Bug Squad and a lot of asks to update BIOS

[Phil Wyett]

On Tue, 2013-08-20 at 08:25 -0700, Brian Murray wrote:
> 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.
> 

At the present time I am treating these as the same. The whole process
of reporting bugs as in

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs

has been polluted by person(s) doing bug triage with a whole bunch of
'do this' and 'do not do that' before you even get to the point of
actually finding out how to report a bug. Paragraph 2 is a good example
of this and will no doubt intimidate many non technical users when
confronted and asked to update BIOS, firmware etcetera on devices even
before getting to the stage of just reporting their issue at hand.

Regards

Phil


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