Ever since I installed Ubuntu 17.10 bete on my Lenovo Thinkpad S540, there was a message on boot and reboot "Configuration changed - restart" and the laptop would reboot. I was still able to boot from USB though and even updated the BIOS from USB. But that didn't solve the problem. Also the latest kernel update did not solve problem.
After following the steps described in this post http://dailylinuxuser.com/2018/01/how-to-fix-your-bios-after-installing- ubuntu-17-10-on-a-lenovo-laptop.html this problem has been solved. 1.Boot into Ubuntu 2.Open a web browser and type the following into the address bar: http://people.canonical.com/~ypwong/lp1734147/linux- image-4.15.0-041500rc6-generic_4.15.0-041500rc6.201712312330+20170103+1_amd64.deb 3.Open a terminal window (press ctrl, alt and T at the same time) or click on activities and type term into the search bar and click the icon that appears. 4.Go to the downloads folder by typing the following command cd ~/Downloads 5.Type the following command to install the package: sudo dpkg -i linux- image-4.15.0-041500rc6-generic_4.15.0-041500rc6.201712312330+20170103+1_amd64.deb 6.If the command completes without error reboot your computer and choose the new kernel. To get the grub menu to appear try pressing and holding the shift key before the Ubuntu logo appears. If the Ubuntu logo appears reboot again and press the escape key before the Ubuntu logo appears. >From the grub menu choose the version of Ubuntu with the highest Kernel number. (which should be 4.15.0) 7.Reboot your computer and open your BIOS settings and check to see if you can boot from USB and save BIOS changes. If you can boot from USB and change BIOS settings then you have successfully repaired your computer and you can skip to the last point. 8.If this hasn’t worked reboot your computer and choose the new kernel. Reboot your computer again and choose the new kernel. Now reboot your computer and check your BIOS settings. If your BIOS can be amended and you can boot from USB then you have successfully repaired your computer and you can skip to the last point. 9.Still not working? Don’t panic, open a web browser and type the following into the address bar: http://people.canonical.com/~ypwong/lp1734147/linux-image-4.15.0-041500rc6-generic_4.15.0-041500rc6.201712312330+clear+debug_amd64.deb 10.Open a terminal window (press CTRL, ALT and T or click activities, type Term into the search bar and click the icon) 11.Go to the downloads folder by typing the following command cd ~/Downloads 12.Type the following command to install the package: sudo dpkg -i http://people.canonical.com/~ypwong/lp1734147/linux- image-4.15.0-041500rc6-generic_4.15.0-041500rc6.201712312330+clear+debug_amd64.deb 13.Wait for the package to install and if it is successful reboot your computer and press either the shift or escape key to bring up the grub menu and choose the new kernel that has appeared. 14.After Ubuntu loads reboot your computer and enter the BIOS settings. If you can change the settings and save them and you can boot from a USB drive then the issue is fixed. 15.Finally remove the packages you installed by typing the following command in a terminal window: sudo dpkg -r linux- image-4.15.0-041500rc6-generic -- 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: corrupted BIOS due to Intel SPI bug in kernel Status in Linux: Unknown Status in linux package in Ubuntu: Fix Released 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 Bug description: An update to linux kernel on Ubuntu 17.10 that enabled the Intel SPI drivers results in a serial flash that is read only in Intel Broadwell and Haswell machines with serial flashes with SPI_NOR_HAS_LOCK set. Symptoms: * BIOS settings cannot be saved * USB Boot impossible * EFI entries read-only. --- Fix: The issue was fixed in kernel version 4.13.0-21 by configuring the kernel so it is not compiled with Intel SPI support. But previous affected machines still suffered from a broken BIOS. Repair: If you still can boot into Ubuntu, you can recover your BIOS with the following steps: 1. Boot into Ubuntu 2. Download http://people.canonical.com/~ypwong/lp1734147/linux-image-4.15.0-041500rc6-generic_4.15.0-041500rc6.201712312330+20170103+1_amd64.deb 3. Install the downloaded package: $ sudo dpkg -i linux-image-4.15.0-041500rc6-generic_4.15.0-041500rc6.201712312330+20170103+1_amd64.deb 4. Make sure the kernel is installed without any error. Once installed, reboot. 5. At grub, choose the newly installed kernel. You can choose the "recovery" mode. 6. Reboot and go to BIOS settings to confirm your BIOS has been recovered. 7. In case your BIOS is not recovered, reboot to the new kernel, then reboot *once again* to the new kernel, do not enter BIOS settings before the reboot. After the second reboot, check BIOS. 8. If your BIOS issue remains, download another kernel from http://people.canonical.com/~ypwong/lp1734147/linux-image-4.15.0-041500rc6-generic_4.15.0-041500rc6.201712312330+clear+debug_amd64.deb, and use dpkg to install it, then repeat steps 4 to 6. After your BIOS is fixed, the kernel packages you just installed are no longer needed, you can remove it by running 'sudo dpkg -r linux- image-4.15.0-041500rc6-generic'. The patch used to build the linux v4.15 kernel in step 8 can be found at https://goo.gl/xUKJFR. --- 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. --- Affected Machines: 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 Yoga 3 11" Lenovo Z50-70 Lenovo Z51-70 Lenovo ideapad 100-15IBY Acer Aspire E5-771G Acer Aspire ES1-111M-C1LE (fixed following your new instruction (thank you)) Acer TravelMate B113 Acer Swift SF314-52 (Fixed by 4.14.9) Toshiba Satellite S55T-B5233 Toshiba Satellite L50-B-1R7 Toshiba Satellite S50-B-13G Dell Inspiron 15-3531 Mediacom Smartbook 14 Ultra M-SB14UC Acer Aspire E3-111-C0UM HP 14-r012la --- Affected serial flash devices by manufacturer part number, JEDEC ID (SPI_NOR_HAS_LOCK set in drivers/mtd/spi-nor/spi-nor.c) /* ESMT */ f25l32pa, 0x8c2016 f25l32qa, 0x8c4116 f25l64qa, 0x8c4117 /* GigaDevice */ gd25q16, 0xc84015 gd25q32, 0xc84016 gd25lq32, 0xc86016 gd25q64, 0xc84017 gd25lq64c, 0xc86017 gd25q128, 0xc84018 gd25q256, 0xc84019 /* Winbond */ w25q16dw, 0xef6015 w25q32dw, 0xef6016 w25q64dw, 0xef6017 w25q128fw, 0xef6018 --- Original Description: 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!! 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
