From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1756742AbaIWUBF (ORCPT ); Tue, 23 Sep 2014 16:01:05 -0400 Received: from mail.skyhub.de ([78.46.96.112]:44628 "EHLO mail.skyhub.de" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1756639AbaIWUBC (ORCPT ); Tue, 23 Sep 2014 16:01:02 -0400 Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 22:00:54 +0200 From: Borislav Petkov To: Henrique de Moraes Holschuh Cc: Chuck Ebbert , Andy Lutomirski , "H. Peter Anvin" , "linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org" Subject: Re: x86, microcode: BUG: microcode update that changes x86_capability Message-ID: <20140923200054.GB16467@pd.tnic> References: <20140918145328.0253f009@as> <9c84cde6-3d70-4337-8738-0283d06d8cf0@email.android.com> <20140918200659.GA5331@khazad-dum.debian.net> <20140919001311.GB5331@khazad-dum.debian.net> <20140919110014.GC29639@khazad-dum.debian.net> <20140919112953.GA3256@nazgul.tnic> <20140919075415.5149d5f2@as> <20140919150042.GC5318@nazgul.tnic> <20140919164217.GD17456@khazad-dum.debian.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20140919164217.GD17456@khazad-dum.debian.net> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.23 (2014-03-12) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Fri, Sep 19, 2014 at 01:42:17PM -0300, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh wrote: > 1. offline a "guinea pig" group of "cpus", i.e. an entire "microcode update > unit" that doesn't include the BSP. This is going to be a pain, as what > composes a "microcode update unit" is not set in stone, and could change in > a future microarch. I'm pretty sure it is very dangerous to run with different microcode revisions on different cores. Your plan won't fly and I have hard time understanding why one would do such thing even if it did work. If we're going to have to hide stuff which software might be using, I don't see a way around rebooting. -- Regards/Gruss, Boris. Sent from a fat crate under my desk. Formatting is fine. --