Spectre v2 mitigation RETBleed error.

[meo]

Im experiencing this. I seems to be a harware (CPU) issue that's patched in later linux kernels. Here comes a quote:

"Mitigations for RETBleed were patched into the Linux kernel at 5.18.14. Linux Lite uses 5.15. Honestly, it's not something the average user ought to worry about that much, but if your processor is affected, mitigations are available in all kernels 5.18 or newer."

So that seems to be the my problem with DSL in a nutshell. I have compiled a lot of kernels before, some time ago, would like to know what kernel I should aim for.

// meo

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That explains why I've had problems with both DSL and antiX 23. The linux kernels in them aren't patched for this problem while most linux distros (yes, I am a "distro-junkie") work right off the bat. I might just give it a shot to compile a new kernel for DSL 2024 since I really like it.

// meo

[grindstone]

I'm brand new here and don't want to speak out of turn, but thinking you might best address on the upstream forum?  Looks like they beat it up some over there (on both old and new forums):
https://www.antixforum.com/?s=spectre&id=97141

[meo]

I'm brand new here and don't want to speak out of turn, but thinking you might best address on the upstream forum?  Looks like they beat it up some over there (on both old and new forums):
https://www.antixforum.com/?s=spectre&id=97141

Thanks grindstone! You might be quite right about this problem. Have just booted DSL on VMware with the actual boot code. Let's see what happens!

// meo

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Sadly it didn't even install with the boot code suggested in the antiX forum. One way or another it'll be resolved surely.

// meo

[grindstone]

Which one -- adding this to the grub line? spectre_v2=retpoline

[meo]

Actually I put it both in the boot prompt and in the grub file. But the error message shows up just the same. It has been addressed also in the VMware site and it seems that you can avoid this making a change in the advanced settings but that is just in the Pro version (with a cost from 150$-200$) witch MIGHT solve the error. A little expensive for something that might fix this issue, don't you think?


// meo

[grindstone]

Yeah, sorry. Well, OK, so what you need is either another machine or a kind soul with the Antix23 toolchain installed to build you a 5.18+ kernel & set of modules with the Antix kconfig for i486 smp blah blah. Then, you have to remaster an iso (but that at least you can do on whatever you still run). Can you get any 12.1/bookworm kernels to boot? I know kernel 6.1 (LTS) supports i486 and maybe 6.2, but that may have been the end for 32-bit kernels (?). Sorry, been away from this depth for too long to be of assistance. I think you have to solve this by swimming upstream to where the toolchain and the gcc build flags (-march=) match--and I don't know that stuff yet. Start at Antix and go to Debian if you have to. It'll be some reading and some work. Applaud your persistence and diligence.