Here is an interim update. I was reviewing the error logs after the recent latest up date to 17.02.
My last frozen session did not have the processor freeze messages. Instead, I noticed that as I forced a reboot there was an SMBUS error stuck on the screen. I further recalled in the 17.02 patch notes something about legacy Linux support fixes.
After verifying that that the system boot logs did indeed contain an SMBus initialization error. I looked for a way to avoid trying to stand up that device.
On the hypothesis that there is a regression caused by recent changes to Windows I have applied an old fix from 2013 for this from: https://whitehatty.com/2012/09/30/vmware-fusion-5-fix-ubuntu-linux-12-04-host-smbus-controller-not-e...
So far so good. I will update after a few more days of not having a system freeze.
How to fix it:
sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
- add the line:
