The thermal sensor on the wireless card is needed to ensure the wireless operates at the correct frequency. If the wireless is switched off then obviously it does not matter. I assume the patch breaks a loop in which the system is held until the thermal sensor indicates that the wireless has 'warmed up' and calibrated. The patch thus fixes the proximate cause of the lock-up problem but is no more than a patch for a more fundamental problem; if the wireless is switched off the system should not be attempting to load and set up wireless at all. (though this does raise the problem of how this should be done if the wireless is switched on after boot has completed.)
-- CPU soft lockup during bootup https://launchpad.net/bugs/63418 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
