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Loading amd-ucode.img useless on consumer CPUs? (kbin.social)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I read that AMD microcode from the AGESA always has a higher patch version number than the microcode supplied by the kernel. The lastest microcode version from the linux-firmware repo the latest version for family 0x19 are:

Microcode patches in microcode_amd_fam19h.bin:
Family=0x19 Model=0x01 Stepping=0x01: Patch=0x0a0011d1 Length=5568 bytes
Family=0x19 Model=0x01 Stepping=0x00: Patch=0x0a001079 Length=5568 bytes
Family=0x19 Model=0x01 Stepping=0x02: Patch=0x0a001234 Length=5568 bytes

My CPU (Ryzen 5900x) reports [ 0.579161] microcode: CPU0: patch_level=0x0a20120a, though? My BIOS is from January, the amd-ucode was update in July.

Others have come to the same observation and speculate that the linux-firmware microcode is only for Epyc. AMD in their statement about inception only talks about updating microcode via AGESA.

https://www.phoronix.com/forums/forum/phoronix/latest-phoronix-articles/1402527-amd-inception-cpu-vulnerability-disclosed?p=1402567#post1402567
https://www.phoronix.com/forums/forum/hardware/processors-memory/1349645-amd-publishes-new-family-19h-cpu-microcode?p=1349760#post1349760
https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/hdrron/amd_microcode_not_loading/

Anyone having more information on this?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

If I have a Ryzen 3900x, how would I go about checking this for myself? I can see the patch_level (0x08701030) in my journalctl but not sure which family I should be looking at. It doesn't seem to appear anywhere in that list you linked though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The family is printed in the kernel log: [ 0.380496] smpboot: CPU0: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core Processor (family: 0x19, model: 0x21, stepping: 0x2)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Ah thanks! Seems like the 3900x isn't even listed in the README.