Scheduled Maintenance: We are aware of an issue with Google, AOL, and Yahoo services as email providers which are blocking new registrations. We are trying to fix the issue and we have several internal and external support tickets in process to resolve the issue. Please see: viewtopic.php?t=158230

 

 

 

iucode-tool not found

Ask for help with issues regarding the Installations of the Debian O/S.
Post Reply
Message
Author
nmm1
Posts: 8
Joined: 2020-06-17 10:59

iucode-tool not found

#1 Post by nmm1 »

Questions:
1) apt is not finding iucode-tool, for no reason I can discover, and I need it.
2) X fails with /dev/dri/card0.

Full description:

I am trying to install Debian 10.4 on HP Pavilion (64-bit), and X is not starting (no /dev/dri/card0). One possibility is that it needs the package intel-microcode, but that won't install because it says iucode-tool is not available. However, my repositories are an extension of those on my AMD desktop (running the same system), where 'apt -a show iucode-tool' says (inter alia):

APT-Sources: http://deb.debian.org/debian buster/contrib amd64 Packages

But, in the Pavilion, /etc/apt/sources.list contains (inter alia):

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster main contrib non-free buster-backports

While I could download it on my desktop, and copy it across, I get twitchy around microcode, because a mistake can easily brick a system - and copying a microcode updater from AMD to Intel (even if both are 64-bit) is definitely risky. And, of course, it might not be the lack of intel-microcode, anyway - it may be because the system is too new for Debian (its WiFi certainly is, because it needs intel/ibt-19-32-0.sfi). How do I get iucode-tool safely?

Any other suggestions on how to resolve the X windowing problem gratefully received. I have already uninstalled xserver-xorg-video-intel and reinstalled the X components, as recommended here:

https://wiki.debian.org/GraphicsCard

LE_746F6D617A7A69
Posts: 932
Joined: 2020-05-03 14:16
Has thanked: 7 times
Been thanked: 65 times

Re: iucode-tool not found

#2 Post by LE_746F6D617A7A69 »

nmm1 wrote:While I could download it on my desktop, and copy it across, I get twitchy around microcode, because a mistake can easily brick a system - and copying a microcode updater from AMD to Intel (even if both are 64-bit) is definitely risky.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64

Basically, AMD have created the 64bit ISA around year 2000, and Intel (among others) have adopted this specification.
Debian uses 'amd64' in packages built for 64bit architecture -> iucode-tool is an Intel tool, not AMD.
Bill Gates: "(...) In my case, I went to the garbage cans at the Computer Science Center and I fished out listings of their operating system."
The_full_story and Nothing_have_changed

nmm1
Posts: 8
Joined: 2020-06-17 10:59

Re: iucode-tool not found

#3 Post by nmm1 »

Thanks very much. Yes, I knew that, but microcode interfaces are often 'funny' - I haven't had to dabble with them in decades, but they always used to be dependent on the actual chipset. Hence my twitchiness. Thanks for the information that it's an Intel tool, which makes me happier.

I have partially resolved the problem. I found the instructions on using backports, corrected the error in my sources.list and installed iucode-tool and intel-microcode directly from buster-backports - they're not something I have used before. Why it's not in the main distribution, I don't know. But it doesn't help. I will start a new topic for that.

LE_746F6D617A7A69
Posts: 932
Joined: 2020-05-03 14:16
Has thanked: 7 times
Been thanked: 65 times

Re: iucode-tool not found

#4 Post by LE_746F6D617A7A69 »

nmm1 wrote:Why it's not in the main distribution, I don't know. But it doesn't help. I will start a new topic for that.
Instead of starting a new thread, you should become familiar with the Debian basics:
https://www.debian.org/distrib/packages

;)
Bill Gates: "(...) In my case, I went to the garbage cans at the Computer Science Center and I fished out listings of their operating system."
The_full_story and Nothing_have_changed

User avatar
RU55EL
Posts: 546
Joined: 2014-04-07 03:42
Location: /home/russel

Re: iucode-tool not found

#5 Post by RU55EL »

nmm1 wrote:I have partially resolved the problem. I found the instructions on using backports, corrected the error in my sources.list and installed iucode-tool and intel-microcode directly from buster-backports - they're not something I have used before. Why it's not in the main distribution, I don't know.
iucode-tool is in contrib:

Code: Select all

$ apt show iucode-tool
Package: iucode-tool
Version: 2.3.1-1
Priority: optional
Section: contrib/utils
Maintainer: Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@debian.org>
Installed-Size: 114 kB
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.14)
Recommends: intel-microcode (>= 1)
Homepage: https://gitlab.com/iucode-tool
Download-Size: 62.4 kB
APT-Manual-Installed: no
APT-Sources: http://mirror.keystealth.org/debian buster/contrib amd64 Packages
Description: Intel processor microcode tool
 iucode_tool is a program to manipulate Intel® X86 and X86-64 processor
 microcode collections, and to use the kernel facilities to upgrade the
 microcode on Intel system processors.
 .
 It can load microcode data files in text and binary format, sort, list and
 filter the microcodes contained in these files, write selected microcodes to a
 new file in binary format, or upload them to the kernel.
 .
 It operates on non-free microcode data downloaded directly from Intel or
 installed by the intel-microcode package.
And intel-microcode is in non-free:

Code: Select all

$ apt show intel-microcode
Package: intel-microcode
Version: 3.20200609.2~deb10u1
Priority: extra
Section: non-free/admin
Maintainer: Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@debian.org>
Installed-Size: 3,074 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
Download-Size: 2,547 kB
APT-Manual-Installed: no
APT-Sources: http://security.debian.org buster/updates/non-free amd64 Packages
Description: Processor microcode firmware for Intel CPUs
 This package contains updated system processor microcode for
 Intel i686 and Intel X86-64 processors.  Intel releases microcode
 updates to correct processor behavior as documented in the
 respective processor specification updates.
 .
 For AMD processors, please refer to the amd64-microcode package.

N: There is 1 additional record. Please use the '-a' switch to see it
main consists of DFSG-compliant packages, which do not rely on software outside this area to operate. These are the only packages considered part of the Debian distribution.

contrib packages contain DFSG-compliant software, but have dependencies not in main (possibly packaged for Debian in non-free).

non-free contains software that does not comply with the DFSG.
Everyone using Debian should read every word of Debian Wiki: sources.list

[edit] DFSG = Debian Free Software Guidelines [/edit]

nmm1
Posts: 8
Joined: 2020-06-17 10:59

Re: iucode-tool not found

#6 Post by nmm1 »

LE_746F6D617A7A69 wrote:Instead of starting a new thread, you should become familiar with the Debian basics:
I suggest that you stop being so childish. Exactly why a package should be visible on one Debian 10.4 AMD64 system and not another is still beyond me.

I finally found a Web page for a similar (but not identical problem) to my X windows failure, and have got it going. It turns out that I need a kernel that is available only in the backports - which now introduces some new problems, but that's another story.

LE_746F6D617A7A69
Posts: 932
Joined: 2020-05-03 14:16
Has thanked: 7 times
Been thanked: 65 times

Re: iucode-tool not found

#7 Post by LE_746F6D617A7A69 »

nmm1 wrote:Exactly why a package should be visible on one Debian 10.4 AMD64 system and not another is still beyond me.
The most probable explanation is that Your sources.list didn't included the contrib repository, which basically means that one of Your systems was configured to enable "non-free" repositories, while the other was not.

As for being childish, I suggest that You should re-read Your own responses, like this:
nmm1 wrote:While I could download it on my desktop, and copy it across, I get twitchy around microcode, because a mistake can easily brick a system - and copying a microcode updater from AMD to Intel (even if both are 64-bit) is definitely risky.
LE_746F6D617A7A69 wrote:Basically, AMD have created the 64bit ISA around year 2000, and Intel (among others) have adopted this specification.
Debian uses 'amd64' in packages built for 64bit architecture -> iucode-tool is an Intel tool, not AMD.
nmm1 wrote:Thanks very much. Yes, I knew that, but microcode interfaces are often 'funny' - I haven't had to dabble with them in decades, but they always used to be dependent on the actual chipset. Hence my twitchiness. Thanks for the information that it's an Intel tool, which makes me happier.
Apparently You know everything, but only just after You've got a link with an explanation of the problem.
FYI: iucode stands for Intel Micro Code, but of course You knew that too ... :lol:
Bill Gates: "(...) In my case, I went to the garbage cans at the Computer Science Center and I fished out listings of their operating system."
The_full_story and Nothing_have_changed

Post Reply