Update broke my system

Ask Fedora
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1

After updating my fedora and rebooting, gdm was not starting, and i just got stuck on a black tty screen (with mouse cursor movements).

I’ve reinstalled my fedora like 2 times and it seems to break after upgrading.

I also tried to downgrade some packages installed by the update but it doesn’t seem to work.

Any idea why is this happening?

If there seems to be no solution, can Silverblue prevent this type of bug?
since I’m thinking on migrating.

Thanks.

Specs:

  • Fedora Linux 41 (Workstation Edition) x86_64
  • Kernel Linux 6.13.5-200.fc41.x86_64
  • CPU AMD FX-8320E
  • GPU AMD Radeon HD 7950/8950 OEM / R9 280
1 Like
2

Are you able to access the system logs, to see if there are any issues visible there? If you can then you could check the logs like this:

$ journalctl --since=today -p 3

That would show all the lines with a level of Error or higher.

As a test you can also try adding nomodeset to the kernel boot line in grub, it will temporarily disable the loading of the GPU drivers and use the default videomode. This may allow you to load the desktop environment in at least a VESA resolution.

To add the parameter: when the boot menu becomes visible you press ‘e’ to edit the boot entry, the go to the part that looks like this:

rhgb quiet

and add nomodeset:

rhgb quiet nomodeset

then you can press F10 to continue booting.

[edit:] Silverblue will likely have no effect on this particular issue you are experiencing.

3

Is this happening after a regular update, or after a system upgrade (i.e. from F40 to F41)?

With Silverblue you’re likely to experience the same issue. However, being an atomic desktop, you would probably be able to boot into a previous deployment, so you would at least have a functional system.

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4

It was just a normal packages update, i was using F41 before the issue

5

Here is the log: log · GitHub
It’s seems the whole system (almost) is broken.

It doesn’t seem to work.

6

Those are some serious errors yes, quite odd…

7

I see from the traceback that you are running X11 not wayland.
Does your system work if you use wayland?

8

Yes, I’ve always used wayland

9

How odd the traceback is from an X11 crash.

10

Can you boot into a console and run the update?

To get to console, press ctrl+alt+F2 from your login screen.

12

I did SMART test and it seems my disk works fine.

14

did you try to downgrade mesa* ? I had some issues after fresh install and upgrade, I did sudo downgrade mesa* and it worked

1 Like
16

Update: I have reproduced the problem on another disk, and it seems that it is a mesa bug.

I’m going to report this issue.

For those who are reading this and have this same problem you can run: sudo dnf downgrade mesa*.

And add this line to /etc/dnf/dnf.conf:

excludepkgs=mesa*
1 Like
17

Thank you for your suggestion, Do you know why this happens?

18

I don’t. I read somewhere that says .0 mesa updates are always buggy, so I’m not going to upgrade until 25.1

19

I don’t. I read somewhere that says .0 mesa updates are always buggy,

Interesting, do you have the url to that information?

so I’m not going to upgrade until 25.1

Then You don’t update your packages/applications?

20

I will of course but I will use sudo dnf upgrade --exclude=mesa*

21

For SIlverblue, see this:

https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/graphical-login-broke/146440/9

2 Likes
22

Thank you both

23

I read all of this with a LOT of interest. I had been running Workstation 41 with no errors , the same with previous versions. Then I did an update back in late jan and, No log in screen after Boot. Intererstingly, there was a CMD screen that flashed past once and a Load of commandes were run but it was to quick to take note of any,.
I tried so many options to try and get back to a login screen but no return.
I reinstalled workstation a number of times with no change.
I recently installed SILVERBLUE because of ots abiliyty to return to previous working system ( and I shall ALWAYS use this now) It worked Superbly until this morning, an update was Run ( I wanted to see if the problem had been resolved)
And, BANG - same error. Grub goes past, CMD screen flashs past, Blank screen.
So rebooted and selected previous install and now I am here…
Interesting that AMD GPU was mentioned. I run that and AMD CPU - I do have an ~NVIDA card somewhere and will install when I have a moment and see if I can boot the new updated install.
I see MANY people have this issue now and not only on Virtual machines…
Thanks for th tips Guy.. I’ll let you know if the NVIDA solves the issue