kernel 4.4.0-109 problem

[oldwierdal]

I have a relatively old r.y.o desktop computer which I built in 2008 with an MSI mother board, and an amd 5000 athlon dual-core processor, and Linux's former nemesis Nvidia. I'm behind a router which is fairly secure, and I always keep my machine up to date. I run on Linux Mint 17.3, and my current kernel is 4.4.0-98, which is the latest one that I can see in my Update Manager.
I've been concerned about the latest threat, the meltdown/spectre bug, and I haven't seen anything from Linux Mint specifically regarding this. But I do confess, I don't hang out on the LM Forums as much now as I have in years past. I saw a post by Clem advising that the 4.4.0-109 kernel was the "patched" kernel for Linux Mint 17.3. Although it does NOT show up in Update Manager, I see that it is available via Synaptic. So, yesterday, I installed the kernel 4.4.0-109, and much to my surprise, my machine will not boot completely. It "hangs" and complains that it can't find /dev/sda1! That's odd! Kernel 4.4.0-98 works just fine. So, I did ; uglybox al # apt-get remove --purge linux-image-4.4.0-109 linux-headers-4.4.0-109, and re-installed it via command line, instead of using Synaptic. No help! Again, it almost boots, but "hangs" and complains that it can't find /dev/sda1!
This rather wordy narrative brings me to three questions;
1. Why isn't kernel 4.4.0-109 available via Update Manager?
2. Is there another "patched" kernel recommended for Linux Mint 17.3 which addresses the meltdown/spectre issue?
3. Although it has been some time since I rolled my own kernel from Kernel.org, I'm sure that I could manage that, if that is recommended as the best defence against the current threat.
I would be very interested in suggestions about this.
Thanks,
owa

[Pjotr]

In Mint 17.x, use the latest kernel from the 3.13 series instead. Currently, if I remember correctly, at -139. Also patched against Meltdown.

[oldwierdal]

Hey, thanks, Pjotr! That was fast! I will do that right now.

owa