Cinnamon Spin Upgrade to F42 WTFs

Ask Fedora
1

Hello all,

I tried to upgrade my Fedora Cinnamon 40 to 42 yesterday and decided to give up and revert back (BTRFS Snapshots FTW!). Looking for infos from other users, I was quite astonished that there weren’t any forum topics existing already. Or at least not to be found easily.

So, here are a few points that made me wait for a better day to upgrade – specifically, until Wayland on Cinnamon is out of its experimental
state.
Anyway, If you have some suggestions on how to overcome the issues I ran into, I’d appreciate them!

Configuration

I’ll attach the output of inxi after finishing my text.

Short info about my setup:

  • Thinkpad P52s
    • … which is an Optimus setup with an Intel i915 GPU onboard and a discrete Nvidia GPU. Which is usually the root cause of all trouble with Linux.
  • 2nd Nvme device for Fedora. 1st one still runs Windows via Dual Boot.
  • Default BTRFS volume layout with LUKS2 encryption.
  • Kernel installed by the upgrade: 6.14.6.

Issues

Boot process hangs after upgrade

  • Last entry in the boot sequence is “Starting plymouth-start.service”.

  • The screen flashes 3 times, then nothing more happens.

  • Switching to a TTY is still possible, though. In that TTY I ran journalctl -e -b 1 (after rebooting once more) and noticed a Core dump of the Xorg process.

  • That led me to the hypothesis that Nvidia, or rather its driver, might be the culprit.

  • So I edited the grub cmdline to remove the nvidia specific “blacklist” options. TBE, I removed all switches.

  • ==> Now, LightDM started with the usual login screen.

  • But after login, I just got a mouse pointer on a black background, nothing more. Trying to restart Cinnamon with Ctrl-Alt-Esc didn’t do anything.

  • Removed Nvidia drivers completely and rebooted.

  • Same issue, so I rebooted again and selected “Wayland (experimental)” for my session.

  • ==> SUCCESS! The GUI comes up and starts opening the taskbar applets.

Rendering (?) issues

  • → Meh. The terminal opens with a fully transparent background, making text almost illegible.
    • Can be mitigated by explicitly setting a background colour, but seems like the “adwaita-dark” system-wide theme isn’t respected correctly.

Ibus issues → no German keyboard

  • → Meh. “Ibus” Applet doesn’t open up, but at least gives me an error message that it should be “opened from the desktop session”.
    • Not having Ibus running results in my German keyboard being used as if it were American ==> unusable.
    • Checked Ibus docs for running it on Wayland. Necessary dependencies were installed, but activating it with im-chooser resulted in an error, that the process cannot be reached.

Back to F40

The sum of all that and the fact that I needed my machine to do some productive stuff again, were the tipping point to revert back to F40 for the time being.

I suppose that there’s not much to be found yet for Cinnamon upgrades is, because it has a much smaller user base than GNOME and KDE. Too bad, I like working on Cinnamon, but OTOH I need my laptop to be reliable for work.

My Plan B is to switch to KDE Plasma 6, but that will likely require much time and effort. So – any ideas what I could try to get Cinnamon running smoothly after upgrading?

Cheers,
Uwe

Output of inxi -Fzxx:

p52s:/home/uwe# inxi -Fzxx
System:
  Kernel: 6.14.5-100.fc40.x86_64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 14.2.1
  Desktop: Cinnamon v: 6.2.9 tk: GTK v: 3.24.43 wm: Muffin dm: LightDM
    Distro: Fedora Linux 40 (Cinnamon)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 20LCS06P00 v: ThinkPad P52s
    serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <filter>
  Mobo: LENOVO model: 20LCS06P00 v: SDK0J40697 WIN serial: <filter>
    part-nu: LENOVO_MT_20LC_BU_Think_FM_ThinkPad P52s UEFI: LENOVO
    v: N27ET53W (1.39 ) date: 03/19/2024
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 19.6 Wh (79.4%) condition: 24.7/32.0 Wh (77.1%)
    volts: 15.9 min: 15.3 model: SMP 00UR891 serial: <filter>
    status: not charging
  ID-2: BAT1 charge: 26.0 Wh (56.5%) condition: 46.0/48.8 Wh (94.2%)
    volts: 11.5 min: 11.1 model: SANYO 01AV425 serial: <filter>
    status: not charging
CPU:
  Info: quad core model: Intel Core i7-8650U bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    arch: Coffee Lake rev: A cache: L1: 256 KiB L2: 1024 KiB L3: 8 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 800 min/max: 400/4200 cores: 1: 800 2: 800 3: 800 4: 800
    5: 800 6: 800 7: 800 8: 800 bogomips: 33599
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel UHD Graphics 620 vendor: Lenovo driver: i915 v: kernel
    arch: Gen-9.5 ports: active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1, DP-2, HDMI-A-1, HDMI-A-2
    bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:5917
  Device-2: NVIDIA GP108GLM [Quadro P500 Mobile] vendor: Lenovo
    driver: nvidia v: 570.144 arch: Pascal pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 4
    bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1d33
  Device-3: Chicony Integrated Camera (1280x720@30) driver: uvcvideo
    type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-8:4 chip-ID: 04f2:b604
  Display: server: X.Org v: 1.20.14 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.6 driver: X:
    loaded: intel dri: iris gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 mapped: eDP1 model: BOE Display 0x0a56 res: 1920x1080
    hz: 60 dpi: 143 diag: 395mm (15.5")
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 vendor: intel mesa v: 24.1.7 glx-v: 1.4 es-v: 3.2
    direct-render: yes renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 620 (KBL GT2)
    device-ID: 8086:5917
  API: EGL Message: EGL data requires eglinfo. Check --recommends.
  Info: Tools: api: glxinfo gpu: intel_gpu_top, lsgpu, nvidia-settings,
    nvidia-smi x11: xdriinfo, xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio vendor: Lenovo
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:9d71
  API: ALSA v: k6.14.5-100.fc40.x86_64 status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.9 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: Lenovo driver: e1000e v: kernel
    port: N/A bus-ID: 00:1f.6 chip-ID: 8086:15d7
  IF: enp0s31f6 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Intel Wireless 8265 / 8275 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel pcie:
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:24fd
  IF: wlp4s0 state: up mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: tailscale0 state: unknown speed: -1 duplex: full mac: N/A
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 1.46 TiB used: 241.25 GiB (16.2%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: KingSpec model: NE-1TB 2242 size: 953.87 GiB
    speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter> temp: 39.9 C
  ID-2: /dev/nvme1n1 vendor: Western Digital model: PC SN720
    SDAQNTW-512G-1001 size: 476.94 GiB speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4
    serial: <filter> temp: 44.9 C
  ID-3: /dev/sda vendor: Generic model: SD MMC size: 59.64 GiB type: USB
    rev: 3.0 spd: 5 Gb/s lanes: 1 serial: <filter>
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 952.27 GiB used: 107.59 GiB (11.3%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/dm-0
    mapped: luks-4c7fdc17-6a9e-473b-bb5e-6e213aac72fb
  ID-2: /boot size: 973.4 MiB used: 643.5 MiB (66.1%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
  ID-3: /boot/efi size: 598.8 MiB used: 19.4 MiB (3.2%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
  ID-4: /home size: 952.27 GiB used: 107.59 GiB (11.3%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/dm-0 mapped: luks-4c7fdc17-6a9e-473b-bb5e-6e213aac72fb
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 100
    dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 50.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
  Memory: total: 32 GiB available: 31.18 GiB used: 13.2 GiB (42.3%)
    igpu: 64 MiB
  Processes: 376 Power: uptime: 2h 13m wakeups: 0 Init: systemd v: 255
    target: graphical (5) default: graphical
  Packages: pm: rpm pkgs: N/A note: see --rpm pm: flatpak pkgs: 53
    Compilers: gcc: 14.2.1 Shell: Bash v: 5.2.26 running-in: gnome-terminal
    inxi: 3.3.38
2

I doubt you need Ibus, it’s mainly designed for inputting East Asian text.
There is no working keyboard switching currently in cinnamon wayland.

P.S F40 is EOL

1 Like
3

Thanks for this information, Leigh.
Looking at the Github link, I see that the creator of the issue has the same lack of the “Layouts” tab in the keyboard settings (it’s there in F40). This is clearly a no-go for me.

“Need” is relative, but it shipped with my install and I’m quite happy with it so far. Not specifically for Asian text but for Western multilingual input, in my case. And autocomplete of the ibus-typing-booster is also quite handy, sometimes.

Which is exactly why I want to upgrade. But not to a dysfunctional state.

I’ll try a clean start from the live ISO right away to see if the issues might originate from one of all the tweaks I had to make so far to get everything running with the Nvidia GPU.

1 Like
4

Why are you using ‘cinnamon wayland’ session?
Use cinnamon xorg instead.

5

Because X shows a black screen only? I wrote that above…
Anyway, I gave it a second chance, after I had run updates from the Wayland session. Aaaand – Magic! The X11 desktop starts!

So, the troubles are mostly reduced to the issues with the Nvidia driver. Once installed (and akmods have run), the LightDM greeter won’t show up.

6

I am the maintainer for all those packages listed above.

1: All the cinnamon packages.
2: lightdm and slick-greeter.
3: akmods.
4: rpmfusion nvidia driver.

Offline upgrades breaks all akmods, it’s the most likely cause of your issues

It’s fixed by running.

sudo depmod -a

or updating the kernel.

1 Like
7

Unfortunately no progress for me. I tried both

  • sudo depmod -a
  • Fresh install of Nvidia drivers, as described in this post

Both resulted in the same behaviour as earlier: the screen flashes 3 times, but doesn’t get to the greeter. The system runs fine so far with deinstalled Nvidia drivers, but then I cannot make use of the discrete GPU.

8

Can you provide the info from the nvidia bug reporting tool.

9

Hi Leigh,
dunno if it’s a matter of my user privileges here, but I cannot attach “*.gz” files, only images.
Pasting into a code box also isn’t an option due to length restrictions.
Any suggestion how to get this info to you?
Or did you mean to continue in the Nvidia Forum instead?

10

The nvidia forum, rpmfusion or any file sharing service.

11

OK, I reported it as Bug 7237 on rpmfusion’s Bugzilla with the bug report output attached.

Cheers,
Uwe

12

Leigh,
I saw your quick analysis on Bugzilla (thanks), now I wonder whether I could contribute anything more for troubleshooting this further?
E.g., checking the SELINUX findings, removing the non-default Intel GPU settings, …

If you prefer to continue the discussion on Bugzilla, let me know.

13

Did removing the non-default Intel conf solve the intel xorg crash?
You could also try with selinux disabled, use grub edit on bootup to add selinux=0 to the cmdline options.

1 Like
14

It did!
LightDM greeter showed up, and I logged in to see 2 GPUs available. Just finished running GLMark and observing the Nvidia GPU grinding.

What’s a bit strange is that screenfetch shows the Intel GPU only:

           /:-------------:\          uwe@uk-p52s
        :-------------------::        OS: Fedora 42 Adams
      :-----------/shhOHbmp---:\      Kernel: x86_64 Linux 6.14.6-300.fc42.x86_64
    /-----------omMMMNNNMMD  ---:     Uptime: 17m
   :-----------sMMMMNMNMP.    ---:    Packages: 3090
  :-----------:MMMdP-------    ---\   Shell: bash 5.2.37
 ,------------:MMMd--------    ---:   Resolution: 1920x1080
 :------------:MMMd-------    .---:   DE: GNOME
 :----    oNMMMMMMMMMNho     .----:   WM: Muffin
 :--     .+shhhMMMmhhy++   .------/   WM Theme: Mint-Y-Dark-Aqua (Adwaita)
 :-    -------:MMMd--------------:    GTK Theme: Mint-Y-Dark-Aqua [GTK2/3]
 :-   --------/MMMd-------------;     Icon Theme: Mint-Y-Aqua
 :-    ------/hMMMy------------:      Font: Noto Sans 9
 :-- :dMNdhhdNMMNo------------;       Disk: 482G / 3.2T (16%)
 :---:sdNMMMMNds:------------:        CPU: Intel Core i7-8650U @ 8x 4.2GHz [58.0°C]
 :------:://:-------------::          GPU: Mesa Intel(R) UHD Graphics 620 (KBL GT2)
 :---------------------://            RAM: 10887MiB / 31928MiB

But the load on the Nvidia GPU says otherwise. As does xdpyinfo.

Side note: The non-default configuration in “20-intel.conf” worked fine for me from Fedora 37 through to 40. AFAIR, it was a recommendation I got from the Arch Wiki.

Anyway, the good news so far is, that my system starts up and works fine with the Nvidia drivers installed. And, as a bonus, the issues I had in earlier releases with the cinnamon --replace process consuming a lot of CPU, have also disappeared.

THANK YOU! :folded_hands:

Cheers,
Uwe