Recurring Upgrade Issues

Ask Fedora
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1

Hello again to all!!! It’s been a crazy 6-8 months…. But I finally have some time again, woohoo! So, in the past I have written in regarding update problems but despite many efforts the problems still remained. But now I may have some more information if I can keep the cat from trying to use the keyboard at the same time I’m typing.

I installed Fedora AGAIN and again it is now unusable. So now I have 4 Fedora installs, all on same computer, all currently worthless. But I think that’s a good thing here. I also have Fedora on my laptop and it’s just fine. The desktop seems to all go through the same cycle - install version X, upgrade to X+1 goes okay, X+2 has some problems but usable, X+3 has serious problems, & if it is stlll at all usable for anything, X+4 finishes the job. Basically I can’t upgrade past X+2 and hope to do anything. The symptoms always change, but the pattern is the same!

I will confess I am uh, lazy sometimes. It WAS suggested on at least 2 of my previous calls for help that the NVidia driver was probably at fault but I just didn’t want to go through the long process of uninstalling and reinstalling blah blah blah. I did try it now a few weeks ago but I think that install was just too far gone to accept a simple fix. So, I guess my question is, is it possible that the nVidia drivers can really screw up so many different things at random and why don’t all the other drivers update along with the system?

Another key point here is that to install the nVidia drivers I have to add another repository and pull from that - it’s possible it’s not even actually an nVIdia driver, it could be some other little program or driver that it (or something else) pulled in. So, before I install again, I was wondering if there were any ideas or suggestions I could try to fix this problem in the future. Also, I’m out of HD space so I’ll be reformatting and using one of the old Fedora install locations. I have a common Home partition though (2 actually) so could that cause a problem or is there something I should do to it first?

Thank you for your help and your time, I really appreciate it!!!

-Peter

2

What hardware do you have?

Also, just to link it now, this may help (even if laptops seems to have problems with Linux Distros):

3

I am not sure what the meaning is here. Have you installed 4 different times on the same computer? Or are you installing again and again without removing the older installation? Or as you note are you doing something like installing f39, then upgrading one version at a time to the newest (f43).

In order to address your issues, I strongly suggest that you first install f43, totally new, then work from a known good point to address the other issues.

It is vitally important that we are able to understand the details of any issue you report, and that we may be able to test a similar installation in order to assist.

A good starting point is this

and how to ask for help should be similar to this

Installing the nvidia drivers when you have an nvidia GPU should be done by

  1. enable the 3rd party repos during the first boot setup process.
  2. install the nvidia driver as shown here
  3. It may be necessary during the initial install to use the troubleshooting option on the very first screen of the install media boot and use basic graphics to perform the installation before the drivers can be installed.
  4. Remember that the very first boot after installing the nvidia drivers may need secure boot disabled and if you wish to use secure boot the instructions on how to do that will be in the file /usr/share/doc/akmods/README.secureboot (or at this site)
1 Like
4

Thank you! Okay in response, here is a bunch of random info: Desktop is a Lenovo with Intel Xeon W2145 3.7GHz CPU & 64GB 2666MHz RAM, and an NVIDIA RTX 3060 graphics card with 12GB RAM. Yes, I installed Fedora 4 times on this computer. Last time (4th) was when I upgraded SSD from 1TB to 2TB - hmmm, what should I do with all that extra space? Hahaha! Each version was upgraded until it died, than after a little time I installed another new version on another partition. The first 2 versions have already been erased, but ask mentioned, the /home was installed to it’s own separate ext4 partition and is shared with other Linux installs - each in it’s own separate directory but same partition. Fedora has been installed on ext4 and btrfs formatted partitions. The symptoms were totally random and different. Internet stopped working, apps stopped working, GUI stopped working, commands stopped working, stuff disappeared, entire system stopped booting… all had different symptoms but all seemed to follow the same schedule. I don’t have secureboot. I have 2 NVME SSDs & 3 traditional hard drives, Fedora has been installed on both. I also have Win10, Win11, MX Linux, & Linux Lite installed as OS options. A primary purpose is to keep DaVinci Resolve up and running on Linux so there’s one less reason to boot into Windows. The initial install and for the first upgrade everything seemed to work flawlessly. Problem is just with desktop, as my laptop has been upgrading Fedora since like 27 or something & it still woks perfectly. It’s late & I work early, hope that covers everything. Thanks again!!

PS I’m now reading that article about the RPM Fusion failing to update, thank you!

5

Ok, so:
[1]
Your PC is a

  • Lenovo (server?)
  • CPU Intel Xeon W2145 3.7GHz
  • 64GB DDR3 2666MHz RAM
  • NVIDIA RTX 3060 12gb
  • [And a ton of Storage Drives with many different OSs installed at the same time.]

This is what I understood from your latest, very dense message[2]:

Over the years you’ve installed many, different Operating Systems, from Windowses to Linuxes, for personal reasons.
Instead of wiping a drive completely, you more or less try to preserve the /home partition of Fedora.
You do not completely wipe the previous Fedora install every time you reinstall it, which I’ve heard from people on this Forum that it can lead to problems “because of the Grub ID” or something" (it was a long time ago).

Here’s what I suggest:
Try unplugging all the Storage Drives BUT the one you want to install Fedora upon, then when you install it WIPE the drive completely, do a clean install, do not preserve anything.
Fedora is designed to use the btrfs partitioning because it can create subvolumes. I don’t need to know anything more to come to understand that I shouldn’t try to use Ext4 to install Fedora instead.

After you’ve installed it, you could just plug the other Storage Drives back in and use the computer.[3]
I say this ASSUMING that the other OSs and their “booters” (be them Grub2 or whatever) just work correctly.
Also, it COULD be an hardware failure of some, ANY kind, like a malfunctioning SSD, Sata Power, or Sata Data cable… but that’s something that only you can test.

  1. I have an “handicap” where if text is too compact my brain “blends the lines”. It is not that bad when I’m “in a period of time in which I am healthier”, but it’s still there. ↩︎

  2. Also since your english is (no offense) not very good, what you say feels like a river. A continuous stream of information which isn’t very distinct (mainly from lack of punctuation and pacing). ↩︎

  3. ↩︎

6

Having a large blob of info with no separation into paragraphs and clear identification when thoughts switch is very difficult to read and understand.

Random bits of info that bounce around are even worse.

I will try and separate what you wrote into topics the way I understand it.

Okay in response, here is a bunch of random info: 
Desktop is a Lenovo with Intel Xeon W2145 3.7GHz CPU & 64GB 2666MHz RAM, and an NVIDIA RTX 3060 graphics card with 12GB RAM. 

Yes, I installed Fedora 4 times on this computer. Last time (4th) was when I upgraded SSD from 1TB to 2TB - hmmm, what should I do with all that extra space? Hahaha! 

Each version was upgraded until it died, than after a little time I installed another new version on another partition. The first 2 versions have already been erased, but ask mentioned, the /home was installed to it’s own separate ext4 partition and is shared with other Linux installs - each in it’s own separate directory but same partition. 

Fedora has been installed on ext4 and btrfs formatted partitions. 

The symptoms were totally random and different. Internet stopped working, apps stopped working, GUI stopped working, commands stopped working, stuff disappeared, entire system stopped booting… all had different symptoms but all seemed to follow the same schedule. 

I don’t have secureboot. 

I have 2 NVME SSDs & 3 traditional hard drives, Fedora has been installed on both. I also have Win10, Win11, MX Linux, & Linux Lite installed as OS options. 

A primary purpose is to keep DaVinci Resolve up and running on Linux so there’s one less reason to boot into Windows. 

The initial install and for the first upgrade everything seemed to work flawlessly. 

Problem is just with desktop, as my laptop has been upgrading Fedora since like 27 or something & it still woks perfectly. 

It’s late & I work early, hope that covers everything.

Starting at the top.

Random information is not at all helpful. The reader must be able to pick out scrambled details and attempt to put it together in a meaning ful order.

The first link I provided was to the suggestion to use inxi and instructions on how to use it.
Please do that then copy and paste the results here as preformatted text. Paste the information, then highlight it and click the </> button so we can see the results formatted exactly as you see it on screen.

Based on your later system info that you have a total of 5 drives installed we need to see exactly how they are used. For that we need the output of
sudo fdisk -l and lsblk -f (both also as preformatted text).

Just as a forethought, installing multiple OSes in a random fashion without knowledge of how to keep one from interfering with another is a recipe for disaster. We will work with recovery steps.

Again a recipe for disaster. We need the information I asked for above before any meaningful suggestions can be made.

1 Like
7

Hello again, yes I am VERY sorry, it was late (no excuse) and I really wanted to get a reply in. I shall log into something and either post inxi if a full working distro or take a picture if from Fedora. Just to also clear up a few things I was probably not very clear on:

  • Everything including Fedora worked great. Still does except Fedora after a few upgrades.
  • When Fedora was re-installed it was a new install to a new partition, not re-installing & over-writing a previous install. BUT I did use the same /home partition.
  • The older Fedora installs were eventually deleted.

I apologize again for my earlier post. Thank you so much for your help!

  • Peter
8

No problem, but you should be aware that many apps get upgraded over time.
Many of those apps may store configuration files either under $HOME/.local, $HOME/.config, or as a dot file (hidden) directly under $HOME. The default config for fedora allows a user to see those files with the command l. or ls -a when in their home directory.

As a result there are occasions where the updated app is not able to function if there is a remaining config file created by an older version of the same app.

Repeated and continued upgrades without cleaning out the older config files have caused problems for many users over time.