I have noticed that Arch and Manjaro have both Intel and AMD U-Codes installed by default . I am just curious why ?
I also wonder if it would be wise to just uninstall which ever U-Code does not match the users current CPU brand. Any benefits in doing this ?
The files are very small so it’s not a big deal if you keep them both. I removed the intel-ucode since I use AMD, no problems or benefits seen here.
Just be careful if you are running via Virtual Machine. I recall having an issue by deleting one or the other.
Absolutely not.
If, for example, (on an Intel cpu system), ‘AMDGPU’ is in the modules line of mkinitcpio.conf and you remove amd-ucode you will be left with an unbootable system.
(Found out after transferring a drive from an AMD to an Intel machine. Initially all was fine… until I decided to ‘tidy up’.)
Ok I see , and thanks for the info.
I am running a AMD 9700X and a nvidia GPU so I saw no need for a Intel U-Code . So being the adventurous type I uninstalled it , then immediately updated grub , then rebooted. It worked just fine .
Looking at the file size for the Intel-ucode it is over 200mb . The way I see it that’s 200mb of space doing nothing on my disk drive .
correction the intel-ucode file size is 28mb my mistake
Downstream distributions based on Arch using Calamares installer, similar to Manjaro, provide both microcode as means to support both types OOB.
Doing an Arch installation implies you are doing it by hand - and in such case you decide what microcode you add - based on your system.
Please see the Microcode - ArchWiki article.
You can safely remove the one not matching your system - just make sure the init rebuilds correct - otherwise run
sudo mkinitcpio -P
With a virtual machine there is no need for microcode, they can safely be removed from the guest; make sure the initramfs rebuilds correct.
//EDIT:
The same can be said for the - Manjaro specific - linux-firmware-meta package as it provides firmware you may never need.
A similar reasoning - possibly sizes as well - is likely why upstream Arch now package the linux-firmware into separate packages.
https://archlinux.org/news/linux-firmware-2025061312fe085f-5-upgrade-requires-manual-intervention/
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