[gentoo-amd64] Microcode-ctl Problems

[Frank Peters]

After failing to receive any kind of answer from various sources, including
the developers themselves, I though that I would bring up the issue here.

Does the microcode_ctl utility work on the x86_64 processor, and in particular
the Core 2 quad?  If so, then how can it be successfully implemented?

To those who may not know, microcode_ctl is described at this link:
http://www.urbanmyth.org/microcode

My kernel is compiled to include microcode support and the proper device
(i.e. /dev/cpu/microcode) is in place.  But every time I load the microcode
module, using the command "modprobe microcode," the module takes about
three minutes to be loaded which seems quite abnormal.  Then, executing
"microcode_ctl -f microcode.dat" will report that the new firmware has
been loaded when actually it is not loaded.  Executing the same command
a second time, which should report that the new firmware is already loaded,
only again reports that new firmware has been loaded.  This behavior
indicates that something is very wrong.

Microcode_ctl is available for Gentoo AMD64 and there are no indications
anywhere that it does _not_ work on a 64-bit system.  What needs to
be done to get it to load the new firmware and why does the module
take three minutes to load?

Microcode_ctl is far from being a popular or even essential utility
but someone must have some knowledge of its function.  I recall that
it used to work nicely on a 32-bit machine but since I switched to pure
64-bit I can no longer use it.

Frank Peters