Helps about upgrade Kernel Mint 17.3 for Spectre and Meltdown

[giorgio33]

Hello everyone. I'm a newbie. I am confused about the procedure to be followed for the Kernel update for Spectre and Meltdown
My system is as follows:

Processor: 4x Intel (R) Core (TM) i5-4590 CPU @ 3.30GHz
Operating System: Linux Mint 17.3 Rose
Kernel: Linux 3.19.0-32-generic (x86_64).
Video driver: xserver-xorg - video-ATI (recommended).

I do not know if I have to upgrade to Kernel 4.4.0-109 or to 3.13.0-139. Opinions are conflicting. Some posts refer to the first solution, others to the second. I do not know then what the best solution is.
Also I did not understand if it should be done also the update of the Intel microcode. I have checked and no microcode is currently installed.
What should I do ?
Thanks in advance for the help!
ps .: all security and software updates have been applied up to level 3.

[Cosmo.]

An absolute answer is pitifully not possible. You might want to read, what I wrote just 1 hour ago regarding your question.

[giorgio33]

An absolute answer is pitifully not possible. You might want to read, what I wrote just 1 hour ago regarding your question.

Thank you very much. That's what I was looking for! The information is so disseminated that it is difficult even to find them. I read his post immediately. Hope it can help me!

[karlchen]

Hello, giorgio33.

Please, post an inxi -Fxz report of your current system as it is now.

Reason for asking for the inxi report:
Spotted the term ATI graphics card. Need to know whether your current system uses the proprietary Catalyst driver flgrx.
Kernel 3.19.0 was the last one to support it.
Kernel 3.13.0-109 should also support it, because it is an older kernel series, but LTS (long term support) and kept up-to-date.
Kernel 4.4.0-109 will not permit using the Catalyst driver. You may be stuck on the open source driver ATI/Radeon.

This is why it is important to know which graphics card is in your machine and which driver does it use.

Best regards,
Karl

[giorgio33]

@karlchen
Thanks a lot for the answer. Last night I turned off because it was late (I write from Italy). Tomorrow evening when I get home I'll give you what you asked for!

[giorgio33]

Hello, giorgio33.

Please, post an inxi -Fxz report of your current system as it is now.

Reason for asking for the inxi report:
Spotted the term ATI graphics card. Need to know whether your current system uses the proprietary Catalyst driver flgrx.
Kernel 3.19.0 was the last one to support it.
Kernel 3.13.0-109 should also support it, because it is an older kernel series, but LTS (long term support) and kept up-to-date.
Kernel 4.4.0-109 will not permit using the Catalyst driver. You may be stuck on the open source driver ATI/Radeon.

This is why it is important to know which graphics card is in your machine and which driver does it use.

Best regards,
Karl

I'm here, Karl.
Here is the output of "inxi -Fxz".
A lot of information !

Code: Select all

System:    Host: PC-Giorgio Kernel: 3.19.0-32-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 4.8.2)
           Desktop: MATE 1.12.0 (Gtk 3.10.8~8+qiana) Distro: Linux Mint 17.3 Rosa
Machine:   System: ASUS product: All Series
           Mobo: ASUSTeK model: H97-PLUS v: Rev X.0x Bios: American Megatrends v: 2505 date: 11/11/2015
CPU:       Quad core Intel Core i5-4590 (-MCP-) cache: 6144 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 26341
           clock speeds: max: 3700 MHz 1: 3220 MHz 2: 2300 MHz 3: 2523 MHz 4: 3219 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Caicos PRO [Radeon HD 7450] bus-ID: 01:00.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.17.1 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1280x1024@60.0hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD CAICOS GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.5.9 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card-1 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Caicos HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6400 Series]
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1
           Card-2 Intel 9 Series Family HD Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k3.19.0-32-generic
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: d000 bus-ID: 03:00.0
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Ralink RT3062 Wireless 802.11n 2T/2R driver: rt2800pci v: 2.3.0 bus-ID: 05:00.0
           IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-3: D-Link System AirPlus G DWL-G122 Wireless Adapter(rev.C1) [Ralink RT2571W]
           driver: rt73usb v: 2.3.0 usb-ID: 001-003
           IF: wlan1 state: N/A mac: N/A
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1250.2GB (2.1% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: Crucial_CT250MX2 size: 250.1GB
           ID-2: /dev/sdb model: WDC_WD5000AZRZ size: 500.1GB
           ID-3: USB /dev/sdc model: My_Passport_0810 size: 500.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 222G used: 18G (9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 8.53GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 29.8C mobo: 27.8C gpu: 51.0
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 198 Uptime: 13 min Memory: 836.5/7927.4MB Init: Upstart runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.4
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.111) inxi: 2.2.28

Now ? My God !

[karlchen]

Hello, giorgio33.

Thanks for posting the inxi report.

The good thing about the inxi reports is their concise format, even though it makes them look a bit confusing when you look at such a report for the first time.
But once you have taken the time to go through them section by section and line by line, you may notice that they give a very good overview on the hardware of a machine and on the drivers which are used.

You rightly guessed that it was the Graphics section which I was after in this case.

Code: Select all

Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Caicos PRO [Radeon HD 7450] bus-ID: 01:00.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.17.1 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1280x1024@60.0hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD CAICOS GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.5.9 Direct Rendering: Yes

The "Display Server" line tells that your system uses the open-source driver software "ati,radeon".

The ATI/Radeon driver should work correctly, too, if you decide to upgrade from the outdated kernel 3.19.0-32 to 4.4.0-109.
To be honest, I can only say should work, because my Linux computers have got either Intel graphics chips or Nvidia, not ATI/AMD graphics cards.
Nonetheless, coming back to the initial question from your first post, my advice will be: try upgrading to kernel 4.4.0-109.

About how to do so: please, see xenopeek's post here: How to update your kernel for Meltdown. Section near the beginning "Instructions for Linux Mint 17.x (any release)".

Best regards,
Karl

[giorgio33]

Hello, giorgio33.

Thanks for posting the inxi report.

The good thing about the inxi reports is their concise format, even though it makes them look a bit confusing when you look at such a report for the first time.
But once you have taken the time to go through them section by section and line by line, you may notice that they give a very good overview on the hardware of a machine and on the drivers which are used.

You rightly guessed that it was the Graphics section which I was after in this case.

Code: Select all

Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Caicos PRO [Radeon HD 7450] bus-ID: 01:00.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.17.1 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1280x1024@60.0hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD CAICOS GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.5.9 Direct Rendering: Yes

The "Display Server" line tells that your system uses the open-source driver software "ati,radeon".

The ATI/Radeon driver should work correctly, too, if you decide to upgrade from the outdated kernel 3.19.0-32 to 4.4.0-109.
To be honest, I can only say should work, because my Linux computers have got either Intel graphics chips or Nvidia, not ATI/AMD graphics cards.
Nonetheless, coming back to the initial question from your first post, my advice will be: try upgrading to kernel 4.4.0-109.

About how to do so: please, see xenopeek's post here: How to update your kernel for Meltdown. Section near the beginning "Instructions for Linux Mint 17.x (any release)".

Best regards,
Karl

Hi Karl.
Thank you for your quick reply.Now I am now more confidente about what I have to do. I've been using Mint for over 10 years, but I'm still a novice because everything has always worked without a problem, and I've never had to investigate. It's true that I'm a very basic user, but I've certainly had luck. I am more and more convinced of the choice made years ago to abandon totally Windows. Even the answers and the help received in these days to solve this big problem was very satisfying. Tonight I'll try to apply the update to the 4.4.109 kernel, hopefully, I'll let you know!

Giorgio

[Conker]

Upgraded my 17.3 KDE to kernel 4.4.0-109 without any problems so far. Everything seems to work fine.
Also, my Firefox is now on 57.0.4 so I feel a little more secure overall.
Used Timeshift for the first time before the kernel upgrade - congrats to the team, great application.
Could not be easier to use, no excuses for anyone not to have a good backup regime now!

[giorgio33]

Hi Karl,

I have successfully installed Kernel 4.4.0-109 from 3.19.0-32 in mint 17.3 mate. Everything seems to work properly, after a normal reboot. Now, updated the Kernel, at what point is the situation? In the update manager there are some level 4 and 5 updates available (available even before the kernel update), as shown in the picture below.
Should I maybe install them?

update_lelev_4_5.png

I also hear about the update of the microcode of Intel (i5-4590 @ 3.30Ghz), but in Synaptic I do not detect installed any existing code ... Here is the picture:

microcode.png

Do I have to install it?

I'm thinking that maybe I'm writing a new topic for the microcode issue. If it's not correct, I can open a new discussion.

Thanks again to Karl and to the other users who answered me.

Giorgio

[giorgio33]

Does anyone have advice on how to proceed at this point?
Thanks in advance !

[Schultz]

At the very least, I would advise to install all the updates with the red exclamation point (!) under "Tipo." The red exclamation point means that they are security updates. And, since they are levels 4 & 5, it is recommended to install them one at a time. Reason being, if any of them gives you problems, you will know which one it was if you do them one at a time.

[karlchen]

Good evening, giorgio33.

Sorry for having failed to follow this thread for 3 days now.
Agree with Schultz about installing the updates, which are marked as security fixes.
But with a minor exception:
As you have switched to kernel 4.4.0-109, I do not see any good reason to install the kernel update 3.13.0-139(188). Though doing so may do no harm at all, because your system will default to using kernel 4.4.0-109, because it has got the higher version.

About the Intel microcode:
It is not advisable to install the most recent Intel Microcode software blindly. Reasons for not doing so:

• At this point in time the updated microcode packages only update the microcode of Intel CPUs produced during the past 5 years roughly.
  So you have to check your exact CPU model and check whether its microcode has really been updated by Intel.
  In case your CPU is not on the updated list, then installing the lastest Intel microcode will not help protect you from Spectre and Meltdown.
• Even if the updated Intel microcode package holds updated code for your CPU, it may be wise to think twice. There have been quite a few reports that the updated microcode cause quite a few computers to reboot unexpectedly. Intel may have to bugfix the update very likely.

As my CPUs are all older than 5 years and because the current microcode update obviously introduces new bugs, I have not installed it, yet.
At present, I wonder a bit whether the short term damage which can be done by the CPU flaws named Spectre & Meltdown is really higher than the damage which can be done by the buggy Intel microcode update.

Best regards,
Karl

[giorgio33]

[*]Even if the updated Intel microcode package holds updated code for your CPU, it may be wise to think twice. There have been quite a few reports that the updated microcode cause quite a few computers to reboot unexpectedly. Intel may have to bugfix the update very likely.[/list]
As my CPUs are all older than 5 years and because the current microcode update obviously introduces new bugs, I have not installed it, yet.
At present, I wonder a bit whether the short term damage which can be done by the CPU flaws named Spectre & Meltdown is really higher than the damage which can be done by the buggy Intel microcode update.

Best regards,
Karl

Hi Karl,

So, to be cautious and to follow your directions, I think it's better to wait a bit of time and follow the evolution before updating the microcode. I ask only one last thing: should I close this topic with "solved" (since it is headed as a kernel update) or I leave it open? Again thanks to all those who answered me.

[karlchen]

Hi, giorgio33.

Kernel Update, again:
The kernel series K3.13.0-xx has been updated to K3.13.0-141(190).
The kernel series K4.4.0-xx has been updated to K4.4.0-112(135).
I may not have read carefully enough, but to me it looks as if they are mainly fixes for glitches/errors/bugs introduced by the previous version.
Yes, installed here.

Microcode:
Another update has been made available to Ubuntu users and therefore to Linux Mint users as well:
The Intel Microcode Update gets reverted to the previous version. (intel-microcode 3.20180108.0+really20170707ubuntu16.04.1)
The weird looking higher version number is needed in order to make sure the updater overwrites the buggy bugfixed previous version without complaining that the update is really older than the installed version.

About marking thread as solved:
Well, if you consider your questions answered, then go ahead and mark this thread as solved.

If we started waiting for the "Spectre" and "Meltdown" problems to be solved permanently, then we may not be able to mark any thread as permanently solved for months or even for years.

Cheers,
Karl