen-devel
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Xen-devel mailing list
> > Xen-devel at lists.xen.org
> > http://lists.xen.org/xen-devel
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-devel mailing list
> Xen-devel at lists.xen.org
> http://lists.xen.org/xen-devel

Am 14.05.15 um 10:41 schrieb Ian Campbell:
> Thanks Atom2, thanks for the refs, I've added the Debian bug and the
> submitter back to the CC.
Unfortunately those recipients originally seem to have escaped my eye 
... but they are included now.
> On Wed, 2015-05-13 at 22:11 +0200, Atom2 wrote:
>> Am 13.05.15 um 15:41 schrieb Ian Campbell:
>>> I think I remember some discussion of something in this area not
too
>>> long ago on xen-devel. CC-s added.
>> I assume you refer to this discussion which happend to be on the
>> xen-users mailing list:
>> http://lists.xen.org/archives/html/xen-users/2014-05/msg00052.html
>>
>> Especially look at the first answer
>> (http://lists.xen.org/archives/html/xen-users/2014-05/msg00053.html).
> This says "not 'cpio -o c' as some information on the internet
> suggests", do you have a link? Is it to something the xenproject
> controls and could update (i.e. our wiki and/or in tree docs?)
>
> Cheers,
> Ian.
Ian, I am unable to find any of those links that I had read back then 
when I wrote the "not 'cpio ..." part in my answer to the list
referred
to above.

I now have only been able to come up with 
http://xenbits.xen.org/docs/unstable/misc/amd-ucode-container.txt, which 
is dated _after_ my referred mail (both the original and the amended 
version) and clearly also states the "-H newc" option. This document
BTW
contains a pretty good recipe for making this happen and also seems to 
be in line with what I had suggested earlier. So in a nutshell, 
xenproject seems to have things correct.

Appologies for not being able to be more helpful.

Regards Atom2