Spectre meltdown strategy

[mike acker]

I've been toying with the idea of upgrading my desktop to a RYZEN chip, or, alternatively, just upgrading the power supply and adding another 2TB disc for the new LMDE/3 update ( the 450W psp I used in the original build has only 3 SATA power connectors; I want to replace it with a 650 ).

I think I'll go ahead with the basic Update: powersupply, disc, and LMDE/3 ; and then HOLD on the RYZEN/Motherboard update until the FPGA on the RYZEN chip is updated -- 'as may be necessary";

The Research Box will get updated when I feel like it but it would be a good place for a RYZEN 1700 as it also runs VirtualBox, and also gets the job when I need to render video. this would be a good place to install kernel 4.14. ( I did a kernel update on my KDE system -- and had no trouble with it -- but -- I think that leaves me to ferrit my own updates when needed ) .

The Guest machine will get a new disc and update to LMDE/3

clearly we'll need to figure out how to determine which RYZEN chips have updated FPGAs; I expect NewEgg will mark this for us in their catalog. This shouldn't take too long as the AMD designed chips apparently don't need to be fixed as much as the Intel versions.

[mike acker]

AMD RYZEN

AMD is releasing Spectre firmware updates to fix CPU vulnerabilities

excerpt

AMD is making firmware updates available for Ryzen and EPYC owners this week, and the company is planning to update older processors “over the coming weeks.” Like Intel, these firmware updates will be provided to PC makers, and it will be up to suppliers to ensure customers receive these. AMD isn’t saying whether there will be any performance impacts from applying these firmware updates, nor whether servers using EPYC processors will be greatly impacted or not.

[ClixTrix]

I've been toying with the idea of upgrading my desktop to a RYZEN chip, or, alternatively, just upgrading the power supply and adding another 2TB disc for the new LMDE/3 update ( the 450W psp I used in the original build has only 3 SATA power connectors; I want to replace it with a 650 ).

I think I'll go ahead with the basic Update: powersupply, disc, and LMDE/3 ; and then HOLD on the RYZEN/Motherboard update until the FPGA on the RYZEN chip is updated -- 'as may be necessary";

The Research Box will get updated when I feel like it but it would be a good place for a RYZEN 1700 as it also runs VirtualBox, and also gets the job when I need to render video. this would be a good place to install kernel 4.14. ( I did a kernel update on my KDE system -- and had no trouble with it -- but -- I think that leaves me to ferrit my own updates when needed ) .

The Guest machine will get a new disc and update to LMDE/3

clearly we'll need to figure out how to determine which RYZEN chips have updated FPGAs; I expect NewEgg will mark this for us in their catalog. This shouldn't take too long as the AMD designed chips apparently don't need to be fixed as much as the Intel versions.

I'm testing Kernel 4.14.13 on my Ryzen system (see sig) and haven't encountered any problems. I run VirtualBox too.

FYI.....latest 4.14.13 has a patch for Zen family AMD microcode use. Kernel 4.14 also added Ryzen Turbo support, which you might need. Until 4.15 is available and mature past the early patch cycle, I think 4.14 is a good move (IMO).

[mike acker]

I'm testing Kernel 4.14.13 on my Ryzen system (see sig) and haven't encountered any problems. I run VirtualBox too.

FYI.....latest 4.14.13 has a patch for Zen family AMD microcode use. Kernel 4.14 also added Ryzen Turbo support, which you might need. Until 4.15 is available and mature past the early patch cycle, I think 4.14 is a good move (IMO).

thanks. I think 4.14 is a LTS kernel; that'd be the one I'd like to use

maybe I'll just move the A88X-Pro MoBo from the research box into my desktop when I upgrade the Research box with a RYZEN chip. The RYZEN chip will need a new MoBo anyway--