[Source NEW SRU FOCAL] ITP: Please support loading microcode early, whilst otherwise booting without initrd

[Dimitri John Ledkov]

Now that micorocode-initrd is in focal, linux-meta-aws should start depending on it in focal too.

--

[Impact]

 * New package to provide micorocode-only initrd for application of microcode on boot, when otherwise no initrd is in use.

[Test Case]

 * install microcode-initrd in AWS cloud x86 metal instance
 * reboot, observe that microcode has been applied, and yet the boot was without initrd (observe journalctl -b -k to see that initrd was not used for boot)

[Regression Potential]

 * This is a brand new package, that will be used by AWS images. Otherwise this package will not be automatically installed anywhere. Re spinning & promoting AWS images are tested and gated by the CPC team.

[Other Info]

 * Original bug report for groovy:

Normally Ubuntu boots using initrd that has three archives: early amd64 microcode, early intel microcode, and compressed main initrd.

When booting without initrd, simply kernel is loaded without any initrd and thus without microcode.

However, grub supports booting with multiple initrds and one can specify a standalone early initrd which contains microcode only, and separate main initrd.

As an added bonus one can also specify just eary microcode initrd without a main one, to allow kernel to load microcode early, but otherwise boot without an initrd.

To achieve that I need to introduce a microcode-initrd package will will only provide early initrd which only has microcode.

The intention is to seed microcode-initrd to targets that boot on baremental without initrd.

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

NEW source package https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/focal/+queue?queue_state=0&queue_text=microcode-initrd

[Łukasz Zemczak (sil2100)]

Hello Dimitri, or anyone else affected,

Accepted microcode-initrd into focal-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/microcode-initrd/2~20.04.0 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-focal to verification-done-focal. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-focal. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

Booted m5.metal instance in aws.

[ 2.856904] TAA: Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode
[ 5.490555] microcode: sig=0x50657, pf=0x1, revision=0x5000024
[ 5.496072] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.2.

installed microcode-initrd from focal-proposed 2~20.04.0 and rebooted

[ 0.000000] microcode: microcode updated early to revision 0x5003003, date = 2020-06-18
[ 5.860519] microcode: sig=0x50657, pf=0x1, revision=0x5003003
[ 5.866322] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.2.

thus early micorcode update got applied.

[Łukasz Zemczak (sil2100)]

The verification of the Stable Release Update for microcode-initrd has completed successfully and the package is now being released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package microcode-initrd - 2~20.04.0

---------------
microcode-initrd (2~20.04.0) focal; urgency=medium

  * Backport to focal. LP: #1890612

microcode-initrd (2) groovy; urgency=medium

  * Add update-grub calls in maintainer scripts, such that grub.cfg is
    populated with/without microcode initrd whenever package is installed
    or removed.

microcode-initrd (1) groovy; urgency=medium

  * Initial Release. LP: #1890612

 -- Dimitri John Ledkov <email address hidden> Thu, 22 Oct 2020 15:45:24 +0100

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

linux-meta-aws patch is submitted at https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/kernel-team/2020-November/114920.html

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package linux-meta-aws - 5.4.0.1032.33

---------------
linux-meta-aws (5.4.0.1032.33) focal; urgency=medium

  * Bump ABI 5.4.0-1032

  * Packaging resync (LP: #1786013)
    - [Packaging] resync debian/dkms-versions from main package

 -- Marcelo Henrique Cerri <email address hidden> Wed, 09 Dec 2020 10:19:53 -0300