Comment 20 for bug 1273060

@Chistopher, thanks, the problem is now that my A15 bios can't even enter setup mode or boot anything, so I'm not sure how to try flash the most recent A16 version from (released just a month ago)? Searched the laptop's manual, and no indication of any jumpers to clear/reset NVRAM :-(

I agree and understand that firmware should be written in a way that doesn't allow the nvram boot option changes to cause it to lock up. Still, this kind of bug (even if attributed to firmware and not Linux) is occurring across at least two manufactures (Fujitsu and now Dell) whereby their 'buggy' firmware sees whatever changes ubuntu/Linux made to the NVRAM as NVRAM corruption and fail to even allow entering setup.

Given changing NVRAM bios settings during an install or update (as was my case) is high risk, perhaps the install process should at least issue a warning and allow the user to opt out of of clearing and changing NVRAM settings (and potentially trigger a nasty firmware bug). I think it would in some cases be safer for a user to manually go into the BIOS setup and manage the boot options from within the BIOS.