Update your CPU microcode on Arch Linux

February 10, 2018 10 minute read

Meltdown & spectre

With Meldown https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-5754, Spectre Variant 1 https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2017-5753 and Spectre Variant 2 https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2017-5753 out in the wild there is a lot of confusing going about updating microcode.

There is a “Spectre & Meltdown Checker” available at https://github.com/speed47/spectre-meltdown-checker

Usage is very easy just clone the git repository and run the script.

Microcode

Microcode isn’t uploaded to the CPU but loaded during the boot strap of the CPU. Normally the BIOS upload the microcode to the CPU but this can also be done by the by the bootloader, or the operating system kernel.

Bacula on FreeBSD (Part 3 storage setup)

December 27, 2017 3 minute read

I finally got the time to continue with my bacula backup setup. See my previous posts about the start of my bacula setup.

• bacula on freebsd_part 1
• bacula on freebsd part 2

Storage setup

I created a new zfs pool “bigpool” with some old harddisks I probably need to replace them with bigger harddisk in the further.

model-m tux update…

October 20, 2017 less than 1 minute read

I own a Unicomp model-m keyboard. The keyboard has a nice key feel but it has windows super key(s).

I don’t use super key(s), and would prefer to have a keyboard without it. But when it has super keys I’d rather have it without the windows logo on it so it was time to replace them with the tux version

Jenkins build with 20 Cores

September 30, 2017 less than 1 minute read

I finally got the time to try out my jenkins build on my new 20 Core Dual Processor Jenkins Build Workstation

I’m able to run all test on multiple operation systems now. I still need to review this setup and perhaps move some tests to docker instead of the virtual machines to save some memory. …but this jenkins setup was configured before docker was a thing.

Have fun

20 core Dual Processor jenkins build workstation

September 16, 2017 1 minute read

My jenkins builds are taking too long mainly due the lack of memory. I mainly use jenkins to verify that my software work on different operation systems (GNU/Linux distributions / *BSD / Solaris).

Looking for a solution that is still affordable I ended up with building a dual Xeon workstation. CPU and memory comes from www.ebay.be