Bug Squad and a lot of asks to update BIOS

[Brian Murray]

On Tue, Aug 20, 2013 at 06:07:52AM +0100, Phil Wyett wrote:
> On Mon, 2013-08-19 at 10:04 -0700, Brian Murray wrote:
> > On Mon, Aug 19, 2013 at 05:41:28AM +0100, Phil Wyett wrote:
> > > On Mon, 2013-08-12 at 11:51 -0700, Brian Murray wrote:
> > > > On Sun, Aug 11, 2013 at 06:37:10AM +0100, Phil Wyett wrote:
> > > > > On Sat, 2013-08-10 at 11:56 +0100, Dr. David Alan Gilbert wrote:
> > > > > > * Phil Wyett (one.ukit at gmail.com) wrote:
> > > > > > > Hi all,
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > Is it now policy with certain bugs, for the user to be asked to update
> > > > > > > their BIOS? It seems to happening a heck of a lot these days. With the
> > > > > > > inherent danger of BIOS updates and that Ubuntu (Linux for Human Beings)
> > > > > > > has users that are not that technically minded or would shy away from
> > > > > > > such an update - Should it being happening so often?
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Yeh I've had a few of those - and I agree it's dangerous.
> > > > > > There are bugs that might very well be fixed by a new BIOS,
> > > > > > but it does need some careful consideration.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Dave
> > > > > > 
> > > > > 
> > > > > Dangerous I agree and often a point of fear with users. It would be nice
> > > > > if people doing this on bug reports could add a note.
> > > > > 
> > > > > "Please do not feel pressured or required to perform the suggested BIOS
> > > > > update yourself if you are not comfortable with doing so. You may wish
> > > > > to consult a local I.T. professional, who can advise and possibly
> > > > > perform such an update for you in exchange for a fee."
> > > > > 
> > > > > Or something like that... :-)
> > > > 
> > > > That sounds like a good suggestion to me, what packages / bugs have seen
> > > > the comments to update your BIOS on?
> > > > 
> > > > Thanks! 
> > > > --
> > > > Brian Murray
> > > 
> > > There are so many instances it would be hard to name 1. My email for the
> > > 'ubuntu-bugs' list goes back to 2013-07-28 and there are > 300 instances
> > > of BIOS update requests to users if I do a search for the string "update
> > > is available for your BIOS".
> > 
> > The point of my question was to try and find out which team is
> > requesting that users update their BIOS so that you can communicate your
> > idea to them.
> > 
> > bdmurray at bizarro:/mnt/storage/mailing-lists/ubuntu-bugs$ mboxgrep -B
> > "update is available for your BIOS" 2013-08 | grep X-Launchpad-Bug: |
> > grep sourcepackage | grep "sourcepackage=linux" | wc -l
> > 206
> > 
> > bdmurray at bizarro:/mnt/storage/mailing-lists/ubuntu-bugs$ mboxgrep -B
> > "update is available for your BIOS" 2013-08 | grep X-Launchpad-Bug: |
> > grep sourcepackage | grep -v "sourcepackage=linux" | wc -l
> > 7
> > 
> > Just looking at the ubuntu-bugs mailing list archive for 2013-08 it
> > looks like these requests are overwhelmingly about the linux package, so
> > the kernel team or probably Joe Salisbury is the right person to whom to
> > speak.
> > 
> > --
> > Brian Murray
> > Ubuntu Bug Master
> > 
> 
> Yes, a look does show this is the case primarily. Looking at bugs and
> the reporting process. I am going to leave this for a week and see what
> comes out of:
> 
> https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/community-1308-quality-reporting-bugs
> 
> at next weeks vUDS.

This blueprint is about how bugs are reported and we have been
discussing how bugs are triaged so I think they are two different
issues.

--
Brian Murray
Ubuntu Bug Master