Beyond Linux From Scratch/postlfs_config_firmware — English @ LFS Translation Server: To get the firmware, either point a browser to one …

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To get the firmware, either point a browser to one of the above repositories and then download the item(s) which you need.  If you want all these firmware files (for example you are distributing the system onto multiple hardware systems), install <xref linkend="git"/> and clone <ulink url='&linux-firmware-git;'/>, or open this URL in a browser and download the latest snapshot listed in the <literal>Tag</literal> table.

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	https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git
	About Firmware
	/lib/firmware
	On some recent PCs it can be necessary, or desirable, to load firmware to make them work at their best. There is a directory, <filename class="directory">/lib/firmware</filename>, where the kernel or kernel drivers look for firmware images.
	Currently, most firmware can be found at a <userinput>git</userinput> repository which can be viewed in the browser with the URL <ulink url="&linux-firmware-git;/plain"/>. For convenience, the LFS Project has created a mirror, updated daily, where these firmware files can be accessed via <userinput>wget</userinput> or a web browser at <ulink url="&sources-anduin-http;/linux-firmware/"/>.
	To get the firmware, either point a browser to one of the above repositories and then download the item(s) which you need. If you want all these firmware files (for example you are distributing the system onto multiple hardware systems), install <xref linkend="git"/> and clone <ulink url='&linux-firmware-git;'/>, or open this URL in a browser and download the latest snapshot listed in the <literal>Tag</literal> table.
	For some other firmware, particularly for Intel microcode and certain wifi devices, the needed firmware is not available in the above repository. Some of this will be addressed below, but a search of the Internet for needed firmware is sometimes necessary.
	Firmware files are conventionally referred to as blobs because you cannot determine what they will do. Note that firmware is distributed under various different licenses which do not permit disassembly or reverse-engineering.
	Firmware for PCs falls into four categories:
	Updates to the CPU to work around errata, usually referred to as microcode.
	Firmware for video controllers. On x86 machines this is required for ATI devices (Radeon and AMDGPU chips) and may be useful for Intel (Skylake and later) and Nvidia (Kepler and later) GPUs.
	ATI Radeon and AMDGPU devices all require firmware to be able to use KMS (kernel modesetting - the preferred option) as well as for Xorg. For old radeon chips (before the R600), the firmware is still in the kernel source.
	Intel integrated GPUs from Skylake onwards can use firmware for GuC (the Graphics microcontroller), and also for the HuC (HEVC/H265 microcontroller which offloads to the GPU) and the DMC (Display Microcontroller) to provide additional low-power states. The GuC and HuC have had a chequered history in the kernel and updated firmware may be disabled by default, depending on your kernel version. Further details may be found at <ulink url="https://01.org/linuxgraphics/downloads/firmware/">01.org</ulink> and <ulink url="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/intel_graphics">Arch linux</ulink>.
	Nvidia GPUs from Kepler onwards require signed firmware, otherwise the nouveau driver is unable to provide hardware acceleration. Nvidia has now released firmware up to Ampere (GeForce30 series) to linux-firmware. Note that faster clocks than the default are not enabled by the released firmware.
	Firmware updates for wired network ports. Most of them work even without the updates, but they will probably work better with the updated firmware. For some modern laptops, firmware for both wired ethernet (e.g. rtl_nic) and also for bluetooth devices (e.g. qca) is <emphasis>required</emphasis> before the wired network can be used.
	Firmware for other devices, such as wireless NICs. These devices are not required for the PC to boot, but need the firmware before these devices can be used.
	Although not needed to load a firmware blob, the following tools may be useful for determining, obtaining, or preparing the needed firmware in order to load it into the system: <xref linkend="cpio"/>, <xref linkend="git"/>, <xref linkend="pciutils"/>, and <xref linkend="wget"/>
	Microcode updates for CPUs
	In general, microcode can be loaded by the BIOS or UEFI, and it might be updated by upgrading to a newer version of those. On linux, you can also load the microcode from the kernel if you are using an AMD family 10h or later processor (first introduced late 2007), or an Intel processor from 1998 and later (Pentium4, Core, etc), if updated microcode has been released. These updates only last until the machine is powered off, so they need to be applied on every boot.
	Intel provide updates of their microcode for Skylake and later processors as new vulnerabilities come to light, and have in the past provided updates for processors from SandyBridge onwards, although those are no-longer supported for new fixes. New versions of AMD firmware are rare and usually only apply to a few models, although motherboard manufacturers get AGESA (AMD Generic Encapsulated Software Architecture) updates to change BIOS values, e.g. to support more memory variants, new vulnerability fixes or newer CPUs.
	There were two ways of loading the microcode, described as 'early' and 'late'. Early loading happens before userspace has been started, late loading happens after userspace has started. However, late loading is known to be problematic and not supported anymore (see the kernel commit <ulink url="https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=d23d33e"> x86/microcode: Taint and warn on late loading</ulink>.) Indeed, early loading is needed to work around one particular erratum in early Intel Haswell processors which had TSX enabled. (See <ulink url= "https://www.anandtech.com/show/8376/intel-disables-tsx-instructions-erratum-found-in-haswell-haswelleep-broadwelly/"> Intel Disables TSX Instructions: Erratum Found in Haswell, Haswell-E/EP, Broadwell-Y</ulink>.) Without this update glibc can do the wrong thing in uncommon situations.

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type: Content of: <sect1><para>

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blfs-en/postlfs/config/firmware.xml:36

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