Users of the Ubuntu are also reporting issues with the patches aimed at mitigating the Meltdown and Spectre CPU exploits, with some systems having boot-up issues after installation.
Earlier this week, Microsoft had to temporarily pause the rollout of select security updates to AMD systems due to boot-up issues arising from incompatibilities with the security patches released following the Meltdown and Spectre revelations.
Now, it seems Microsoft’s operating system may not be the only one experiencing issues due to the flurry of patches aimed at addressing these vulnerabilities. Posts on the Ubuntu forums, along with reports on the Launchpad bug tracker, indicate users are suffering from boot-up issues.
The issues seem to arise after users upgrade from kernel image 4.4.0-104 to 4.4.0-108. The update was aimed at mitigating Meltdown, though it seems to have also had the unfortunate consequence of preventing many from booting up their device. Subsequent updates in images 4.4.0-109 and 4.4.0-109.114 aim to fix the problems but reportedly don’t seem to work for all users.
For those still experiencing difficulties in starting up their devices, the only fix seems to be reverting back to kernel image 4.4.0-104, though that also means having to lose the Meltdown and Spectre protections included in the update.
The issues with Windows updates were found to be exclusive to AMD systems as a result of the company providing incomplete and/or inaccurate information to Microsoft. However, the issues with Ubuntu updates seem to focus on Intel hardware, with users reporting AMD CPUs to not be affected.
Security bulletins from Canonical suggest the new updates included some regressions that are to blame.
Source: Launchpad via OnMSFT
