BookwormPup 10.0.6 and the loading of ucode.cpio at boot up (solved)

[keniv]

I have two versions of 10.0.6, one on a USB drive made with Menu>Setup>Frugal Pup Installers>e4StickPup and the other is a manual frugal install on an ext4 partition on an hdd on a Toshiba L750 laptop. This hdd also contains Mint linux v21.3 on a separate partition. The version of grub in mint linux is used to boot BookwormPup 10.0.6. The boot stanza entered in /etc/grub.d/40_custom is

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menuentry "Puppy BookwormPup64 10.0.6 (64bit)1" {
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 992042c8-4945-4d12-82a8-e0fdb238d824
linux /1006BookwormPup64/vmlinuz pmedia=ataflash psubdir=/1006BookwormPup64 pfix=fsck
if [ -e /ucode.cpio ]; then
initrd /ucode.cpio /initrd.gz
else
initrd /1006BookwormPup64/initrd.gz
fi
}

This boots 10.0.6 from the hdd but does not seem to load ucode.cpio.
Below is the output of dmesg | grep microcode run in a terminal

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# dmesg | grep microcode
[    0.106503] MDS: Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode
[    0.130850] core: PEBS disabled due to CPU errata, please upgrade microcode
[    2.025790] microcode: sig=0x206a7, pf=0x10, revision=0x23
[    2.025805] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.2.

Which to me suggests the code is not loaded. However if I boot 10.0.6 from the USB stick I get this output from running dmesg | grep microcode in a terminal.

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# dmesg | grep microcode
[    0.000000] microcode: microcode updated early to revision 0x2f, date = 2019-02-17
[    2.043584] microcode: sig=0x206a7, pf=0x10, revision=0x2f
[    2.043594] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.2.

This suggests to me that this time the code has been loaded. Am I correct in my assumptions?
Bellow is the boot stanza used to boot 10.0.6 from the USB stick.

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menuentry "Puppy dpupbw64 10.0.6" {
  insmod ext2
  search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root e3090bcd-5960-4bda-969f-21da415b6b7e
  echo "Loading vmlinuz"
  linux /pups/BookwormPup64/vmlinuz net.ifnames=0 pmedia=usbflash pdrv=lin22b89056 psubdir=/pups/BookwormPup64 pfix=fsck,fsckp TZ=GMT0
  if [ -e /pups/BookwormPup64/local-initrd.gz ]; then
    set local_rd=/pups/BookwormPup64/local-initrd.gz
  else
    set local_rd=
  fi
  if [ -e /pups/BookwormPup64/ucode.cpio ]; then
    set ucode_rd=/pups/BookwormPup64/ucode.cpio
    echo "Loading ucode.cpio and initrd.gz"
  else
    set ucode_rd=
    echo "Loading initrd.gz"
  fi
  initrd $ucode_rd /pups/BookwormPup64/initrd.gz $local_rd
}
if [ $grub_platform = 'efi' ]; then
  menuentry "System BIOS setup" {
    fwsetup
  }
fi
]

The specs for the CPU on this machine are shown below.
Processor Name Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU B960 @ 2.20GHz
Signature Type 0, Family 6, Model 42, Stepping 7
External Clock 1333 MHz
BogoMips 4390.23
Min/Max Speed 800/2200 MHz
Current Speed Core 0:1360 MHz, 1:2041 MHz
Core Count 2
Thread Count 2
64-bit capable Yes
From this I'm guessing this code needs to be loaded.
One difference I've noticed is that in the USB stick version ucode.cpio is in the small boot partition formatted as fat32. In the frugal install on the hdd ucode.cpio is in the 1006BookwormPup64 folder with every thing else. I don't know if this has any relevance though.
Can anybody advise me as to what should be included in the boot stanza for the hdd install to ensure that ucode.cpio is installed at boot up? Is there any other way of confirming that ucode.cpio has been installed at boot up?

Regards,

Ken.

[one]

Hi @keniv,

you have to adjust the path in the statement:

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if [ -e /1006BookwormPup64/ucode.cpio ]; then
initrd /1006BookwormPup64/ucode.cpio /1006BookwormPup64/initrd.gz
else
initrd /1006BookwormPup64/initrd.gz
fi

in your /etc/grub.d/40_custom.

peace

[keniv]

Hello @one
Thanks for your reply. I've just tried adding the missing 1006BookwormPup64's and it now appears that ucode.cpio is loaded at boot up using the version of 10.0.6 I have on the hdd. Below is the output of running dmesg | grep microcode

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# dmesg | grep microcode
[    0.000000] microcode: microcode updated early to revision 0x2f, date = 2019-02-17
[    2.041355] microcode: sig=0x206a7, pf=0x10, revision=0x2f
[    2.041392] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.2.

I feel a bit embarrassed that I didn't notice what was missing from the boot stanza but at least I have learned something.

Thanks again for your help with this,

Ken.