intel-microcode 3.20200609.0ubuntu0.20.04.0 update crashes computer. Unable to boot [closed]

Solution 1:

I've got the exact same laptop and had encountered the exact same problem starting 6 hours ago!

Here's my work-around also captured in that Launchpad bug you quoted in your comment....

1. I went here: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/intel-microcode to check what version of intel-microcode to downgrade to. Basically I wanted the previous one that had no issues.

2. I used an ubuntu-live-usb to chroot into my yoga 710-11ISK laptop (intel m3-6Y30)

3. sudo apt-get purge --auto-remove intel-microcode
   

4. sudo apt install -y intel-microcode=3.20191115.1ubuntu3
   

   That's the version from point 1 above

5. I was unable to update-initramfs for some reason while in chroot I noticed that ~1/7 reboots into recovery would work; don't know why. But I found out the hard way trying to figure out what the heck had gone wrong banging my head reboot after reboot! Anyway once in recovery mode I...

   sudo update-initramfs -u
   

6. I rebooted and logged-in multiple times to ensure problem is gone. Including from powered-off state. Awesome!

7. Ubuntu's package management will want to install the newest cr@p intel-microcode (I swear I'm getting AMD next time)...

   sudo apt-mark hold intel-microcode
   

That holds the package from upgrading until the microcode is fixed. I don't think Ubuntu can fix this, it will have to be Intel.

I hear Lenovo are now selling Ubuntu certified AMD laptops!... hmmm

Solution 2:

The bug report contains workarounds if you are hit by the problem. Essentially, you can boot into recovery mode and remove intel-microcode.

See Paulo's comment, which I based my workaround on. Hope it helps, but I would in any case recommend to read through the whole bug report if better solutions are added.

Disclaimer: Please note that this is not intended as a permanent fix. The downside is that you loose Intel's microcode updates. But at least, you can boot the system again. Hopefully, it gets fixed on upstream. Then it should be safe to reinstall intel-microcode again.

As it is an upstream problem, you can also follow the upstream bug report on the Intel repository.

Update: A fix has been released for all Ubuntu versions.

Side-note: I still have to fallback to an older Kernel (5.4.0-33-generic), otherwise, networking on my notebook (ThinkPad X1 Carbon 4th) is broken and it will also fail to detect external monitors. It turned out to be an unrelated bug. Manually installing linux-modules-extra for 5.4.0-37 solved some of the issues. At least, networking is then back again.

Solution 3:

Hopefully this will be useful for anyone trying to boot.

I am having issue booting with a m3-6y30 machine having this update.

First, I was not able to boot even in recovery mode. What worked for me is adding dis_ucode_ldr to the kernel command.

Advanced Options → press E for the option you want to run → add dis_ucode_ldr to the end of the line starting with linux.

After that I was able to boot and probably will install an older version as described above.