I have a system with an AMD Ryzen 9 CPU and AMD Radeon RX 6800 GPU running Debian 12. Today there is a security update recommended for the intel-microcode. Checking for updates reveals my system believes it needs the update, but I am not informed enough to understand why/if that is true. I managed to find a Debian article on microcode and it seems to indicate it is specific to either intel or AMD. Should I trust the system update and follow through? I’m hoping someone can shed some light on this. My proficiency with Debian is likely not where it needs to be it seems.

  • glitching@lemmy.ml
    0·
    2 days ago

    you can remove firmware and other software that doesn’t pertain to your system. the regular upgrade process will be shorter and you’ll save some SSD space.

    however, you’ll lose the ability to take this SSD and plug it in a completely different system, like e.g. an intel laptop, and have it boot right up, unmodified.

  • ryannathans@aussie.zone
    0·
    2 days ago

    The system packages don’t adapt to your hardware. If you take your os drive out and stick it in another computer, you won’t need to mess around making sure the CPU works properly. Unless you added more repositories, all your updates are coming from the same place, to trust any is to trust all.

    • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org
      0·
      2 days ago

      an exception to that is the initramfs that the bootloader uses. its creator adapts it to your system so that it can be smaller.

  • BillibusMaximus@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    2 days ago

    If you don’t have an Intel CPU, then you shouldn’t need it. At least, I think it’s only for CPUs and not for other intel-based devices (NIC, graphics, whatever).

    It’s prompting for upgrade because it’s already installed. It’s recommended (but not required) by initramfs-tools, so that’s probably why it’s installed (recommended packages are installed by default). oops, read that wrong. Intel-microcode recommends initramfs-tools.

    You may want to run

    apt-rdepends intel-microcode

    to see what pulled it in.

    But you should be able to uninstall it, and then it won’t prompt you any more.

  • elmicha@feddit.orgEnglish
    0·
    2 days ago

    You can update and it won’t break anything, because Intel microcode won’t be loaded into AMD CPUs. If you run apt show intel-microcode it tells you that there is a amd64-microcode package as well. If it is not already installed, you can install it, and then try to remove intel-microcode. If it doesn’t want to remove anything else (e.g. the kernel), you can remove it. If not, just leave it installed.