Ubuntu Gets Faulty Patch

Ubuntu is a Linux distro that has in recent times found increasing acceptance as a serious Linux based desktop OS. With its popularity on the rise the number of bugs being discovered has also risen. This has resulted in a Microsoft-like situation where sometimes patches which are rushed out cause more trouble than the bug itself might have.

Such an incident took place last week when a botched update to the graphical X Window subsystem resulted in the X11 desktop not initializing and leaving people left only with Ubuntu’s command line interface. The update, which was made available to Ubuntu user early last week and was aimed to fix some hardware issues to the X Window software. Instead it backfired and left users without a GUI interface to work on.

The Ubuntu project which is managed by software and service firm Canonical went onto issue an apology.“When we learned of the problem, the patch was immediately withdrawn,” the group said in the mea culpa posted to its website. “Mirrors have also been disabled to ensure that the faulty patch isn’t available from them. We have launched an investigation and formal quality process review to understand exactly how this happened and what corrective actions to take.” They also posted instructions which allowed affected users to roll back the problematic update with a few commands.