Ucode-intel as unneeded

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1

Recently, appeared to me ucode-intel as unneeded.

zypper pa --unneeded
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
S  | Repository            | Name        | Version      | Arch
---+-----------------------+-------------+--------------+-------
i  | Main Repository (OSS) | ucode-intel | 20250812-2.1 | x86_64

I’m not sure to let it go or keep it? Haven’t had any issue with this or graphics for years.

zypper rm -u *ucode-intel*
Reading installed packages...
Resolving package dependencies...

The following package is going to be REMOVED:
  ucode-intel

1 package to remove.

Package install size change:
              |         0 B    required by packages that will be installed
   -14.5 MiB  |  -   14.5 MiB  released by packages that will be removed

Backend:  classic_rpmtrans
Continue? [y/n/v/...? shows all options] (y):

Operating System: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20250923
KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.18.0
Qt Version: 6.9.2
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 8 × Intel® Core™ i7-10700 CPU @ 2.90GHz
Graphics Processor: Intel® UHD Graphics 630 [Integrated]
2

This package is not required by any other package. That is why it is labeled as “unneeded”. It contains microcode updates for your CPU (see package description). So you should definitely keep it if you care about basic security of your system.

2 Likes
3

@woozy it depends, could be handled by fwupd now, I have some systems that install it some that don’t eg Intel CoffeeLake-S GT2 [UHD Graphics 630] + i5-10500T CPU no ucode-intel installed, Intel CometLake-S GT2 [UHD Graphics 630] + i7-8700 CPU ucode-intel is installed…

Ref: https://github.com/intel/Intel-Linux-Processor-Microcode-Data-Files

1 Like
4

Thanks for clarifications sirs. I’m keeping it more likely.

1 Like
5 
bor@tw:~> LANG=C zypper info --supplements ucode-intel
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...


Information for package ucode-intel:
...
Supplements    : [2]
    namespace:modalias(cpu:type%3Ax86*ven0000*)
    namespace:modalias(x86cpu:vendor%3A0000%3Afamily%3A*%3Amodel%3A*%3Afeature%3A*)

bor@tw:~> cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/uevent
DRIVER=processor
MODALIAS=cpu:type:x86,ven0000fam0006mod003D:feature:,0000,0001,0002,0003,0004,0005,0006,0007,0008,0009,000B,000C,000D,000E,000F,0010,0011,0013,0017,0018,0019,001A,001B,002B,0034,003A,003B,003D,006B,006F,0070,0072,0074,0075,0076,0079,007F,0080,0081,0085,0089,008C,008D,008F,0091,0093,0094,0095,0096,0097,0098,0099,009A,009B,009C,009D,009E,009F,00C0,00C5,00C8,00E1,00EB,00ED,00F0,00F1,00F3,00F6,00F9,00FA,00FB,00FD,00FF,0100,0101,0102,0103,0111,0115,0120,0121,0123,0124,0125,0127,0128,0129,012A,012B,012D,0132,0133,0134,0140,0165,016C,016E,017B,01AC,01AE,01AF,01B8,01C2,01F9,0202,024A,025A,025B,025C,025D,025F,0282

bor@tw:~>

To my best knowledge zypper should consider Supplements when computing unneeded packages. It is possible that it misses namespace dependencies. If your CPU MODALIAS matches ucode-intel Supplements you may consider bug report.