Cannot boot kernel 6.17.4 (fedora 42)

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1

Hello, since applying one week of upgrades yesterday, I have to new kernel 6.17.4 in Fedora 42, but it cannot boot. It immediately goes to emergency mode, but it does not even allow me to open an emergency terminal, as it fails to load “system manager configuration”.

Fortunately, I can still boot with the previous kernel 6.16.11. Do you have any hint on what could cause this, or how to get some more useful debug information, as there is nothing in the logs.

Here is a picture of the message (after I press enter, the message repeats) and the list of available kernels.

20251029_113643
20251029_1136431920×1081 303 KB

20251029_113539
20251029_1135391920×1081 136 KB

2

This seems to be a problematic kernel version, not Fedora-related.
I have seen numerous complaints on it already.

Your system is fine.
The easiest thing is to roll back or jump to 6.18 beta

3

Thanks I’ll just pin 6.16 and wait for the following release.

4

6.17.* runs w/o issues on many systems. 6.17.5 should be available, try to update the system.

also, please post output of ls -lh /boot/initram* , df -h /boot and inxi -Fxxz as preformatted ‘</>’ text.

If 6.17.5 fails to boot, then reboot with 6.16 and see whether output of journalctl -b-1 (-b-1 means the previous boot) begins with a line containing the string Linux version 6.17.5-200.fc42.x86_64

if so, then save output of journalctl -b-1 --no-hostname --no-pager > a_file_name and post it here.

5

Thank you. I’ve just updated to 6.17.5, but the problem persists.

I’m having a look at the logs, in the meanwhile, here is the required information

root@paulite23:~# ls -lh /boot/initram*
-rw-------. 1 root root 173M May 21 15:35 /boot/initramfs-0-rescue-9d647be800334f259bb39683d5d55f6f.img
-rw-------. 1 root root  66M Oct 15 10:20 /boot/initramfs-6.16.11-200.fc42.x86_64.img
-rw-------. 1 root root  67M Oct 28 15:50 /boot/initramfs-6.17.4-200.fc42.x86_64.img
-rw-------. 1 root root  67M Oct 29 15:47 /boot/initramfs-6.17.5-200.fc42.x86_64.img
root@paulite23:~# df -h /boot
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/nvme0n1p2  954G  743G  209G  79% /


root@paulite23:~# inxi -Fxxz
System:
  Kernel: 6.16.11-200.fc42.x86_64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc
    v: 15.2.1
  Console: pty pts/3 wm: kwin_wayland DM: SDDM Distro: Fedora Linux 42 (KDE
    Plasma Desktop Edition)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: Dell product: Precision 5860 Tower v: N/A
    serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 3 serial: <filter>
  Mobo: Dell model: 0F4Y1M v: A02 serial: <filter> part-nu: 0A3C UEFI: Dell
    v: 3.2.0 date: 09/08/2025
CPU:
  Info: 6-core model: Intel Xeon w3-2423 bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    arch: Sapphire Rapids rev: 8 cache: L1: 480 KiB L2: 12 MiB L3: 15 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 3100 min/max: 800/4200:4000:4100 cores: 1: 3100 2: 3100
    3: 3100 4: 3100 5: 3100 6: 3100 7: 3100 8: 3100 9: 3100 10: 3100 11: 3100
    12: 3100 bogomips: 50688
  Flags-basic: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Navi 23 WKS-XL [Radeon PRO W6600]
    vendor: Dell driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: RDNA-2 ports: active: DP-1,DP-2
    empty: DP-3,DP-4,Writeback-1 bus-ID: 0000:57:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:73e3
  Device-2: Dell Integrated_Webcam_5M_IR driver: uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-9.1.4:17 chip-ID: 413c:c00a
  Display: unspecified server: X.Org v: 24.1.8 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.8
    compositor: kwin_wayland driver: dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu display-ID: :0
    screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 4819x1440 s-dpi: 96
  Monitor-1: DP-1 pos: primary,top-left model: Dell C2722DE res: 2560x1440
    hz: 60 dpi: 109 diag: 685mm (27")
  Monitor-2: DP-2 pos: bottom-r model: Dell P2418HT res: 2259x1271 hz: 60
    dpi: 109 diag: 604mm (23.8")
  API: EGL v: 1.5 platforms: device: 0 drv: radeonsi device: 1 drv: swrast
    gbm: drv: radeonsi surfaceless: drv: radeonsi x11: drv: radeonsi
    inactive: wayland
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: amd mesa v: 25.1.9 glx-v: 1.4
    direct-render: yes renderer: AMD Radeon Pro W6600 (radeonsi navi23 LLVM
    20.1.8 DRM 3.64 6.16.11-200.fc42.x86_64) device-ID: 1002:73e3
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.313 surfaces: N/A device: 0 type: discrete-gpu
    driver: mesa radv device-ID: 1002:73e3 device: 1 type: cpu
    driver: mesa llvmpipe device-ID: 10005:0000
  Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
    de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor wl: wayland-info x11: xdriinfo,
    xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-S HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel bus-ID: 0000:00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:7ad0
  Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Navi 21/23 HDMI/DP Audio
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 0000:57:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:ab28
  Device-3: Dell C2722DE driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid type: USB
    rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-9.1.3:14 chip-ID: 413c:c00d
  API: ALSA v: k6.16.11-200.fc42.x86_64 status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.4.9 status: n/a (root, process) with:
    1: pipewire-pulse status: active 2: wireplumber status: active
    3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-LM vendor: Dell driver: e1000e v: kernel
    port: N/A bus-ID: 0000:00:1f.6 chip-ID: 8086:1a1c
  IF: enp0s31f6 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Aquantia AQtion AQC113CS NBase-T/IEEE 802.3an Ethernet [Antigua
    10G] vendor: Dell driver: atlantic v: kernel port: N/A
    bus-ID: 0000:01:00.0 chip-ID: 1d6a:94c0
  IF: enp1s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-3: Qualcomm QCNFA765 Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Foxconn
    driver: ath11k_pci v: kernel bus-ID: 0000:17:00.0 chip-ID: 17cb:1103
  IF: wls5 state: up mac: <filter>
  Device-4: Realtek RTL8153 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter driver: r8152 type: USB
    rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 2-9.1.2:8 chip-ID: 0bda:8153
  IF: enp0s20f0u9u1u2 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Foxconn / Hon Hai driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 1.1
    speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-12:5 chip-ID: 0489:e0e3
  Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 5.3
    lmp-v: 12
RAID:
  Hardware-1: Intel Volume Management Device NVMe RAID Controller driver: vmd
    v: 0.6 bus-ID: 0000:00:00.5 chip-ID: 8086:28c0
  Hardware-2: Intel SATA Controller [RAID Mode] driver: ahci v: 3.0
    bus-ID: 0000:00:17.0 chip-ID: 8086:2826
  Hardware-3: Intel Volume Management Device NVMe RAID Controller
    driver: vmd v: 0.6 bus-ID: 0000:ee:00.5 chip-ID: 8086:28c0
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 6.39 TiB used: 1.8 TiB (28.1%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: KIOXIA model: KXG80ZNV1T02 NVMe 1024GB
    size: 953.87 GiB speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter> temp: 34.9 C
  ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST4000NM018B-2TF130 size: 3.64 TiB
    speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> temp: 37 C
  ID-3: /dev/sdb vendor: Western Digital model: WD20NMVW-11AV3S2
    size: 1.82 TiB type: USB rev: 3.0 spd: 5 Gb/s lanes: 1 serial: <filter>
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 953.37 GiB used: 742.97 GiB (77.9%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 60.5 MiB (11.8%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
  ID-3: /home size: 953.37 GiB used: 742.97 GiB (77.9%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 8 GiB used: 271.7 MiB (3.3%) priority: 100
    dev: /dev/zram0
  ID-2: swap-2 type: file size: 16 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2
    file: /swap/swapfile
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 49.0 C mobo: 44.0 C sodimm: 0.0 C gpu: amdgpu
    temp: 31.0 C mem: 30.0 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): cpu: 0 fan-2: 878 fan-3: 1013 fan-4: 763 gpu: amdgpu
    fan: 1425
Info:
  Memory: total: 32 GiB note: est. available: 30.59 GiB used: 6.03 GiB (19.7%)
  Processes: 705 Power: uptime: 6m wakeups: 0 Init: systemd v: 257
    target: graphical (5) default: graphical
  Packages: pm: rpm pkgs: N/A note: see --rpm pm: flatpak pkgs: 25
    Compilers: gcc: 15.2.1 Shell: Bash v: 5.2.37 running-in: konsole
    inxi: 3.3.39

The kernel log is linked here, if there was a way to attach files, I could not find it.

thank you!

p.s. I got the prompt to update to 43 now, but I would not dare with this issue pending.

6

Thank you, I fixed it.

It was the case of a missing comma in /etc/ftab causing /home to not mount. I do not know how it worked before, nor why it crashes so catastrophically without giving a recovery terminal…

The line in question was

UUID=2af07557-db1b-415e-9bd8-2bcce4b5515d /home                   btrfs   subvol=@home,compress=zstd:1noatime,space_cache=v2,autodefrag,discard   0 0

Missing a ‘,’ between ztd:1 and noatime.

3 Likes
7

the recovery console requires an unlocked root account. If you run into a similar situation again, then boot with another kernel (if possible) and unlock root with
sudo passwd and set a password for the root account.

8

I see, I had no idea that “root account is locked” just meant that no root password is set. I guess I could have read the manual (to be fair, the manpage of sulogin is not particularly clear either).

Thank you for your support

9

I assume you didn’t enable root. If you can boot a Live USB installer you can use journalctl to view the journal on the failing system. Fedora has an introductory tutorial for journalctl , and there are other good online tutorials. Always check the journalctl man page to verify commands found online.

1 Like
10

man passwd

 -l, --lock
           Lock the password of the named account. This option disables a password by changing it to a value which matches no possible encrypted value (it adds a ´!´ at the beginning of
           the password).

-u, --unlock
           Unlock the password of the named account. This option re-enables a password by changing the password back to its previous value (to the value before using the -l option).

 -S, --status
           Display account status information. ......
11

Thank you for this and the thread; my issue was different, but had some BTRFS subvolumes originally from old Fedora installs, and apparently added compression manually.

Not sure how I managed it, but ...compress=zstd... had a hanging : and no level specified. Adding the default level of 1 to make it compress=zstd:1 no allows me to boot into 6.17 kernels.

I am also not clear what differs there for 6.16 kernels by comparison, but it was also related to an FSTAB entry issue for me.

1 Like