June 2025
Beginner to intermediate
1180 pages
37h 48m
English
Usually, Linux package management takes care of keeping up to date all the software installed as packages. However, there is a special case that is outside the scope of this update mechanism: sometimes it happens that the BIOS or EFI of the motherboard has to be updated, or the firmware of the CPU, or a Wi-Fi adapter. There are usually security problems that are fixed in this way.
Intel was hit particularly hard recently. Almost all CPUs produced until 2019 have contained several massive security gaps at once (Spectre, Meltdown, etc.). When such hardware-related errors are fixed, a variable code area within a CPU (the microcode) is often updated. This is taken care of by the kernel, which transfers a suitable ...
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