Caveat: I am not from Ubuntu, Lenovo or Intel. So the below is just speculations and not fact.
There might be some good news for all the users experiencing this problem. The problem appears to be for laptops with the W25Q64FW flash chip from Winbound. https://www.winbond.com/resource-files/w25q64fw_revd_032513.pdf I have found something interesting in the Data Sheets for the W25Q64FW flash chip. "One Time Program (OTP) write protection for array and Security Registers using Status Register * * Note: This feature is available upon special order. Please contact Winbond for details." So, there might be a possibility that the OTP version of the chip is not in these laptops. And, thus, they will all be repairable in software. I.e. we fix it by setting the CMP bit correctly to zero. It might be worth asking Lenovo which version of the chip they use in their laptops. Because, if the OTP bits are not present, it will be far less risky trying to fix this problem we are having. Less risky, in the sense that we cannot make the situation worse. I would advise against anyone trying to fix the CMP bit themselves, because there are some "Write Once" security bits right next to them, that could result in irreversible damage requiring a motherboard swap. Once Lenovo confirm that their flash chips do not have the OTP bits, you can test correcting the CMP bit. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Kernel Packages, which is subscribed to linux in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1734147 Title: Ubuntu 17.10 corrupting BIOS - many LENOVO laptops models Status in Linux: Unknown Status in linux package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Status in linux-hwe-edge package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Status in linux-oem package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Status in linux source package in Xenial: Invalid Status in linux-hwe-edge source package in Xenial: Fix Released Status in linux-oem source package in Xenial: Fix Released Status in linux source package in Artful: Fix Released Status in linux-hwe-edge source package in Artful: Invalid Status in linux-oem source package in Artful: Invalid Status in linux package in openSUSE: New Bug description: SRU Justification Impact: Many users are reporting issues with bios corruption with 17.10. This seems to stem from enabling the intel-spi-* drivers in the kernel, which don't appear to be ready for use on end-user machines. Fix: Disable this driver. Test Case: Fix has been verified by our HWE team on affected hardware. Regression Potential: Minimal, it's unlikely anyone is actually doing anything which requires this driver. --- Hi all, Basically on Lenovo Y50-70 after installing Ubuntu 17.10, many users reported a corrupted BIOS. It's not possible to save new settings in BIOS anymore and after rebooting, the system starts with the old settings. Moreover (and most important) USB booting is not possible anymore since USB is not recognized. It's very serious, since our machines do not have a CDROM. Lenovo forums at the moment are full of topics regading this issue. Thank you!! #### UPDATE (22/12/2017) #### LENOVO machines affected so far (please add your affected model to this list): 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 The bug also affects: Acer Aspire E5-771G Acer Aspire ES1-111M-C1LE Acer TravelMate B113 Toshiba Satellite S55T-B5233 Toshiba Satellite L50-B-1R7 Toshiba Satellite S50-B-13G Dell Inspiron 15-3531 Bug may effect machines from any manufacturer that uses BIOS based on Insyde Software. Insyde is responding to emails acknowledging that they are aware of issue but are not providing details. --- Temporary workaround: https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Lenovo-P-Y-and-Z-series/Y50-70-BIOS-Can-t -Save-Settings-Or-Exit/m-p/3853208#M157885 --- result from apport-collect 1734147: --- Architecture: amd64 InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-10-22 (37 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 17.10 "Artful Aardvark" - Release amd64 (20171018) MachineType: LENOVO 20378 ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.13.0-17-generic root=UUID=7def04d3-7336-44b2-a084-2415f9dc2328 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.13.0-17.20-generic 4.13.8 RelatedPackageVersions: linux-restricted-modules-4.13.0-17-generic N/A linux-backports-modules-4.13.0-17-generic N/A linux-firmware 1.169 Tags: artful wayland-session Uname: Linux 4.13.0-17-generic x86_64 dmi.bios.date: 08/12/2015 dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO dmi.bios.version: 9ECN43WW(V3.03) dmi.board.name: Lenovo Y50-70 dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO dmi.board.version: 00000000Not Defined dmi.chassis.type: 10 dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO dmi.chassis.version: Lenovo Y50-70 dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvr9ECN43WW(V3.03):bd08/12/2015:svnLENOVO:pn20378:pvrLenovoY50-70:rvnLENOVO:rnLenovoY50-70:rvr00000000NotDefined:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrLenovoY50-70: dmi.product.family: IDEAPAD dmi.product.name: 20378 dmi.product.version: Lenovo Y50-70 dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO --- To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/linux/+bug/1734147/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages Post to : kernel-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
