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AMD Releases BIOS Fix To Motherboard Partners For Booting Newer Linux Distributions - Phoronix
AMD has just alerted us that they have released a BIOS fix to their motherboard partners that takes care of the issue around booting newer Linux distributions on the new Zen 2 processors.
Earlier this week I mentioned AMD would be working on a BIOS fix to address the fundamental problem with booting newer systemd-using Linux distributions on their new Ryzen 3000 series processors. However, I hadn't expected the fix to make it to motherboard vendors in less than one week!
RdRand issue looks like will be fixable by a BIOS update.
— Michael Larabel (@michaellarabel) July 8, 2019
The problem is the RdRand issue colliding with systemd that is making use of the RdRand instruction directly and not jiving with the expected behavior. There's been a patch in systemd since May but that hasn't been found in a released version yet. But for newer Linux distributions like Ubuntu 19.04, Clear Linux, Fedora Workstation 31, Arch Linux / Manjaro, and others, it's meant not being able to boot the distribution due to all systemd services failing to start.
[...] I just received the following official statement from AMD:
AMD has identified the root cause and implemented a BIOS fix for an issue impacting the ability to run certain Linux distributions and Destiny 2 on Ryzen 3000 processors. We have distributed an updated BIOS to our motherboard partners, and we expect consumers to have access to the new BIOS over the coming days.
Hopefully it won't take too long for motherboard vendors to release new BIOS updates.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Bot on Sunday July 14 2019, @08:16PM (5 children)
You are looking at the finger pointing at the moon.
We have an init system, whose work is to get the pc running fails in an unrecoverable way because of a hardware RNG related instruction is badly implemented.
Now, I KNOW why one would want to get some random values to init a VM, as vulnerabilities related to identical startup of VM had surfaced. But a notoriously and by design unpredictable init system being the only one to suffer from a RNG problem is QUITE funny.
To bots, at least.
To bots who don't rely on systemd, at least.
In totally unrelated news, the median boot time of systemd machines, having to incorporate quite a lot of t=plus infinity entries, is now deemed worse than everything on the planet including the ENIAC and the Isotta Fraschini started with the crank. Good work, lord poetty.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday July 14 2019, @08:47PM (4 children)
Ahhh, hmmm, not running your proper updater routines, bad little bot?
Made me LOL. Picking on the Isotta! I thought Lucas, Prince of Darkness, was the arch enemy of locomotion.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Monday July 15 2019, @02:57AM (3 children)
I think the distinction is that the Isotta would eventually start, while a properly-set-up Lucas Electric vehicle would never start.
+1 for the Isotta ref to the OP :-).
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday July 15 2019, @05:34AM (2 children)
So you're saying a vehicle with Lucas Electrics is the safest vehicle to own?
(Score: 2) by driverless on Monday July 15 2019, @06:23AM (1 child)
No, because the arcing electrics will set fire to the constantly-leaking oil and burn up everyone inside the car.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday July 15 2019, @12:03PM
But this is part of the Darwinian system. Genetic self-cleansing, no?