Re: [Xen-devel] Current state of Xen microcode (Was: Re: uploading 3.16~rc5-1~exp1)

[Ian Campbell <ijc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 2014-07-15 at 10:59 -0400, Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 15, 2014 at 09:53:32AM +0100, Ian Campbell wrote:
> > Adding xen-devel and some of the Linux maints,
> > 
> > On Mon, 2014-07-14 at 23:22 +0200, maximilian attems wrote:
> > > I will upload tomorrow Tuesday around 22h00 UT to experimental.
> > > 
> > > There are two TODOS concerning the not yet forwarded Debian patches:
> > > - cgroups
> > > - xen microcode
> > > 
> > > 
> > > I consider both not a blocker, but would be happy if Xen guys could
> > > have a look for what is needed.
> > 
> > The xen microcode patches which maks is referring to are these:
> > http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/kernel/dists/trunk/linux/debian/patches/features/all/xen/
> > which are a forward port of Jeremy's old microcode_xen.ko driver.
> 
> They are also at my branch
> http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/konrad/xen.git/log/?h=stable/misc
> 
> Hm, I should rebase them at some point.
> > 
> > I've not been keeping up on Xen x86 microcode stuff these days but I
> > think we don't need this any more with modern Xen since we can parse the
> > microcode blob off the front of the initrd, is that right?
> 
> Right. And best of it, the support for that is in dracut so
> it automatically can happen (thought you still need to add
> 'ucode=scan' in the /etc/default/grub.cfg in the GRUB_CMDLINE_XEN
> parameter) and also in /etc/dracut.conf add 'early_microcode=yes'.

Hrm, I thought it was transparent. Debian doesn't use dracut, it uses
initramfs-tools. So perhaps there is some work to be done here.

I understand ucode=scan, but what does the dracut option do?

> > (this is predicated on Xen 4.4 hitting unstable, which is underway)
> 
> unstable == Debian unstable?

Yes.

Ian.


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