Users of the popular Ubuntu Linux recently found themselves in some hot water after deploying a software patch to fix some hardware issues with the X Window software. The patch was faulty, and resulted in users receiving a broken graphical X Window subsystem. This meant that many users of the OS had to tackle the command line for the first time. The Ubuntu forums quickly received some 700 posts from affected users.
"When we learned of the problem, the patch was immediately withdrawn," the group said in the mea culpa posted to its website.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."
Instructions were issued which showed users how to roll the patch back, undoing the damage that it had caused. It is not clear how many people in total were affected. Whilst some users have reported only having problems for a few minutes before they were able to resolve the issue, others seem to have been turned off of the popular Linux distro as a result.
"Overall, this was an eight hour exercise, eight hours that I could afford to take out of my day, but how many others have that luxury?" wrote a forum member with the handle "Dale61". "I'm wondering how many others, particularly those in business, are still trying to find a solution to a problem that should never have happened in the first place."