Comment 1 for bug 2061990

Additional context:

flash-kernel has several methods of "flashing" boot artifacts (bootloaders, kernel, initrd, etc.) on various boards. Flashing may actually mean flashing EEPROM (typically done via some other utility, in many cases mtd-utils -- mtd incidentally is "Memory Technology Device", often EEPROM), or may simply mean file-system copies (as in the raspi where most boot artifacts just sit on a FAT partition).

Hence, if mtd-utils fails the scenarios range from "everything still works fine" all the way down to "bricked board". Given the potential range of outcomes, that the tests (but only the tests) indicate something is wrong, and that we have no other means of determining the outcome, I would prefer an abundance of caution and to simply prevent flashing in the first place.

Additional mitigation:

This only affects images that have deb-based boot artifacts like a bootloader and kernel. Container images are not affected, nor are snap-based images. After contacting hardware enablement, and certification we can't find anyone actually producing an armhf image this cycle (for noble) that contains such artifacts.