Fedora KDE 42 failed to install on my laptop

Ask Fedora
1

Hi, I have encountered the following errors during the installation of the Fedora KDE 42 process:

  • “Failed to remove old EFI boot entry. This is most likely a kernel or firmware bug.”
  • “Failed to set new EFI boot target. This is most likely a kernel or firmware bug.”

but, I have already disabled Secure Boot and Fast Startup in the UEFI BIOS settings

previously, I have removed the old Fedora 42 (GNOME) boot entry on my laptop and attempted to install Fedora 42 KDE alongside the existing Windows OS

My Laptop Spec:

  • Model: ASUS TUF Dash F15 (FX516PM)
  • CPU: 11th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-11300H @ 3.10GHz
  • RAM: 24GB (4ATF1G64HZ-3G2E1, CT16G4SFRA32A.C16FT)
  • GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU
  • SSD: NVMe INTEL SSDPEKNU512GZ (512 GB)
  • BIOS Version: FX516PM.330 (2023/05/15)

Here’s my storage.log and anaconda.log:

lsblk output

liveuser@localhost-live:~$ lsblk
NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
loop0         7:0    0   2.4G  1 loop /run/rootfsbase
sda           8:0    1  29.3G  0 disk 
├─sda1        8:1    1  29.3G  0 part 
│ ├─ventoy  252:0    0   2.6G  1 dm   /run/initramfs/live
│ └─sda1    252:1    0  29.3G  0 dm   
└─sda2        8:2    1    32M  0 part 
zram0       251:0    0     8G  0 disk [SWAP]
nvme0n1     259:0    0 476.9G  0 disk 
├─nvme0n1p8 259:1    0    63G  0 part /mnt/sysroot/home
│                                     /mnt/sysroot
│                                     /mnt/sysimage/home
│                                     /mnt/sysimage
├─nvme0n1p1 259:8    0   260M  0 part /mnt/sysroot/boot/efi
│                                     /mnt/sysimage/boot/efi
├─nvme0n1p2 259:9    0    16M  0 part 
├─nvme0n1p3 259:10   0 389.2G  0 part 
├─nvme0n1p4 259:11   0   1.3G  0 part 
├─nvme0n1p5 259:12   0    22G  0 part 
├─nvme0n1p6 259:13   0   200M  0 part 
└─nvme0n1p7 259:14   0     1G  0 part /mnt/sysroot/boot
                                      /mnt/sysimage/boot

liveuser@localhost-live:~$ lsblk -f
NAME        FSTYPE FSVER LABEL   UUID                                 FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
loop0       erofs                fa631a75-b8c1-40fe-b17a-83c733cc1353       0   100% /run/rootfsbase
sda                                                                                  
├─sda1      ntfs         Ventoy  907885E07885C586                                    
│ ├─ventoy                                                                  0   100% /run/initramfs/live
│ └─sda1                                                                             
└─sda2      vfat   FAT16 VTOYEFI 626B-4255                                           
zram0       swap   1     zram0   57a2d632-73d3-4b26-9192-60c1ac7638f2                [SWAP]
nvme0n1                                                                              
├─nvme0n1p8 btrfs        fedora  31932265-8fda-45bd-87d6-54ba391d30f3   57.5G     6% /mnt/sysroot/home
│                                                                                    /mnt/sysroot
│                                                                                    /mnt/sysimage/home
│                                                                                    /mnt/sysimage
├─nvme0n1p1 vfat   FAT32 SYSTEM  6CFD-14CA                             185.4M    28% /mnt/sysroot/boot/efi
│                                                                                    /mnt/sysimage/boot/efi
├─nvme0n1p2                                                                          
├─nvme0n1p3 ntfs         OS      FE02FEFB02FEB7AB                                    
├─nvme0n1p4 ntfs                 BA52685D52681FFD                                    
├─nvme0n1p5 ntfs         RESTORE D4AA9312AA92EFEA                                    
├─nvme0n1p6 vfat   FAT32 MYASUS  F893-5EAC                                           
└─nvme0n1p7 ext4   1.0           dc9ca3e7-e399-4e98-8df2-6633a40b9974  801.5M    11% /mnt/sysroot/boot
                                                                                     /mnt/sysimage/boot

efibootmgr output

liveuser@localhost-live:~$ sudo efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0008
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0003,0007,0008
Boot0003* Windows Boot Manager  HD(1,GPT,984b4cc1-ee42-4802-a561-ebbe08969e19,0x800,0x82000)/\EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.EFI57494e444f5753000100000088000000780000004200430044004f0042004a004500430054003d007b00390064006500610038003600320063002d0035006300640064002d0034006500370030002d0061006300630031002d006600330032006200330034003400640034003700390035007d00000000000100000010000000040000007fff0400
      dp: 04 01 2a 00 01 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 08 00 00 00 00 00 c1 4c 4b 98 42 ee 02 48 a5 61 eb be 08 96 9e 19 02 02 / 04 04 46 00 5c 00 45 00 46 00 49 00 5c 00 4d 00 49 00 43 00 52 00 4f 00 53 00 4f 00 46 00 54 00 5c 00 42 00 4f 00 4f 00 54 00 5c 00 42 00 4f 00 4f 00 54 00 4d 00 47 00 46 00 57 00 2e 00 45 00 46 00 49 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
    data: 57 49 4e 44 4f 57 53 00 01 00 00 00 88 00 00 00 78 00 00 00 42 00 43 00 44 00 4f 00 42 00 4a 00 45 00 43 00 54 00 3d 00 7b 00 39 00 64 00 65 00 61 00 38 00 36 00 32 00 63 00 2d 00 35 00 63 00 64 00 64 00 2d 00 34 00 65 00 37 00 30 00 2d 00 61 00 63 00 63 00 31 00 2d 00 66 00 33 00 32 00 62 00 33 00 34 00 34 00 64 00 34 00 37 00 39 00 35 00 7d 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 7f ff 04 00
Boot0007* UEFI: General UDisk 5.00, Partition 1 PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(3,0)/HD(1,GPT,e76cdb3a-fca8-4bcf-bbbd-23166a01f111,0x800,0x3a877d8)0000424f
      dp: 02 01 0c 00 d0 41 03 0a 00 00 00 00 / 01 01 06 00 00 14 / 03 05 06 00 03 00 / 04 01 2a 00 01 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 d8 77 a8 03 00 00 00 00 3a db 6c e7 a8 fc cf 4b bb bd 23 16 6a 01 f1 11 02 02 / 7f ff 04 00
    data: 00 00 42 4f
Boot0008* UEFI: General UDisk 5.00, Partition 2 PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(3,0)/HD(2,GPT,639b81dc-a235-4935-a62e-2b56eae1c4dd,0x3a87fd8,0x10000)0000424f
      dp: 02 01 0c 00 d0 41 03 0a 00 00 00 00 / 01 01 06 00 00 14 / 03 05 06 00 03 00 / 04 01 2a 00 02 00 00 00 d8 7f a8 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 dc 81 9b 63 35 a2 35 49 a6 2e 2b 56 ea e1 c4 dd 02 02 / 7f ff 04 00
    data: 00 00 42 4f
2

I’m not sure of the solution to this, but if it helps others diagnose, these seem to be the relevant bits of storage.log:

  1. from line 25754 onward:
INFO:program:Running in chroot '/mnt/sysroot'... efibootmgr
INFO:program:BootCurrent: 0005
INFO:program:Timeout: 1 seconds
INFO:program:BootOrder: 0000,0003,0004,0005
INFO:program:Boot0000* Fedora	VenHw(99e275e7-75a0-4b37-a2e6-c5385e6c00cb)
INFO:program:Boot0003* Windows Boot Manager	HD(1,GPT,984b4cc1-ee42-4802-a561-ebbe08969e19,0x800,0x82000)/\EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.EFI57494e444f5753000100000088000000780000004200430044004f0042004a004500430054003d007b00390064006500610038003600320063002d0035006300640064002d0034006500370030002d0061006300630031002d006600330032006200330034003400640034003700390035007d00000000000100000010000000040000007fff0400
INFO:program:Boot0004* UEFI: General UDisk 5.00, Partition 1	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(3,0)/HD(1,GPT,e76cdb3a-fca8-4bcf-bbbd-23166a01f111,0x800,0x3a877d8)0000424f
INFO:program:Boot0005* UEFI: General UDisk 5.00, Partition 2	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(3,0)/HD(2,GPT,639b81dc-a235-4935-a62e-2b56eae1c4dd,0x3a87fd8,0x10000)0000424f
DEBUG:program:Return code of efibootmgr: 0
INFO:program:Running in chroot '/mnt/sysroot'... efibootmgr -b 0000 -B
INFO:program:Could not delete variable: Invalid argument
  1. from line 25865 onward:
INFO:program:Running in chroot '/mnt/sysroot'... efibootmgr
INFO:program:BootCurrent: 0005
INFO:program:Timeout: 1 seconds
INFO:program:BootOrder: 0000,0003,0004,0005
INFO:program:Boot0003* Windows Boot Manager	HD(1,GPT,984b4cc1-ee42-4802-a561-ebbe08969e19,0x800,0x82000)/\EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.EFI57494e444f5753000100000088000000780000004200430044004f0042004a004500430054003d007b00390064006500610038003600320063002d0035006300640064002d0034006500370030002d0061006300630031002d006600330032006200330034003400640034003700390035007d00000000000100000010000000040000007fff0400
INFO:program:Boot0004* UEFI: General UDisk 5.00, Partition 1	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(3,0)/HD(1,GPT,e76cdb3a-fca8-4bcf-bbbd-23166a01f111,0x800,0x3a877d8)0000424f
INFO:program:Boot0005* UEFI: General UDisk 5.00, Partition 2	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(3,0)/HD(2,GPT,639b81dc-a235-4935-a62e-2b56eae1c4dd,0x3a87fd8,0x10000)0000424f
DEBUG:program:Return code of efibootmgr: 0
INFO:program:Running in chroot '/mnt/sysroot'... efibootmgr -c -w -L Fedora -d /dev/nvme0n1 -p 1 -l \EFI\fedora\shimx64.efi
INFO:program:Could not prepare Boot variable: Invalid argument

Maybe (1) is not a critical issue, because the logs for (2) imply that Boot0000 did in fact get deleted, despite the “Could not delete variable” message.

This issue might be related, though it doesn’t have a clear fix: Failed to remove old efi boot entry. This is most likely a kernel or firmware bug

I suspect that Fedora has actually been installed, and the only missing thing is the NVRAM entry for the UEFI boot.

If you go into BIOS and try to set the boot order, what options do you see? Is Fedora available there?

3

Yes, I did see Fedora in my boot order, but when I enter GRUB, it only shows Windows Boot Manager (on /dev/nvme0n1p1) and there’s no option for Fedora

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4

This sounds a lot better than “failed to install” then :slightly_smiling_face: Sounds like you have the boot entry there, but a problem with the GRUB config.

Best way from here might be to boot into a live Fedora USB and see if the GRUB config can be repaired from there.

5

This is after I installed Fedora KDE, but without rebooting

So, should I restart first and then repair the GRUB config, or fix it right after installation without rebooting?

6

You could either reboot into the live environment and follow the guide here - The GRUB2 Bootloader – Installation and Configuration :: Fedora Docs

Or start from the point you show, where everything is mounted. You would adapt the instructions above so that instead of /mnt in the instructions, you use /mnt/sysroot.

7

After I tried the method from the Pre-boot setup for BTRFS filesystems, I was able to successfully boot into the Fedora (non-Live environment).

Later, I discovered that simply using the built-in “Discover” app to update then rebooting, and it finally made the Fedora option appear in the GRUB menu.

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1 Like
8

Great! Updating from the initial install would have upgraded the kernel, and I guess that was enough to get the GRUB entries generated.

Cool that you have it working now anyway!