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posted by cmn32480 on Tuesday December 26 2017, @08:06AM   Printer-friendly
from the things-that-make-your-laptop-go-BOOM dept.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/12/21/ubuntu_lenovo_bios/

Updated Canonical has halted downloads of Ubuntu Linux 17.10, aka Artful Aardvark, from its website after punters complained installing the open-source OS on laptops knackered the machines.

Specifically, the desktop flavor of Artful Aardvark, released in October, has been temporarily pulled – the server builds and other editions remain available. A corrected version of 17.10 for desktops is due to be released soon.

"The download of Ubuntu 17.10 is currently discouraged due to an issue on certain Lenovo laptops," the Linux distro maker noted this week on its desktop download page. "Once fixed this download will be enabled again."

Installing 17.10 on Lenovo Yoga and IdeaPad laptops prevents the motherboard's BIOS from saving its settings, and while the computer will hopefully continue to start up, it potentially stops the machine from booting via USB.

The cockup mainly affects Lenovo computers, although other systems may also fall foul: selected Acer, HP, Toshiba and Dell hardware are said to be hit, too.

A fault report on Canonical's bug tracker tells it all – apparently, Artful Aardvark's Linux kernel includes an Intel SPI driver that was not ready for release


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday December 26 2017, @07:05PM

    by bzipitidoo (4388) on Tuesday December 26 2017, @07:05PM (#614387) Journal

    Ubuntu shouldn't catch all the blame for this. Nor Lenovo. This is manufacturers once again putting anti-social, anti-consumer, anti-competitive measures ahead of reliability. I'd say this is mostly Intel's fault.

    Intel is not the worst, but they've been pulling more crap than usual lately. Their worst of the recent ones was that Intel Management Engine. The hyperthreading bug in the Skylake and Kaby Lake processors seems to be an honest bug and not a consequence of inserting unnecessarily hidden functionality. Remember the processor ID Intel added to the Pentium III? Still haven't learned one of the biggest lessons from that fiasco, which is not to bake in DRM, never add hostile functionality, it's at the least another area for bugs, and likely worse bugs that could be much more disabling and destructive. Instead many are still scheming for ways to slip it in. How about the infamous division bug in the first Pentiums, and Intel's idiotic handling that only made things worse?

    This is a huge bug, because it can brick the laptop. In the worst case, the motherboard has to be replaced.

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