[sabayon-dev] Enabling CPU microcode update in Sabayon 7

[Lorenzo Cogotti]

Hi,

microcode-ctl is a nice little tool that allows Intel microcode
updating. I think that this service should be enabled by default on any
Sabayon system, since I think that the OS reliability should be our
biggest concern.

I suggest this configuration:

equo install microcode-ctl
rc-update add microcode_ctl boot

due to security reasons (microcode not being re-updated if a core
suspends or the system suspends) I would change the default
configuration of this service in:
/etc/conf.d/microcode_ctl

setting:
MICROCODE_UNLOAD="no"

this way the microcode updating module stays active and can update the
microcode again in the above mentioned situations.

microcode_ctl only allows the update of Intel CPUs, but AMD ones are not
updated, luckily AMD delivers microcode updates for Linux with detailed
instructions on how to apply them:
http://www.amd64.org/support/microcode.html

I think it would be great to include both AMD and Intel microcode update
on Sabayon where available automagically.




-- 
Lorenzo Cogotti