
Root Cause of Reboot Issue Identified; Updated Guidance - bhauer
https://newsroom.intel.com/news/root-cause-of-reboot-issue-identified-updated-guidance-for-customers-and-partners/
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dralley
"reboot"

Crash. My PC does not normally reboot without me having asked it to. If it
does so, it's a crash (unless it's fucking windows update).

~~~
nugi
Yup, its like an automaker issuing a service bulliten for 'unintentional
parking', or 'rapid decelleration'. I get there must always be some marketing
involved, but that breaks down fast when it just feels dishonest. That is fast
becoming a trend with Intel it seems. And intel desprately needs trust from an
industury that depends on them. I really hope they can refocus, and not die a
slow death of 'everything's fine'.

~~~
jlgaddis
Out of all of these types of terms, I like the aviation industry's term for a
crash the most: _uncontrolled flight into terrain_.

~~~
ihattendorf
Or rocketry: _rapid unscheduled disassembly_.

~~~
Waterluvian
Unequested fission surplus.

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RachelF
Linus is not mincing his words on this issue:

"Patches slammed as 'complete and utter garbage' as Chipzilla U-turns on
microcode"
[https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/22/intel_spectre_fix_l...](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/22/intel_spectre_fix_linux/)

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top_post
Let's not forget, this stuff is very very hard. That needs to be appreciated.

But man, Intel be fuckin' up so bad right now.

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sounds
I'd be interested to actually see a discussion of what the reboot issue was.

However, it's good news for everyone who uses affected products that Intel has
produced a working fix.

~~~
barbegal
I would presume that something this low level is quite commercially sensitive
so unfortunately we might never find out.

As far as I can tell they have not released any technical information about
how the original microcode update worked.

~~~
aroman
Security through obscurity at its finest, sadly.

~~~
knodi
It worked for them for so long. Old habits die hard but die they must.

~~~
kzrdude
They don't seem to be dying

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jumpkickhit
Will Intel release it as a patch/firmware for those of us who have hardware by
OEMs that aren't likely to offer anything?

~~~
dharmab
These fixes are typically deployed as microcode updates, which can be loaded
by the operating system during the boot process.

~~~
sverige
Interestingly enough, on HP's website with the security bulletin on Meltdown
and Spectre, they have brief description of the vulnerabilities and a list of
their many models. [1]

A few days ago, this had a schedule of microcode updates, with some models
showing a date that the update had already been released, and most others
showing anticipated release dates, with many (including one of my laptops)
showing an anticipated release date of February 9 for the microcode. Now they
all show "TBD."

And fwiw, I have heard a lot of people say bad things about HP products, but I
have found their support to be much better than average. They are generally on
point with fixing vulns, at least in my limited experience.

[1] [https://support.hp.com/us-
en/document/c05869091](https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05869091)

~~~
iforgotpassword
Never dealt with their enterprise/server stuff, but the consumer end is a
fucking nightmare. The website is shitty by itself, but the best part was that
until recently, some very smart folks at HP decided to use the user-agent
string to determine the OS of the visitor and then only show according
drivers. So there I was with my Linux system trying to download WiFi drivers
for Windows which I just couldn't find, I was close to freaking out. I only
realized this when I tried again the next day, coincidentally using a Windows
machine. They added an option to switch the OS by now but man, I had some nice
insults ready for the genius coming up with this...

Too bad WiFi reception was just as shitty under Windows, literally no signal
next room. Oh and the USB ports didn't work properly under Linux but OK, the
system wasn't advertised as Linux compatible anyways.

~~~
sverige
Yeah, the wifi was what prompted me to go the site. I needed an updated
driver. This is a Windows laptop, so the site was designed for it. I have
never tried to run OpenBSD on an HP laptop, but I've heard they suck for that
use.

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geertj
Is anyone else finding the use of the first person singular in this post
annoying? ("I apologize" vs "We apologize"). The previous post was the same.
Since this was certainly highly edited by corp comms, it's hard to believe
it's coincidental. It's as if Intel as a company is not taking ownership.

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Animats
_" We recommend that OEMs, cloud service providers, system manufacturers,
software vendors and end users stop deployment of current versions."_ Intel
seems to be saying to stop buying or deploying Broadwell and Haswell CPUs
until further notice.

~~~
arwineap
I may have missed the sarcasm here; but it seems they are saying to stop
deployment of existing microcode updates until the fixed microcode update
comes out

~~~
Animats
Intel's announcement never mentions the word "microcode". There's no reference
to specific identified patches. Given that, one has to assume that the
recommended remedy is not to use certain Intel hardware. PR, like contracts,
has to be given the interpretation least favorable to the author.

~~~
lorenzhs
I get that it’s fun to go down all the possible ways Intel’s statement could
be misinterpreted given how legal and marketing appear to have reduced it to a
mostly meaningless pile of words, but the “recommendations” section of the
page that is linked right after your quote contains a longer version: “ _We
recommend that OEMs, Cloud service providers, system manufacturers, software
vendors and end users stop deployment of current versions on the below
platforms, as they may introduce higher than expected reboots and other
unpredictable system behavior._ ” The “ _on_ the below platforms” bit seems to
contradict your reading...

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amluto
I saw some mention earlier of known-bad microcode updates. I assume that's
what's going on.

