HU: A bug from 17.10 that might affect us with 18.04-to-be...

[zika]

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...x/+bug/1734147

[uRock]

From the bug report.

SRU Justification

Impact: Many users are reporting issues with bios corruption with 17.10. This seems to stem from enabling the intel-spi-* drivers in the kernel, which don't appear to be ready for use on end-user machines.

Fix: Disable this driver.

Test Case: Fix has been verified by our HWE team on affected hardware.

Regression Potential: Minimal, it's unlikely anyone is actually doing anything which requires this driver.

---

[IanW]

I blame the laptop manufacturers for going off-standard with their BIOS/UEFI builds.

[uRock]

Lenovo is known for their colorful BIOS builds. https://thehackernews.com/2015/09/le...top-virus.html

[rrnbtter]

Greetings,

Lenovo is known for their colorful BIOS builds.

They are definitely building them.

sudo dmidecode -s bios-vendor
[sudo] password for rrnbtter:
LENOVO
rrnbtter@rrnbtter-110-15ISK:~$
After Investigating all of this I think I did the right thing to wipe Win10, set bios to legacy and Install my 17.10 (now 18.04 dev) without UEFI. That being said, I have yet to see my 110-15isk on the list. But it is a Lenovo Bios.

[1fallen]

Greetings,



They are definitely building them.

sudo dmidecode -s bios-vendor
[sudo] password for rrnbtter:
LENOVO
rrnbtter@rrnbtter-110-15ISK:~$
After Investigating all of this I think I did the right thing to wipe Win10, set bios to legacy and Install my 17.10 (now 18.04 dev) without UEFI. That being said, I have yet to see my 110-15isk on the list. But it is a Lenovo Bios.

+1 Same here.

sudo dmidecode -s bios-vendor
[sudo] password for me: 
AMI

And:

Machine:   Device: desktop System: HP product: 750-417c v: 1.01 serial: N/A
           Mobo: HP model: 828A v: 1.01 serial: N/A
           UEFI [Legacy]: AMI v: F.14 date: 09/19/2016

HP's aren't much better.
Try and install a Nvidia GPU card on one of these in UEFI with Windows 10.

[linuxyogi]

Hi, I am using Xubuntu 18.04. After reading all that I am feeling a bit nervous. How can I be sure this bug doesn't effect my hardware ?

 $ sudo dmidecode -s bios-vendor [sudo] password for mypc:  American Megatrends Inc.

I know I may be worrying for no reason but still needed to know I am safe.

[rrnbtter]

Greetings,
Are you dual booting Windows OS?
What kernel are you using, output of "uname -a".
If it is just a linux install, output of [ -d /sys/firmware/efi ] && echo "EFI boot on HDD" || echo "Legacy boot on HDD"
Just for starter's.

[linuxyogi]

Greetings,
Are you dual booting Windows OS?
What kernel are you using, output of "uname -a".
If it is just a linux install, output of [ -d /sys/firmware/efi ] && echo "EFI boot on HDD" || echo "Legacy boot on HDD"
Just for starter's.

No I am not dual booting Windows.

$ uname -a
Linux mypc 4.13.0-17-generic #20-Ubuntu SMP Mon Nov 6 10:04:08 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ [ -d /sys/firmware/efi ] && echo "EFI boot on HDD" || echo "Legacy boot on HDD"
EFI boot on HDD

[rrnbtter]

Greetings,
Not booting Windows = Good!
Kernel 4.13.0-21 has been released to fix this problem. It is in the "Proposed" repos.
If you are not booting Windows then a Legacy install is the safer option.

Note: It seems to me that much of this problem is due to bios tampering on behalf of the PC vendors. So the question as to whether you are at risk at all may be hard to determine. Lenovo has been the big culprit but the problem has been found elsewhere.

If it were me, I would backup /Home and set the bios to legacy and reinstall.