On Wednesday, 2 April 2025 04:33:01 British Summer Time Dale wrote: --->8
> >> I guess I'll have to keep the init thingy. Now I know. > > > > I don't see why, Dale. I don't use one and my case is similar to yours. > > When I said I used one for microcode loading, I meant that the microcode > > image /is/ the initrd. > > Ahhhh. I have both. I have the microcode image as well as a init > image. Are you saying I can have just the microcode image and no > initramfs image and it will still boot? I don't know your system well enough to predict what you can do, but I have that arrangement. > If you don't mind, can you list what is in your /boot, just the kernel and > init stuff that grub uses to boot is enough. As a example, this is mine, > with the command I used. You may name things differently tho so adjust if > needed. --->8 # ls -l /boot | grep -v rescue total 78M -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 145K Apr 1 11:20 amd-uc.img -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 139K Apr 1 11:20 config-6.12.21-gentoo -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 136K Feb 21 10:43 config-6.6.74-gentoo -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 216K Dec 10 15:01 early_ucode.cpio drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 16K May 28 2024 EFI -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 21M Apr 1 11:20 intel-uc.img drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 16K Apr 1 11:22 loader -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 6.3M Apr 1 11:20 System.map-6.12.21-gentoo -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 5.9M Feb 21 10:43 System.map-6.6.74-gentoo -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 11M Apr 1 11:20 vmlinuz-6.12.21-gentoo -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 11M Feb 21 10:43 vmlinuz-6.6.74-gentoo That's everything in /boot. Nothing about grub, because I don't use it, much preferring bootctl from systemd-utils (that's the only systemd package here), whence the loader/ directory. I keep a small rescue system on each machine, though these days it's usually used only for routine backups of the main system. I don't know where the amd-uc.img comes from. It shouldn't exist in an Intel system, but if I delete it it just reappears. I'll track it down one day. > It uses the same microcode image for them all but as you can see, I have > 5 boot options. I just created a new kernel and friends but have not > rebooted yet. I'll clean those up and get down to two or three one of > these days. If I didn't have the init thingy at all for one or more of > those, it would still boot with just a microcode image and kernel? > > I read a link on this and I may point the kernel to the directory for it > to be included into the kernel. The only downside of that, old kernels > will have old microcode whereas this way, that microcode image gets > updated and on each reboot, loads the new microcode. Good point, if your kernels become that old. -- Regards, Peter.
