Firmware

Void provides a number of firmware packages in the repositories. Some firmware is only available if you have enabled the nonfree repository.

Microcode

Microcode is loaded onto the CPU or GPU at boot by the BIOS, but can be replaced later by the OS itself. An update to microcode can allow a CPU's or GPU's behavior to be modified to work around certain yet to be discovered bugs, without the need to replace the hardware.

Intel

Install the Intel microcode package, intel-ucode. This package is in the nonfree repo, which has to be enabled. After installing this package, it is necessary to regenerate your initramfs. For subsequent updates, the microcode will be added to the initramfs automatically.

AMD

Install the AMD package, linux-firmware-amd, which contains microcode for both AMD CPUs and GPUs. AMD CPUs and GPUs will automatically load the microcode, no further configuration required.

Verification

The /proc/cpuinfo file has some information under microcode that can be used to verify the microcode update.

Removing firmware

By default, linuxX.Y packages and the base-system package install a number of firmware packages. It is not necessary to remove unused firmware packages, but if you wish to do so, you can configure XBPS to ignore those packages, then remove them.