The recent summary of Kernel 4.15 mentioned the test for ‘compliant’ versions of GCC which fully support the retpoline mitigation, but only gave an example of non-compliance: With GCC 7.2: ~]$ cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/spectre_v2 Vulnerable: Minimal generic ASM retpoline I re-created Fedora (Rawhide) GCC 7.3.1 for Fedora 27, and it gives the following, after Kernel 4.15 compilation/boot: ~]$ … Continue reading →
Kernel 4.15 is – finally – released, and an overview of changes since -rc9 is here: http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1801.3/02794.html The latest NVIDIA drivers – 384.111 and 390.12 – compile and load OK, and VMware 14.1.1 is also OK. It is worth mentioning that , although the final release was delayed due to more work on PTI mitigation etc, this … Continue reading →
After a lot of patience(!) I now have a much-hacked version of Gentoo running on the HP RX2600, and have just updated the kernel to 4.15-rc9: ……………… [ OK ] Reached target Multi-User System. [ OK ] Reached target Graphical Interface. This is rgia64.unknown_domain (Linux ia64 4.15.0-rc9) 19:42:44 root@rgia64 ~ # uname -a Linux rgia64 4.15.0-rc9 #1 … Continue reading →
As expected, there is a new release of VMware – 14.1.1 – and brief details are here: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Workstation-Pro/14/rn/workstation-1411-release-notes.html This version compiles and loads OK with the latest 4.15-rc kernel – tested with 4.15-rc7, and no longer needs the vmmon series of patches. Robert Gadsdon. January 10, 2018.
Continue reading →Kernel 4.15-rc7 is out, and (brief) details of changes since -rc6 are here: http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1801.0/04858.html. The preamble is worth a read, as it pays tribute to the work done on the x86 PTI fixes.. Vmmon-patched VMware 14.1.0 is OK (see: https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules/tree/workstation-14.1.0 ) and the latest NVIDIA drivers – 384.111 and 390.12 are both still OK. As mentioned, in … Continue reading →
Thanks to zezaocapoeia, for spotting the newly released NVIDIA Beta driver 390.12 ( see http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/128743/en-us ) There is also a new version of the ‘long lived branch’ series – 384.111. I have tested these with Kernel 4.14.12-rc1 and 4.15-rc6, and they both compile and load/run OK. In this case, NVIDIA has fixed their GPL error with recent … Continue reading →
I had previously tested Kernel 4.14.11-rc1 with the 4.14.9+-patched NVIDIA driver 384.98, and that was OK: ………………….. ld -r -o /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.98-41410/kernel/nvidia-modeset/nv-modeset-interface.o /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.98-41410/kernel/nvidia-modeset/nvidia-modeset-linux.o Building modules, stage 2. MODPOST 4 modules CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.98-41410/kernel/nvidia-drm.mod.o LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.98-41410/kernel/nvidia-drm.ko CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.98-41410/kernel/nvidia-modeset.mod.o LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.98-41410/kernel/nvidia-modeset.ko CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.98-41410/kernel/nvidia-uvm.mod.o LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.98-41410/kernel/nvidia-uvm.ko CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.98-41410/kernel/nvidia.mod.o LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.98-41410/kernel/nvidia.ko make[2]: Leaving directory ‘/usr/src/linux-4.14.11-rc1’ make[1]: Leaving directory ‘/usr/src/linux-4.14.11-rc1’ … Continue reading →
Apparently, there has been a major security defect discovered in Intel CPUs, and full details have been embargoed until early-January, but there is a comprehensive article in The Register, here: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/02/intel_cpu_design_flaw/ The Linux Kernel devs have been working to provide a workaround, as – apparently – there is no other practical solution: https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/12/4/709 The article does hint … Continue reading →
Just tried the ‘stable-review’ patch for the ‘stable’ Kernel – 4.14.11-rc1, and the same NVIDIA problem is there, and it seems the kernel devs won’t do anything: http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1712.3/02608.html So – it seems the patch is now a permanent requirement for all subsequent 4.14 releases.. (see https://rglinuxtech.com/?p=2168 ).. And… It seems the unwritten rule of ‘don’t break stuff … Continue reading →
Just updated the test system to Kernel 4.14.10, and was ‘somewhat dismayed‘ – to put it politely – that the NVIDIA breakage introduced in 4.14.9 is still there! ………… /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.98/kernel/nvidia-uvm/uvm8_va_block.c: In function ‘block_cpu_fault_locked’: /usr/src/linux-4.14.10/arch/x86/include/asm/processor.h:826:39: error: implicit declaration of function ‘task_stack_page’; did you mean ‘task_stack_vm_area’? [-Werror=implicit-function-declaration] unsigned long __ptr = (unsigned long)task_stack_page(task); \ ^ /usr/src/linux-4.14.10/arch/x86/include/asm/processor.h:900:26: note: in expansion … Continue reading →