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If you are excited about installing latest Ubuntu, and you have the latest 17.10 ISO with you, you should wait for their updated release. A kernel bug found in the latest Ubuntu release breaks BIOS settings in some machines. The bug was related to Intel-SPI drivers.
A list of identified machines that are affected by the bug are listed below.
LENOVO:
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- Lenovo B40-70
- Lenovo B50-70
- Lenovo B50-80
- Lenovo Flex-3
- Lenovo Flex-10
- Lenovo G40-30
- Lenovo G50-30
- Lenovo G50-70
- Lenovo G50-80
- Lenovo S20-30
- Lenovo U31-70
- Lenovo Y50-70
- Lenovo Y70-70
- Lenovo Yoga Thinkpad (20C0)
- Lenovo Yoga 2 11″ – 20332
- Lenovo Z50-70
- Lenovo Z51-70
- Lenovo ideapad 100-15IBY
ACER:
- Acer Aspire E5-771G
- Acer Aspire ES1-111M-C1LE
- Acer TravelMate B113
- Acer Swift SF314-52 (Fixed by 4.14.9)
- Acer Aspire E3-111-C0UM
TOSHIBA:
- Toshiba Satellite S55T-B5233
- Toshiba Satellite L50-B-1R7
- Toshiba Satellite S50-B-13G
DELL:
- Dell Inspiron 15-3531 (not fixed by 4.14.9)
HP:
- HP 14-r012la
MEDIACOM:
- Mediacom Smartbook 14 Ultra M-SB14UC
Those who already installed Ubuntu 17.10 and affected by the bug are now unable to change/update their BIOS settings or change boot order, some are even unable to exit from the BIOS settings. Some reports say even booting the Ubuntu 17.10 live OS is corrupting the BIOS. Lenovo community support is now flooded with related reports and expensive solutions like replacing mother board or chip are being suggested.
Kernel version 4.13.0-21 fixes the issue, but the affected machines will still have to wait for a proper solution.
Well, how do I fix my laptop?
A user found a workaround by manually replacing the contents of first boot device (which was for him antergos_grub) with rEFInd. But removing the first partition using rEFInd will brick your system and make it unusable.
If you can boot to Ubuntu, launchpad has a fix for you. Download and install linux-image and restart your system, if it didn’t work reboot twice and check BIOS settings again. If that also didn’t work, install this image and repeat the above steps. After fixing the BIOS the new kernel packages aren’t needed and you can uninstall them. Here is another solution given in AskUbuntu, which is similar to the launchpad one.
Solutions are only applicable to those who can access a booted Linux from their affected device, no proper software level solutions are available as of now. It’s recommended to contact your nearest corresponding authorized service center if you don’t want to take more risks.
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