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Recently patched Ubuntu needs another quick patch

Last week's Ubuntu 18.04 security fixes inadvertently caused problems for some users. Canonical has just released a new patch to fix these regressions.
Written by Steven Vaughan-Nichols, Senior Contributing Editor

Sometimes when I fix things around my house I end up causing more problems. Software developers are the same way. Last week, Canonical's Ubuntu developers fixed over 10 security bugs in Ubuntu 18.04… But, as it turned out, it introduced at least two other bugs.

Also: Ubuntu 18.04 needs patching

The Ubuntu security team admitted: "USN-3871-1 fixed vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. Unfortunately, that update introduced regressions with docking station displays and mounting ext4 file systems with the meta_bg option enabled. "

These aren't show-stopping bugs for most of us, but if you're one of the people they hit, you'd feel differently. So, it behooves you to patch the patch sooner rather than later.

The patch replaces the troubled linux-image 4.15.0-44.47 with the fixed linux-image 4.15.0-45.48 kernel.

Also: Inside Ubuntu's financials

Besides Ubuntu 18.04, this bug can impact Ubuntu variants as  Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and Lubuntu. They could also pop up on Linux distros, such as Mint 19 and Mint 19.1, which are built on top of Ubuntu 18.04


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To patch an Ubuntu desktop, run Update Manager. Once up, check for new updates and press the 'Install Updates' button to upgrade the selected packages to their updated version on your PC. On a server without a GUI, run the following commands from the shell:

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Then, after installing the patches, reboot the system to make sure the changes are all put in place.

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