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About a week ago, I installed various system updates, including a package called intel-microcode. After rebooting, I discovered that I was unable to get past the login screen (i.e. I would login and then immediately be taken back to the login screen).

This had actually also happened a few weeks prior, and it turned out to be my older graphics drivers not playing nicely with Intel's/Canonical's Meltdown/Spectre mitigation updates. Updating the drivers in that case fixed the problem.

However, now my system is completely up-to-date and I haven't received any package updates to fix the issue in several days. I am running kernel 4.13.0-32-generic and the intel-microcode package is version 3.20180108.0+really20170707ubuntu16.04.1.

Is there an update coming soon? Or is there a way for me to revert the package back to a version that lets me login to my computer?

Robie Basak
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AUD_FOR_IUV
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  • What is the problem now? Boot loop or login loop? Why do you think it is about Intel's microcode? – mikewhatever Jan 28 '18 at 19:51
  • It's a login loop (sorry if my terminology was inaccurate). My belief that it's intel's microcode stems from the earlier issue I had related to the graphics drivers interacting poorly with spectre/meltdown mitigations patches. Also, intel-microcode was the only noteworthy package I remembered upgrading before the looping began. – AUD_FOR_IUV Jan 28 '18 at 19:54
  • Alright, first, the last Intel microcode update was a revert to the previous version because of known problems, second, those known problems did not include login loops. Lastly, whenever Intel release new microcode, it is updated in Ubuntu, but we do not know if or when Intel is ready to release. ...login loops are usually due to problems with the user profile. – mikewhatever Jan 28 '18 at 20:14
  • I find it suspicious that this isn't caused in some way by an Intel/Canonical patch related to meltdown/spectre, given the timing. That said, is there anything I can do to fix this (e.g. reverting to an earlier version of some other package or something)? – AUD_FOR_IUV Jan 28 '18 at 20:53
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    If you think it's the microcode & you can boot up to a tty (ctrl+alt+F3) then go to the tty, login & remove it ( sudo apt purge intel-microcode ), then reboot & see – doug Jan 28 '18 at 21:44
  • So is the microcode not necessary for my computer to function in this case? I've been afraid to try that because I didn't think it was possible to safely remove it. – AUD_FOR_IUV Jan 29 '18 at 05:32
  • Can you login to the guest session? – Fabby Jan 29 '18 at 21:58
  • The first time this happened (the graphics drivers problem) I couldn't. I'm not at that computer right now but I will check once I get back to it. I'm guessing not though. – AUD_FOR_IUV Jan 29 '18 at 23:36
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    So it turns out that the problem was indeed not with the microcode but with my graphics drivers, as uninstalling them eliminated the problem. I'm not sure why this was the case, as I was running the latest version (of I think 370?). Anyway, thanks for the help everyone! – AUD_FOR_IUV Jan 30 '18 at 04:50
  • I got this problem, with the login loop, today. I uninstalled the amd-gpu-pro driver, which made it work, but as I now don't have a proper driver, I can't use my two screens. Anyone else affected by this? – Gustav Feb 04 '18 at 20:25

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