I just noticed when going back through the releases that 17.10 was released as usual, but then 17.10.1 was subsequently released. This is not normal - the standard release cycle only has point releases for LTS versions (e.g. 14.04, 16.04, 18.04).
Why was this unusual point release made?
Shortly after release, reports were received of a bug in UEFI firmware of laptops from Lenovo, Acer, and Toshiba which corrupted the BIOS and made the machine unbootable.
In late December the download links of Ubuntu 17.10 were removed from the website. Shortly after, a fixed version of Ubuntu was released as a point release - Ubuntu 17.10.1.
The issue was due to a bug in the Intel Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) kernel module.
The Q&A Does Ubuntu 17.10 break the BIOS? may also be of interest.
My pronouns are He / Him
