Fixing a broken Fedora 34 XFCE workstation system

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1

Yesterday I got into the mood to prepare a software distribution upgrade for my Fedora 34 workstation system.
Thus the command “sudo dnf upgrade --refresh” was successfully executed (in principle) in a terminal window of my working XFCE session.
:astonished: But I was surprised by unexpected software behaviour after the corresponding computer reboot.

  1. The login succeeded.
  2. The graphical displays were started by some known applications.
    • A file manager presented a directory listing.
    • The network became connected.
    • An internet browser showed the heading “Performing system upgrade” from a helpful documentation.
  3. My mail program was started after another while.
    It requested a password for my mail account.
    But I observed then that the corresponding text field did not handle my input as expected.
  4. Other application windows reacted also in questionable ways according to clicks.
  5. The key board shortcut “Ctrl+Alt+Del” worked still as expected.
    Thus I could choose one of the usual actions in the shown dialogue.
  1. I switched the computer on once more.
  2. The GRUB boot menu was accordingly displayed.
  3. I chose to edit the main menu entry.
    I appended the setting “3” to the parameter “linux=”.
    This boot attempt was continued then after the key board shortcut “Ctrl+x”.
  4. A text login interface was offered according to the selected run level.
  5. I entered the known credentials.
    :astonished: But they were not accepted here (despite of a successful graphical login before).

I would appreciate further solution ideas and advices. :thinking:

:thought_balloon: Does the software combination “Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-35-1.2.iso” support also another “upgrade” (instead of mentioned “installation”)?

2

Yes it can be used for a new install, with /home not changed. You should read this page https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Testcase_partitioning_custom_btrfs_preserve_home.

3

I hope that more data can be preserved and updated then from a software selection for a desirable fix of a Fedora 34 system which became questionable somehow.

:thought_balloon: Can the mentioned unexpected software behaviour still be repaired by any other means?

4

:thought_balloon: Would you like to suggest any approaches with which another login can work for the target “multi-user” (runlevel “3”) by known credentials?

:crystal_ball: How will the chances evolve to choose an alternative desktop session (instead of a questionable XFCE configuration by LightDM)?