Canonical has replaced the 17.10 ISO download button with a notice stating 'The download of Ubuntu 17.10 is currently discouraged due to an issue on certain Lenovo laptops. Once fixed this download will be enabled again'.
It looks like Ubuntu kernels since 4.13.0-19.22 and mainline kernel builds since v4.14-rc2 are affected as they are compiled with 'CONFIG_SPI_INTEL_SPI_PCI=m' which enables the Intel SPI serial flash controller and which comes with the ominous warning 'Say N here unless you know what you are doing. Overwriting the SPI flash may render the system unbootable.'
Currently Canonical are respinning the affected Ubuntu kernels with a patch to disable this setting and will no doubt respin the 17.10 ISOs that include the 4.13.0.19.22 kernel with likely the replacement (fixed) kernel of Ubuntu-4.13.0-21.24. They are also respinning the affected Ubuntu HWE kernels so that they work with 16.04 etc. At this stage it is unclear whether they will respin the mainline kernel builds and it is most probable they won't.
So if you are a Lenovo user I recommend you check the bug report and if you are about to try or install Linux using 'isorespin.sh' I would recommend you only respin a new Ubuntu/Ubuntu flavoured 17.10 ISO once available from Canonical and that if you are upgrading the kernel regardless of distro you only use a newly respun Ubuntu kernel of 4.13.0-21.24 or greater as they become available which is downloaded and installed as a package from Canonical sources.
Whilst the issue has been reported as affecting Lenovo users there is a similar report from a Dell user. If in doubt the best advice at this stage would be to avoid any kernel compiled with 'CONFIG_SPI_INTEL_SPI_PCI' set.
Please donate if you find my work useful using the following link http://goo.gl/nXWSGf.
It looks like Ubuntu kernels since 4.13.0-19.22 and mainline kernel builds since v4.14-rc2 are affected as they are compiled with 'CONFIG_SPI_INTEL_SPI_PCI=m' which enables the Intel SPI serial flash controller and which comes with the ominous warning 'Say N here unless you know what you are doing. Overwriting the SPI flash may render the system unbootable.'
Currently Canonical are respinning the affected Ubuntu kernels with a patch to disable this setting and will no doubt respin the 17.10 ISOs that include the 4.13.0.19.22 kernel with likely the replacement (fixed) kernel of Ubuntu-4.13.0-21.24. They are also respinning the affected Ubuntu HWE kernels so that they work with 16.04 etc. At this stage it is unclear whether they will respin the mainline kernel builds and it is most probable they won't.
So if you are a Lenovo user I recommend you check the bug report and if you are about to try or install Linux using 'isorespin.sh' I would recommend you only respin a new Ubuntu/Ubuntu flavoured 17.10 ISO once available from Canonical and that if you are upgrading the kernel regardless of distro you only use a newly respun Ubuntu kernel of 4.13.0-21.24 or greater as they become available which is downloaded and installed as a package from Canonical sources.
Whilst the issue has been reported as affecting Lenovo users there is a similar report from a Dell user. If in doubt the best advice at this stage would be to avoid any kernel compiled with 'CONFIG_SPI_INTEL_SPI_PCI' set.
Please donate if you find my work useful using the following link http://goo.gl/nXWSGf.