Fail to write boot loader configuration

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1

Hello,

I am trying to install Fedora Kinoite (version 42) on my system but the installation fails with the error message:
“Failed to write boot loader configuration.”

Details:

  • I downloaded Fedora Kinoite from the official Fedora website.

  • I used Fedora Media Writer to create a bootable USB flash drive.

  • I booted my system in UEFI mode and selected the USB drive as the first boot device.

    During installation, the disk layout is as follows:

      btrfs (fedora_fedora) – 475.35 GB

  btrfs (home) – 475.35 GB

  btrfs (root) – 475.35 GB

  btrfs (var) – 475.35 GB

  EFI System Partition (nvme0n1p1) – 600 MB (/boot/efi)

  ext4 (nvme0n1p2) – 1024 MB (/boot)

    The installation starts but after about 10 minutes, I receive the error:
    “Failed to write boot loader configuration.”

    The system then reboots automatically and the installation start again.

I have tried deleting all partitions and recreating them both from the command line and using the installer interface, but the problem persists.

I want to install Fedora Kinoite 42 as the only operating system on this laptop (no dual boot, no Windows).

Could you please assist me with resolving this issue?

Thank you!

2

One issue that has caused this problem for a few users is leftover entries in the UEFI NVRAM which contain special characters. A bug in Anaconda means that it can fail to complete writing the bootloader in these circumstances, but often the NVRAM entries aren’t needed can simply be deleted before installation. (Example)

Could you boot into a Linux Live USB (I don’t think Kinoite has one, but you could use Fedora KDE, or pretty much any Linux distro live USB), and in the terminal run efibootmgr ?

If you show the output of that then we can see if this is the issue.

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4

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestion. I booted into a Fedora Workstation Live USB and ran efibootmgr. Here’s the output:

BootCurrent: 0007
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0007,0006,0005,0001,0002,0004,0000,0003
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager
Boot0006* UEFI: Flash, Partition 2
Boot0007* Fedora

As you can see, there were multiple Fedora entries (0001–0005) in the list earlier. I went ahead and deleted them using efibootmgr -b XXXX -B.

Now only the necessary entries remain (Windows, USB, and one Fedora). I’ll retry the Fedora Kinoite installation and report back if the bootloader configuration issue is resolved.

Thanks again for the help!

I have the same error :confused:
Failed to write boot loader configuration

anaconda 42.27.12 exception report pyanaconda.modules.common.errors.installation.VootloaderInstallationError local variables in innermost frame: self:<dasbus.client.handler.ClientObjectHandler object at 0x7fca20eb520> error: g-io-quark: GDBus.Error:org.fedoraproject.Anaconda.BootloaderInstallationError: failed to write boot loader configuration (36)

6

I’m not entirely sure if this is the case here, but it may be related to the known limitations regarding dual booting or manual partitioning on Fedora Atomic Desktop systems.

7

Based on the limitation linked above by @hricky, when dual booting Windows and Fedora atomic, one needs to use custom partitioning during installation, and create separate /boot and /boot/efi partitions for Fedora (distinct from the Windows ones).

That would also mean that selecting one OS or the other during boot-up would happen from the EFI boot manager, while GRUB will only give you the option to select between available Fedora deployments, but not Windows.

9

Out of interest, do you know why this is? What is Anaconda doing differently that means it can write to an existing Windows EFI partition when installing Workstation, but not when installing Silverblue?

(I know that if you wanted to dual boot, say, Fedora Workstation and Silverblue on the same machine, you’d need two EFI partitions because the two installs fight over the same /EFI/fedora directory name. But that’s not the case for Windows + Silverblue.)

10

I don’t know if this is caused by OSTree limitations, or by the fact that Fedora atomic dektops are using static GRUB.

11

Hi all,

Thanks to everyone for the detailed discussion – it’s been really helpful in narrowing down the issue.

I’ve been trying to install Fedora Kinoite 42, and ran into the same problem:
“Failed to write boot loader configuration” during installation.

After seeing the suggestions here, I booted into a Fedora Live USB and used efibootmgr to remove old/duplicate EFI entries. That seemed to help a few users, but unfortunately, the problem still persists for me.

Just to test further, I tried installing Fedora Workstation (not Kinoite), but that also failed — this time with a different error:

org.fedoraproject.Anaconda.BootloaderInstallationError: Failed to remove old EFI boot entry. This is most likely a kernel or firmware bug.

So this appears to go deeper than just Atomic-specific limitations. Based on this, it looks like there may be a broader issue with Anaconda, UEFI firmware, or possibly a kernel-level bug affecting bootloader entry removal or manipulation.

I’ve double-checked:

  • Booted in UEFI mode (not legacy)
  • Used a fresh USB image (from Fedora Media Writer)
  • Tried custom partitioning with a clean /boot and /boot/efi (separate from Windows)
  • Deleted all old Fedora boot entries via efibootmgr

Still no success.

Does anyone know if this is a known regression in Anaconda, or if there’s a workaround (e.g., manually installing the bootloader after installation)? I’d really like to get Kinoite working, but even Workstation is currently blocked for me.

Thanks again!

12

Is your system a Framework laptop by any chance?

13

No, I’m not using a Framework laptop — my system is an ASUS TUF Dash F15 (firmware FX516).

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14

You can try following the bootloader repair process, which involves booting into a Live USB, then mounting and chroot-ing into your on-disk install: Restoring the Bootloader using the Live disk

15

Unfortunately, that method doesn’t work on my setup.

When I boot into the Fedora Workstation Live USB and try to chroot into the installed system, I get the following error:

directory /mnt doesn't look like it has an OS tree (/usr/ directory is missing). Refusing

This means the installed system isn’t fully present — probably because the installation fails before completing the deployment of the OS tree. I also tried manually mounting the Btrfs root and checking the contents, but /usr/ is indeed missing.

So basically, there’s no complete installation to chroot into, likely because the installer fails with:

Failed to write boot loader configuration

And sometimes also:

Failed to set new EFI boot target

I’ve tried full disk wipes (wipefs, blkdiscard) and manually creating EFI + boot + Btrfs root partitions. The issue still occurs whether installing Fedora Kinoite directly, or installing Workstation and planning to switch to Kinoite after.

16

Ah, sorry - that procedure probably indeed won’t work with the Fedora Atomic images.

There probably is a complete installation, but because it uses an ostree-based image, you can’t get into the filesystem from outside in the same way that you could with Workstation etc.

Did you try the chroot repair process on your Workstation failed install? It should have a better chance of working there.

17

Can you try installing Fedora Kinoite 40 (I know it’s EOL) and then update it to F41, then F42?