From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: Ian Campbell <ian.campbell@citrix.com>
Subject: Re: [xen-unstable test] 57852: regressions - FAIL
Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2015 16:29:51 +0100
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To: Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk <konrad.wilk@oracle.com>
Cc: Andrew Cooper <Andrew.Cooper3@citrix.com>, Ian Jackson <Ian.Jackson@eu.citrix.com>, Jan Beulich <JBeulich@suse.com>, xen-devel <xen-devel@lists.xenproject.org>
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On Mon, 2015-06-08 at 11:21 -0400, Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 08, 2015 at 03:47:22PM +0100, Ian Jackson wrote:
> > Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk writes ("Re: [Xen-devel] [xen-unstable test] 57852: regressions - FAIL"):
> > > Could it be an missing microcode update? I don't know if the OSSTest does
> > > the ucode=scan or updates the microcode later?
> > 
> > I think osstest's machines don't get microcode updates.  I'm no expert
> > on x86 microcode, but my understanding is:
> > 
> > Microcode updates (i) have to be loaded dynamically at boot time and
> > (ii) are regarded as a non-free package by Debian.
> > 
> > We could arrange to install the non-free microcode package.  I haven't
> > looked into it but I would expect that to automatically arrange to
> > load the microcode for native boots.  It IMO ought to do the same for
> > non-native boots but I wouldn't rely on that being the case.
> 
> If Debian is using dracut

It doesn't, it uses initramfs-tools.

I'm not sure about Wheezy but from Jessie onwards installing the
microcode packages adds hooks which makes initramfs-tools do the right
thing.

>  it just requires adding in /etc/dracut.conf
> early_microcode=yes
> 
> and from there on any regenerated initramfs will have the required
> microcode. Then 'ucode=scan' needs to be added on the Xen command line.

This is still needed with initramfs-tools.

There's also Debian bug #785187 (discussed on xen-devel) which stops
ucode=scan from working, for a reason I've not had a changce to dig into
yet.