Comment 460 for bug 1734147

On Thu, Jan 04, 2018 at 05:55:05PM -0000, Paul wrote:
> Hi, I've seen the solution that Anthony posted and I'm grateful, but I
> have a few questions.

> 1/ If it's as simple as updating/replacing the kernel, why hasn't this
> fix been rolled out as a system/software update?

A kernel has been rolled out as an update in artful-updates which no longer
triggers this issue. The kernel changes that enable on-line recovery of
affected systems are still being evaluated for their correctness, based in
part on feedback here in this bug; they also rely on keeping the spi driver
enabled in the kernel, which carries risk of misconfiguring systems of other
users who have not yet been affected.

The plan for addressing this bug is:

 - protect not-yet-affected users from installing the triggering kernel,
   through providing a fixed kernel in artful-updates and discouraging use
   of the existing 17.10 images (done)
 - provide updated 17.10 images for all flavors which include a fixed
   kernel.
 - provide kernel packages to affected users that enable online recovery
   where possible.
 - provide documentation to assist users who no longer have Ubuntu installed
   in recovering their system with the aid of a second computer.

> 3/ a/ Has the download been updated with a non-broken kernel? b/ This
> debacle has allowed a lot of system degradation to take place on my
> system to the point that I need to reinstall 17.10, this doesn't seem to
> be a possibility right now, or am I wrong?

I do not know what "system degradation" you refer to that would be related
to this bug and would warrant a reinstallation. If you need to reinstall
currently, the supported path is to install either Ubuntu 16.04 LTS or
Ubuntu 17.04 and upgrade.