I run my computers in what used to be called runlevel 3, logging in to a text mode virtual console and starting X11 with the startx command, and I use the KDE desktop.
In November I upgraded my 12-year-old secondary computer from Fedora34 to Fedora35 with dnf system-upgrade. I originally installed Fedora12 when the machine was new, and have always upgraded it with system-upgrade.
After upgrading to Fedora 35, I haven’t been able to use X11. When I do startx, it turns the display off for a while, then instead of showing the graphical interface it returns back to text mode.
I filed a bug report in bugzilla ( 2029404 – X11 doesn't start in Fedora 35 ) in December, but so far it appears that nobody has reacted to it.
Comparing package lists between the old computer and my main one (still runninig F34), I didn’t notice anything relevant missing, but I noticed that the old one had the package fedora-release-identity-basic instead of fedora-release-identity-kde of the new one. I installed fedora-release-identity-kde to see if it would bring some kde dependencies that might be missing, but it didn’t.
To test if the problem was some personal settings in my home directory, I created a test account and when I did startx with that account, it apparently started the gnome desktop. No start menu in the taskbar, in the left there is only “Activities” which changes the display and shows Firefox and file cabinet icons and a 3x3 grid in the bottom and the 3x3 grid brings icons to the screen in alphabetical order with no grouping. I don’t like this. I found the desktop switcher application by typing “sw” in the search bar, but it doesn’t show KDE, only Gnome desktop and System default.
Any idea what I may be missing, and what could prevent startx with my normal user account? There’s a Xorg.0.log file from a failed attempt and rpm package list from December attached to the bugzilla entry I mentioned ( 2029404 – X11 doesn't start in Fedora 35 ), I have updated all rpm packets that have newer versions in the repository, but nothing has helped so far.
I hesitate upgrading my main computer to F35 before I get this thing sorted out, in case it might show the same symptoms.