The installer (and some other apps) might not start on systems with an Nvidia graphics card

Problem

If you boot a Fedora Live image and try to start the installer, the installer might fail to start on systems with an Nvidia graphics card. This also affects selected other apps.

Cause

The general issue is that the Nvidia opensource driver (nouveau) is in a very poor state because Nvidia doesn’t maintain it. The specific issue is not known yet.

Related Issues

Bugzilla report: 2177483 – Anaconda can't create a window because of nouveau
Discussion: Install to hard drive doesnt open in fedora 38 workstation

Workarounds

Option A) A basic graphics mode

When you boot from the Fedora install media and see the initial boot menu, select Troubleshooting → Start Fedora in basic graphics mode.

The desktop will start in a low resolution and might feel sluggish, but the installer should start as expected. After the installation is complete, fully update your system. Then you can either disable the basic graphics mode by removing nomodeset keyword from the GRUB boot menu, and try if nouveau works better for you now, or you can install the proprietary Nvidia driver.

Option B) Live respins

Try booting a live image respin. Those are not officially supported by Fedora, but they contain much newer packages (including the kernel and drivers), and might work better on your hardware.


You can discuss this issue here.