Intel-Linux-Processor-Microcode-Data-Files VS nonguix

https://github.com/intel/Intel-Linux-Processor-Microcode-Data-Files/blob/main/releasenote.md looks like they released a new microcode (24000024) affecting these units on Feb 14th this year.

Package: intel-microcode Version: 3.20221108.1 Priority: optional Section: non-free/admin Maintainer: Henrique de Moraes Holschuh Installed-Size: 6460 kB Depends: iucode-tool (>= 1.0) Recommends: initramfs-tools (>= 0.113~) Conflicts: microcode.ctl (<< 0.18~0) Homepage: https://github.com/intel/Intel-Linux-Processor-Microcode-Data-Files Tag: hardware::TODO, role::app-data, use::driver Download-Size: 4509 kB APT-Sources: http://deb.debian.org/debian testing/non-free amd64 Packages Description: Processor microcode firmware for Intel CPUs

They have been sort of cracked, but it doesn't matter. The web or chain of trust of those updates from the vendor to the processor is what matters. They're at least CRC checked to prevent loading corrupt files.

https://ieeeaccess.ieee.org/featured-articles/reverseenginee...

https://github.com/intel/Intel-Linux-Processor-Microcode-Dat...

https://github.com/platomav/CPUMicrocodes

Not to “well aktchually”, but all modern processors do have regularly updated microcode that’s uploaded at boot time - https://github.com/intel/Intel-Linux-Processor-Microcode-Data-Files

6-94-3 would become 6-5E-3. https://github.com/intel/Intel-Linux-Processor-Microcode-Data-Files/blob/6c0c4691e5bb446e0e428ebca595164709c59586/intel-ucode/06-5e-03

OpenBSD kernel has no support for loading microcode on AMD CPUs, A number of issues/errata on AMD systems may be fixed as part of AGESA updates, in addition to microcode as part of BIOS/firmware updates. While there have been microcode updates released for Zen+ or newer CPUs, but these seem to be less frequent than Intel.

Is it anymore of a "magic incantation" than the linux-image-XYZ package which controls which OS kernel is installed?

If you want to see when Intel issues new microcode updates, it is all available on their GitHub: https://github.com/intel/Intel-Linux-Processor-Microcode-Dat...

Their software freedom policy seems to be similar to Debian. All free by default, allow separate nonfree addon. In the case of Guix you can find that here: https://gitlab.com/nonguix/nonguix .

The GUIX community has a non-free package repo, you just add it as a GUIX channel and problem solved:

https://gitlab.com/nonguix/nonguix

Yes, being a GNU project Guix has a strict free software only policy. The biggest channel (repo) with proprietary stuff for Guix is called nonguix. It has the vanilla kernel, Nvidia drivers and a number of other proprietary packages including Steam, Chrome and the like. I don't know what the state of ZFS on Guix is though as I don't care for it myself, but I can see why its inclusion would be questioned with regards to licensing.

Since Guix is a GNU project, it doesn't support proprietary software (Steam, Discord, Zoom...). Third-party repos are available for it.

There's a git lab repo for non-free/libre software that you can add as a channel when installing. I used the following guide that shows you how to do this.

I'm trying to enable substitues for nonguix. I added the code snippet from the nonguix website to my system.scm file per the instructions. When I try to reconfigure I get the following error: