A lot of things.. noob questions mostly .. First time linux ~ // Black screen on reboot

Ask Fedora
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Hi, can’t speak the linux language, but made the jump from windows and trying to see if… I can make it.
Chose fedora after some research through distros as I didn’t want to settle for Ubuntu.. didn’t like their core philosophy.. sue me.

I am on v43 and I am running into a black screen after a restart. After searching apparently it’s a known issue with this v, a driver conflict of sorts… problem is, I.. can run it fine with just the instalation I am given, however after - I assume - it does some updates, with a restart.. it gets bricked.
So inhere lies a question, does fedora auto-update? I specifically wanted a distro that does not auto update, I’m ok with rolling updates, I.e. being on an OS that goes through updates faster as long as I can hang back on more stable ones and chose when to update myself.
When I first install, and check updates, there’s a 4.5gb update.. ..I assume pending, I can’t cancel it or otherwise - excuse my noobism, if this is the wrong part to ask such basic questions, let me know; After some time, it goes down to 3.8 and stays there, so I assume, a part of it gets installed - which is the part that fucks me up. I will write back to you after a restart whether that was the case this time as well, as for the moment I dare not.. I’m writing this. First time around, that’s what happened and couldn’t find anything.. step by step to do with; Things I’ve tried, or researched:

First thing was just blindly entering password to see if anything changes - it doesn’t, at least for me and I can restart it consistently on ctrl+alt+del.

Tried nomodeset as I found on some blog, which would apparently load basic graphic drivers, that didn’t work out either, assuming I did it right anyway, just put it after.. rbh ~ something, at the end of the line really, again nothing changed.

Found out that a good idea would be to load a previous kernel version, which I simply could not find how to do - I read on some forum/blog, forgot, that you would actually firsthand have to execute a comand while in OS, to enable that option and then restart and it will be available in grub… which to me is obviosuly retarded if I can be frank, for an OS that’s so heavy on user input, to make the advanced options so .. inaccessible but whatever.

And what I’ve garnered from the dedicated topic.. honestly a bit overwhelming expecially since people that seem to be quite knowledgeable were bouncing from one solution to another and building on them with their own niche solutions.

I’d start just spamming a terminal with command lines, but I’m not sure if that doesn’t just overwhelms a system with..small patches that end up taking a lot of resources, instead of just running one.. line that’s congruent..hope that makes sense. For as little programming that I know, I do know how it works, and it would consistently have to run though all the command lines most which would probably be redundant and on top of that with their own quirks and you end up with an inefficient system just lagging through all that code.

So.. I mean, again, the distro works fine before that update between 4.5gb and 3.8gb - presumably, agian I will rr after this post and confirm. How can I stop that update from happening?

Second question - how ..can I get a codepack? I can’t seem to find a singular answer on this. Vlc off the bat does not run all video files I have. After some command lines, some that didn’t, did work but still not completely.

I know the equiv on windows, were at the beginnings, some codec packs like the klite or the shark ..pack forgot the name, which I personally used and was more complete. Is there anything like that on Linux?

3rd.. I’ll look it up anyway but just for fun, how do you make scroll wheel - on click - act as a faster sort of scroll button that you move up and own a page, like on windows.

Till next!

L.E. Yup, after rr the OS got bricked, got a black screen and couldn’t do anything other than reinstall.

L.E.2 For anyone joining late, and needs a tl;dr, I get black screen after updates, from as little as a few programs updating a part of the system update, to just hitting update button. The codec issues is fixed. All I need is to find a solution for this black screen, get past it, and not get it again.

I can get a command prompt open at the black screen by mashing my face on the keyboard. I tried every key but it’s probably a key combination that actually works.. Anyway, I have access to a command prompt.
Can I get a dump of the error causing this or something that would point in the right direction.

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Someone will probably ask for more information. For example, what desktop manager are you running. I use MATE-Compiz. But there is also Gnome, KDE Plasma, etc. Important information.

Also am I correct in assuming that after doing the installation Fedora was working but now there is some issue with an update. I am on the MATE-Compiz spin and updates only happen when I tell them to go. The software updater is dnfdragora but I can also do them from the command line. But for me there is no automatic updates going on.

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KDE Plasma and yes, the fresh install works. As I mentioned.. there’s what I believe to be a pending update in system updates of 4.5gbs which goes down to 3.8gb after time, no loading bar or anything, the size is the only indicator, and it makes me think it just auto-updates a part of it.

And it most definitely does, because after that happens and I rr, voluntarily, not asked, the OS just bricks.

I’ve looked up how to stop auto-updates, couldn’t find much, but I fiddled with it and.. Under Updates section there’s also settings - which I assumed is a general tab for setting, but apparently it’s for updates - and I just manually deselected what I believed to be independent packages being updated, but later realized - I think they’re servers from which updates are made.. so I basically deselected its way of getting updates since it has no svs to connect to.

And now updates are not happening, and I don’t even see the 4.5gb update pending. Which is.. a workaround, problem is now I can’t install brave browser - just an example - I get a /liberation-fonts needed/ error, which I also assume through what I gathered from research, was an auto-update sort of package… which I am now not getting since I disabled all incoming svs.. a headache and I just got started.

To its credit, I seem to have landed on one of the worst updates, call me lucky

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Yeah, I am using MATE so not exactly the same thing and I am not aware of how updates are done in KDE Plasma. Maybe someone else can chime in who has that knowledge. Also this update for me was one that gave me more issues than I had ever had before. WIth the help of my son we have been working through them and right now everything seems to be doing OK for the most part. It’s definitely been a journey.

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I understand your problem with the updates. I usually recommends to use the respin ISO (it’s just the iso with the updates) but I’m not sure how updated is for F43.

So, let’s see:

  • 1st thing, even when heavy it’s to let the upgrade go. Preferably do it in Konsole (terminal) with sudo dnf update -y)
  • Add RPM Fusion repositories. While a 3rd party repository, it’s a very reliable source, most users have it. Again in the Konsole/terminal run:
    • sudo dnf install https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm
    • Check the RPM Fusion Multimedia page to check installation instructions. This will get you with codecs installed for averything you need.

With those 2 you should be ok

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Supposedly in KDE there is a place where you can set updates to manual or automatic. Don’t know where that is. Here is an older thread about an older version and a similar issue.

Also updates are handled by something called Discover in KDE… Best of luck and hopefully someone can steer you in the right direction with all of this. And BTW, things can also be installed via flatpaks, but I have not played with any of that either.

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Also if you are having trouble getting in on boot and can get to a terminal you can always use the journalctl command to look up errors. But that can be a bit overwhelming as well.

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First … I’m not sure what you meant by that // 1st thing, even when heavy it’s to let the upgrade go// that doesn’t register with me, but I think we’re not on the same page regardless - the updates are what are causing the OS to give me a black screen - So I am avoiding them for the time being. My question is how to disable automatic updates completely.

-2. That’s actually a great resource! Was kinda looking for just that, the first few paragraphs already resolved a quirk on my mind after reading through sites about what I need; On previous install I actually ran a sudo about libavcodec-freeworld among other commands and
on the site provided it clears it up that I don’t actually need to run that
//There you don’t need libavcodec-freeworld that is only meant to complement the ffmpeg-free package (and related libraries). //

And instead switch to the full version ffmpeg

//Fedora ffmpeg-free works most of the time, but one will experience version missmatch from time to time. Switch to the rpmfusion provided ffmpeg build that is better supported//

which also comes out a vetted answer, from the research I did. Maybe it’s a bit streamlined, but for a noob that’s more than ok.
I’m sure Fedora devs had a reason to go for the free version, but for the moment.. I at least have a path.

Problem is, now running their first line code to switch from free :
sudo dnf swap ffmpeg-free ffmpeg --allowerasing

returns an error:

Updating and loading repositories:
Repositories loaded.
Failed to resolve the transaction:
Package “ffmpeg-free-7.1.2-2.fc43.x86_64” is already installed.
Problem: conflicting requests

Which might be because of the changes I’ve done to what I assume are the update servers.
So, the option is solid, I am sure but before anything else, I need to figure out how to stop updates.. without fiddling setting blindly like I did. If someone has a sure-fire way to do it, for the moment it should work for me.

I’m trying to avoid any heavy command lines for the moment since it seems the OS is in a half functional state without the mentioned servers, if even that is what I did.

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Not for me, the option I mentioned trying for the black screen - blindly typing in password - was to get an interface and get to a terminal, but it doesn’t work for me, other people or few I don’t.. know, had some degree of success with this.

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Settings, Software Update:

image
image592×248 16 KB

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That doesn’t disable them. not completely. As I mentioned, there’s a 4.5gb update pending, going down to 3.8gb with time, which suggests it’s getting partially installed, with those exact options ticked as in the picture.
I mean they come like that default, but part of the update still goes through, so… yeah, they’re not completely off.

L.E. And I can vouch for something being changed because, with what I’ve done now, I can restart the OS fine and it doesn’t brick, however 2 times I have left the options as standard, and 2 times after time updates partially go through and after rr OS gets bricked.

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It’ll be downloading them - nothing will get installed unless you actually hit that “update all” button in the far right corner.

Even then it’ll only install the updates you have selected with the tick box beside each entry.

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Ok, but that simply doesn’t make sense. As I mentioned, the initial download file is 4.5gb. It goes down to 3.8gb and it stays there! After quite some time. And I did not run out of space on my ssd.. or any other reason you can think of as to why the - only download- , suddenly stops. If it would just be a only downloading case, it should go down to 0 from 4.5gb, just get downloaded and primed for when I hit update all.

But that’s not what happens. And after it gets to 3.8gb and I rr, the OS bricks.

As I mentioned, fiddled with some settings and now I can rr fine, but I’ve lost a lot of other functions in the process, however I did stop the updates from coming on.. at least, I mean.. I think that’s what I did.

Here are the options I’m talking about. Prior to my ticking everything off, there were some ticked on.. I really can’t remember which XD, but I’ll get to that when I get to that.

asd
asd1862×1352 185 KB

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You’ve disabled all of the repos (assuming you’ve un-ticked them all), so you’ll not get any further updates until you re-enabled them. You’ll also not be able to install anything either, mind you, unless you do it manually.

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Yup, that’s pretty much the conclusion I’ve arrived to as well, but now it’s confirmed.

So, anyone know anything about how updates work? Again as far as I can tell they do actually get installed partially, because it affects OS functionality.

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These are the absolute minimum of the repos you should have enabled and are the ones enabled on f43 Workstation (gnome) by default.

$ dnf repolist
repo id                                        repo name                                                  
fedora                                         Fedora 43 - x86_64                                         
fedora-cisco-openh264                          Fedora 43 openh264 (From Cisco) - x86_64                   
updates                                        Fedora 43 - x86_64 - Updates
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If anyone can post a resource link about repositories I will read them, but the question I need answered most is how to turn off updates from being installed automatically.

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Already noted above

Notifications are still enabled, but automatic updates are disabled with the settings shown. From what I read in your posts is that you are seeing notifications, not actual updating.

Many of the updates can be installed without rebooting, but some of the system updates require a reboot (eg. firmware, kernel, drivers, etc.). If an app is updated while it is in use then it should be closed and reopened (or closed before the update).

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I thought I have been both as explicative and concise as possible. So there is no notification, I’m not sure there even are notifications, I definitely haven’t seen one; I have physically checked the package size as it was sitting there. And it got lower in size.

If. the update is not installed. Explain why with the modifications I have made, which stop all updates, by disabling update servers - as you call them, repositories - the OS can safely be restarted, I.E. I no longer get a black screen.

But

With the standard options, as a fresh install comes set up, meaning updates set on manual, but update servers linked, or ticked in the option box, after some time spent in the OS with the said update size going from 4.5gb to 3.8gb, and with a system rr, the os no longer boots, or rather boots into a black screen.

Explain. How can these two affect the OS but be unrelated.

I’m under the impression that I’m getting the run around that it says so, so it must be so. I can read what it says, but it is not what is happening. SO either what it says is not true, or it’s somehow true but disabling the update servers fixes the issue of OS blocking, getting black screened. I’m open for any option, but this is what is physically happening.

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Let me try to explain this again:
Your system is not being updated automatically [1]

You can check the number of installed packages:
rpm -qa | wc -l

Or produce the list with version:
dnf list installed

It could be downloaded, but not installed. If you get a black screen when restart, then the issue is not in the updated because of [1]. Check logs, or if you feel your too new to go this deep or just didn’t want to learn, then use another DE like gnome, deepin, MATE or Cinnamon, that will allows you to check if it’s KDE issue.

If you refuse all this, then I can’t help you anymore.

I’m muting this thread for me, I will check it I’m 2 or 3 days to see if you found a solution or just keep complaining without listening

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