Dell Latitude 5591, i7-8850H, sig=0x906ea/20200609, Boot freezes silently after 'intel-microcode' upgrade

Can you please post the output of:

  dmesg | grep microcode

thanks

$ dmesg | grep microcode
returns nothing

Note: Grub can only boot with 'dis_ucode_ldr', please find the attached picture of the failure using 'nosplash debug' flags.

This is on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS/focal, correct?

If so, this is either exacerbated or triggered entirely because focal's intel-microcode package enabled late loading of microcode (known to be risky) that would get triggered while updating the intel-microcode package itself; see LP: #1883002. Even worse, it would get triggered even if you booted with an earliuer

A regression update for focal's intel-microcode package (3.20200609.0ubuntu0.20.04.2) has been published, https://usn.ubuntu.com/4385-2. Can you test with that version to see if your processor still has problems with the updated 3.20200609.0ubuntu0.20.04.2 version?

Correct, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS/focal.

Results of upgrading intel-microcode package to 3.20200609.0ubuntu0.20.04.2:
1) First reboot was successful (without dis_ucode_ldr flag)
2) Second and following reboots froze again, the behaviour is now the same as stated in #1883002.
3) Workaround: Grub's dis_ucode_ldr flag fixes the problem, at least on a temporary basis.

Thanks for testing and sorry you're experiencing this. Can you confirm that the output of 'iucode-tool -Sv' contains:

  iucode-tool: system has processor(s) with signature 0x000906ed

output of lscpu would be useful too, along with ensuring you have the latest BIOS installed from Dell.

Raising the issue at https://github.com/intel/Intel-Linux-Processor-Microcode-Data-Files/issues/ will get the problem you are having more of a chance to get on Intel's radar.

THanks again.

Okay, I'll raise the issue there (if not already done).

So the outputs are:
$ iucode-tool -Sv
iucode-tool: system has processor(s) with signature 0x000906ea
iucode-tool: assuming all processors have the same type, family and model

$ lscpu
Architecture: x86_64
CPU op-mode(s): 32-bit, 64-bit
Byte Order: Little Endian
Address sizes: 39 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
CPU(s): 12
On-line CPU(s) list: 0-11
Thread(s) per core: 2
Core(s) per socket: 6
Socket(s): 1
NUMA node(s): 1
Vendor ID: GenuineIntel
CPU family: 6
Model: 158
Model name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8850H CPU @ 2.60GHz
Stepping: 10
CPU MHz: 800.037
CPU max MHz: 4300.0000
CPU min MHz: 800.0000
BogoMIPS: 5199.98
Virtualisation: VT-x
L1d cache: 192 KiB
L1i cache: 192 KiB
L2 cache: 1.5 MiB
L3 cache: 9 MiB
NUMA node0 CPU(s): 0-11
Vulnerability Itlb multihit: KVM: Mitigation: Split huge pages
Vulnerability L1tf: Mitigation; PTE Inversion; VMX conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable
Vulnerability Mds: Mitigation; Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
Vulnerability Meltdown: Mitigation; PTI
Vulnerability Spec store bypass: Mitigation; Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp
Vulnerability Spectre v1: Mitigation; usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
Vulnerability Spectre v2: Mitigation; Full generic retpoline, IBPB conditional, IBRS_FW, STIBP conditional, RSB filling
Vulnerability Srbds: Vulnerable: No microcode
Vulnerability Tsx async abort: Mitigation; Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
Flags: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc art arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc cpuid aperfmperf pni pclm
                                 ulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch cpuid_fault epb invpcid_single pti ssbd ibrs ibpb stibp tpr_shado
                                 w vnmi flexpriority ept vpid ept_ad fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 hle avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid rtm mpx rdseed adx smap clflushopt intel_pt xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves dtherm ida arat pln pts hwp hwp_notify hwp_act_window hwp_epp md_clear flush_l1d

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Good news for all Dell Latitude users - a firmware upgrade was released by Dell and it seems to fix Intel's microcode issues.

Firmware version: 1.13.1
Released on: 10/Sep/2020

@mirek-ingr, can you please attach the output of `dmesg` when running the updated firmware?

$ dmesg | grep microcode
<nothing>

$ iucode-tool -Sv
iucode-tool: system has processor(s) with signature 0x000906ea
iucode-tool: assuming all processors have the same type, family and model

$ lscpu
Architecture: x86_64
CPU op-mode(s): 32-bit, 64-bit
Byte Order: Little Endian
Address sizes: 39 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
CPU(s): 12
On-line CPU(s) list: 0-11
Thread(s) per core: 2
Core(s) per socket: 6
Socket(s): 1
NUMA node(s): 1
Vendor ID: GenuineIntel
CPU family: 6
Model: 158
Model name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8850H CPU @ 2.60GHz
Stepping: 10
CPU MHz: 3647.874
CPU max MHz: 4300.0000
CPU min MHz: 800.0000
BogoMIPS: 5199.98
Virtualisation: VT-x
L1d cache: 192 KiB
L1i cache: 192 KiB
L2 cache: 1.5 MiB
L3 cache: 9 MiB
NUMA node0 CPU(s): 0-11
Vulnerability Itlb multihit: KVM: Mitigation: Split huge pages
Vulnerability L1tf: Mitigation; PTE Inversion; VMX conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable
Vulnerability Mds: Mitigation; Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
Vulnerability Meltdown: Mitigation; PTI
Vulnerability Spec store bypass: Mitigation; Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp
Vulnerability Spectre v1: Mitigation; usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
Vulnerability Spectre v2: Mitigation; Full generic retpoline, IBPB conditional, IBRS_FW, STIBP conditional, RSB filling
Vulnerability Srbds: Mitigation; Microcode
Vulnerability Tsx async abort: Mitigation; Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
Flags: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc art arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc cpuid aperfmperf pni pclm
                                 ulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch cpuid_fault epb invpcid_single pti ssbd ibrs ibpb stibp tpr_shado
                                 w vnmi flexpriority ept vpid ept_ad fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 hle avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid rtm mpx rdseed adx smap clflushopt intel_pt xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves dtherm ida arat pln pts hwp hwp_notify hwp_act_window hwp_epp md_clear flush_l1d

Am 18.09.20 um 09:13 schrieb Mirek Ingr:
> $ dmesg | grep microcode
> <nothing>

Please attach the whole output.

> $ iucode-tool -Sv
> iucode-tool: system has processor(s) with signature 0x000906ea
> iucode-tool: assuming all processors have the same type, family and model
>
>
> $ lscpu
> Architecture: x86_64
> CPU op-mode(s): 32-bit, 64-bit
> Byte Order: Little Endian
> Address sizes: 39 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
> CPU(s): 12
> On-line CPU(s) list: 0-11
> Thread(s) per core: 2
> Core(s) per socket: 6
> Socket(s): 1
> NUMA node(s): 1
> Vendor ID: GenuineIntel
> CPU family: 6
> Model: 158
> Model name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8850H CPU @ 2.60GHz
> Stepping: 10

[…]

Please also paste the output of `grep -i microcode /proc/cpuinfo`.

Sure thing, here you are:
$ grep -i microcode /proc/cpuinfo
microcode : 0xd6
microcode : 0xd6
microcode : 0xd6
microcode : 0xd6
microcode : 0xd6
microcode : 0xd6
microcode : 0xd6
microcode : 0xd6
microcode : 0xd6
microcode : 0xd6
microcode : 0xd6
microcode : 0xd6

The output of 'dmesg' is attached as a file.

Am 18.09.20 um 09:40 schrieb Mirek Ingr:
> Sure thing, here you are:
> $ grep -i microcode /proc/cpuinfo
> microcode : 0xd6
> microcode : 0xd6
> microcode : 0xd6
> microcode : 0xd6
> microcode : 0xd6
> microcode : 0xd6
> microcode : 0xd6
> microcode : 0xd6
> microcode : 0xd6
> microcode : 0xd6
> microcode : 0xd6
> microcode : 0xd6

Thank you.

> The output of 'dmesg' is attached as a file.

Ah. Your buffer is too small. As it’s a ring buffer, earlier messages
get overridden. Either increase the size on the Linux command line with
for example `log_buf_len=4M`, or, if the systemd journal is running, it
should store all Linux kernel messages too:

     $ journalctl -k

Okay, please find the attached journal.

Am 18.09.20 um 13:55 schrieb Mirek Ingr:
> Okay, please find the attached journal.

Thank you. There it is:

     Sep 18 08:15:43 B4 kernel: DMI: Dell Inc. Latitude 5591/0DVVG1,
BIOS 1.13.1 07/14/2020

     Sep 18 08:15:43 B4 kernel: microcode: sig=0x906ea, pf=0x20,
revision=0xd6

So, it is the same microcode update version, that break back in June?

Microcode's signature was 0x000906ea back then which also fits the current value.

After upgrading Dell's firmware in early September I simply removed `dis_ucode_ldr` flag and the system boots just fine.

By looking at firmware's release date 14/Jul/2020, it's a bit strange the upgrade was only available from September.

Anyway, I'm happy again, thanks guys :)