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Starting from Blancco Mobile Device Eraser Diagnostics and Erasure version 3.7.2 there will introduce be two different kernel versions in the software to provide better hardware support for a variety of Nvidia GPUs and Coffeelake based Intel processors.

By default, the older version of the kernel will be used. Newer The newer kernel should be used if there is an issue booting with the older kernel (especially with Nvidia GPUs and Coffeelake based processors).

In order to change the kernel version in use, please follow the below steps:

  1. During the Grub boot menu, press "e" to edit the booting parameters.
  2. Locate line starting with "linux /isolinux/vmlinuz".
  3. Edit the line and add "_latest" (without quotation marks) after "linux /isolinux/vmlinuz".
  4. Continue the booting process by pressing F10 key.

We couldnt get all NVidia GPU's and Coffeelakes to work with old kernel, nor could we make all the old PC's to work with new kernel. Thus 3.7.2 is going out with two different kernel version. By default the old version is used.

 

To change from old to new, bootmenu editor needs to be opened when booted by hitting 'e'. Then the opened grubconfig needs to modified so that line 'linux /isolinux/vmlinuz' needs to changed to 'linux /isolinux/vmlinuz_latest'. Once BMDE boots up Once Blancco Mobile Diagnostics and Erasure boots, it will check if the grubconfig grub config has been changed and will modify the one in harddisk and change the kernelconfig available on the local hard drive, so this modification only needs to be done one time. Updates etc, will pick the running kernel version and modify grubmenu if needed so not even then should manual modifications be needed.

 

This is hopefully only temporary solution until usbcreator can start picking up the grubconfig from our ISO so we can have the new kernel appearing as menuitem by default.

 

With the new kernel there is most probably going to be bunch of questions with misbehaving HW.  What we have seen so far...

1) usbconnectivity does not work on some machines. This is fixed by adding 'iommu=pt' or 'iommu=soft' to kernel parameters in bootmenu

...

once. When updating the Mobile Device Eraser to a newer version, software should be able to identify the kernel in use so there shouldn't be a need to modify the grub config after the version update either.


Note! There might be misbehaving hardware with the new kernel version. The known issues are currently being investigated and the support will be improved with upcoming releases. The currently known issues are listed below:

  • USB connectivity doesn't work.
    • This can be fixed by adding "iommu=pt" or "iommu=soft" to kernel parameters in bootmenu.
    • Entry can be added in the booting parameters at the end of the line starting with "linux /isolinux/vmlinuz...".
  • Issues with certain Nvidia GPUs when using opensource Nvidia drivers.
    • This can be fixed by adding "modprobe.blacklist=nouveau" to kernel parameters in bootmenu.
    • Entry can be added at the end of the line starting with "linux /isolinux/vmlinuz...".