12.04 - Failed to load amd64-ucode/microcode_amd_fam16h - Cannot resolve

**bddenhartog** · November 8th, 2013

On boot, I receive the something similar to the following message (above 4 lines of "kvm disabled by BIOS", but that's a separate issue):

Failed to load amd64-ucode/microcode_amd_fam16h

After some searching, I've discovered that this isn't too uncommon of an issue - other people have encountered it, and others yet have posted solutions.

Here is what I have unsuccessfully tried:

1. Running the following commands in Terminal:

Code:

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install amd64-microcode

Here's the output:

Code:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Package amd64-microcode is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source


E: Package 'amd64-microcode' has no installation candidate

2. I've also tried running amd64-microcode_1.20120910-3_amd64.deb from archive.ubuntu.com following the instructions on this page.

It doesn't work, I get the following error during installation:

Code:

Unpacking amd64-microcode (from .../amd64-microcode_1.20120910-3_amd64.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /home/bd/Downloads/amd64-microcode_1.20120910-3_amd64.deb (--install):
 trying to overwrite '/lib/firmware/amd-ucode/microcode_amd_fam15h.bin', which is also in package linux-firmware 1.79.7
dpkg-deb (subprocess): data: internal gzip write error: Broken pipe
dpkg-deb: error: subprocess <decompress> returned error exit status 2

----

$ dmesg | grep microcode outputs:

Code:

[    9.948007] microcode: CPU0: patch_level=0x07000106
[   10.129570] microcode: failed to load file amd-ucode/microcode_amd_fam16h.bin
[   10.129601] microcode: CPU1: patch_level=0x07000106
[   10.129617] microcode: CPU2: patch_level=0x07000106
[   10.129631] microcode: CPU3: patch_level=0x07000106
[   10.129732] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.00 <tigran@aivazian.fsnet.co.uk>, Peter Oruba

----

Does anyone know how to fix this?

Thank you in advance.

**bddenhartog** · November 8th, 2013

Updated with output from dmesg | grep microcode

**bddenhartog** · November 10th, 2013

Bump, because I would love to see other people's input on this issue.

**Linuxisfast** · November 11th, 2013

If you have updated to latest kernel stack for Ubuntu LTS, remove the ppa as the microcode is included.

**bddenhartog** · November 14th, 2013

Originally Posted by Linuxisfast

If you have updated to latest kernel stack for Ubuntu LTS, remove the ppa as the microcode is included.

How do I tell if I'm running the latest kernel stack?

dpkg -s linux-headers-$(uname -r) outputs:

Code:

Package: linux-headers-3.8.0-33-generic
Status: install ok installed
Priority: optional
Section: devel
Installed-Size: 11735
Maintainer: Ubuntu Kernel Team <kernel-team@lists.ubuntu.com>
Architecture: amd64
Source: linux-lts-raring
Version: 3.8.0-33.48~precise1
Provides: linux-headers, linux-headers-3.0
Depends: linux-headers-3.8.0-33, libc6 (>= 2.14)
Description: Linux kernel headers for version 3.8.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
 This package provides kernel header files for version 3.8.0 on
 64 bit x86 SMP.
 .
 This is for sites that want the latest kernel headers.  Please read
 /usr/share/doc/linux-headers-3.8.0-33/debian.README.gz for details.

dpkg -l | grep headers outputs:

Code:

ii  linux-generic-lts-raring                    3.8.0.33.33                             Generic Linux kernel image and headers
ii  linux-headers-3.8.0-29                      3.8.0-29.42~precise1                    Header files related to Linux kernel version 3.8.0
ii  linux-headers-3.8.0-29-generic              3.8.0-29.42~precise1                    Linux kernel headers for version 3.8.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii  linux-headers-3.8.0-32                      3.8.0-32.47~precise1                    Header files related to Linux kernel version 3.8.0
ii  linux-headers-3.8.0-32-generic              3.8.0-32.47~precise1                    Linux kernel headers for version 3.8.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii  linux-headers-3.8.0-33                      3.8.0-33.48~precise1                    Header files related to Linux kernel version 3.8.0
ii  linux-headers-3.8.0-33-generic              3.8.0-33.48~precise1                    Linux kernel headers for version 3.8.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii  linux-headers-generic-lts-raring            3.8.0.33.33                             Generic Linux kernel headers

Maybe I don't fully understand what a PPA does, but from what I do understand all it would do is alert me when something I have installed needs to be updated (when I run sudo apt-get update). Refer to what dmesg | grep microcode outputs in my first post. That, to me, says that I'm missing the microcode package for 16h family amd64 processors.

I still don't have a resolution for this issue, as I cannot find any source online that will allow me to install the 16h family microcode binary.