Very serious kernel+Intel SPI driver bug...

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BigEasy
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Re: Very serious kernel+Intel SPI driver bug...

Post by BigEasy »

Did I understood correctly that whole Lenovo was unable to make some little fix for their firmware? And whole ubuntu kernel required to remove BIOS chip write protection?
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Appoloin
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Re: Very serious kernel+Intel SPI driver bug...

Post by Appoloin »

BigEasy wrote:Did I understood correctly that whole Lenovo was unable to make some little fix for their firmware? And whole ubuntu kernel required to remove BIOS chip write protection?

This isn't Lenovo's fault, Lenovo bought this firmware from Insyde, it's Insyde that must be held responsible for the fix. The fact this is a third party hardware is why we are now seeing reports from Dell, Toshiba, Acer, and Mediacom users, I'll be surprised if there's not more.
BigEasy
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Re: Very serious kernel+Intel SPI driver bug...

Post by BigEasy »

Yes. But not only firmware non Lenovo's. Also a CPU from Intel, HDD probably from Seagate Technology, etc. Just curious, what Lenovo doing else and responsible for what? May be they only glues their label on the case. :roll: If so, then no other questions.
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Appoloin
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Re: Very serious kernel+Intel SPI driver bug...

Post by Appoloin »

BigEasy wrote:Yes. But not only firmware non Lenovo's. Also a CPU from Intel, HDD probably from Seagate Technology, etc. Just curious, what Lenovo doing else and responsible for what? May be they only glues their label on the case. :roll: If so, then no other questions.

That's more or less what Lenovo now does. When what is now called Lenovo was owned by IBM they could manufacturer an entire computer using they own components.

When Intel screwed up the floating point in the first pentium, Intel had pay for the recall. When Sony batteries went bad Sony had pay for the recall. In these examples the recall is paid for by Intel and Sony and Lenovo would do the customer contact.
JeremyB
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Re: Very serious kernel+Intel SPI driver bug...

Post by JeremyB »

I think there is a lot more to this than what we are being told. On the Lenovo forums, the person that started the thread from back in March says they have a problem saving UEFI settings and never mentions Linux at all. https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/forums/v3_ ... -id/154203
There is even a link on the Ubuntu bug report to a kernel.org bug that had been fixed. One person on the Mint IRC said his Lenovo was bricked in March and that was before 17.10 and I don't know if they had the problem 4.11 rc1 kernel. Some people including the one on IRC claimed this bricked their computer which might mean the UEFI register had limited writes because others claim they were able to switch to a different kernel and have no more issues, including one from a friend of mine on Ubuntu Forums https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php ... st13724690
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raketti
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Re: Very serious kernel+Intel SPI driver bug...

Post by raketti »

I was able to fix my BIOS write protection issue with the following steps (if anyone has the same issue for some reason):
  • 1. Install Ukuu

    Code: Select all

        sudo apt-add-repository -y ppa:teejee2008/ppa
        sudo apt-get update
        sudo apt-get install ukuu
    2. Select the kernel 4.14.9 and select Install. wait for the installation to be completed and then restart the PC.
    3. Restart the system with the latest kernel
    4. From GRUB select the option which starts with "Advanced options".
    5. Select Linux 4.14.9-generic. wait for the system to load completely.
    6. Restart again and go into the BIOS
Since UKUU isn't very reliable and it pulls the main line kernels from the Ubuntu upstream repository and don't include any patches, I suggest that once the issue is fixed, boot to the previous kernel that was in use. Remove 4.14 and the ppa. Just follow these steps:
  • 1. Remove the kernel using UKUU
    2. remove UKUU:

    Code: Select all

    sudo apt purge ukuu
    3. install ppa-purge:

    Code: Select all

    sudo apt-get install ppa-purge
    4. Remove the PPA, downgrading gracefully packages it provided to packages provided by official repositories:

    Code: Select all

    sudo ppa-purge ppa:teejee2008/ppa
Lucap
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Re: Very serious kernel+Intel SPI driver bug...

Post by Lucap »

Ubuntu 17.10 To Be Re-Released Next Week

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page= ... -Next-Week

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubunt ... 04263.html
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