Update destroyed fedora

[beacon (Larry Johnston)]

I am very confused about how to make a point on this website, so I apologise if I am going about it the wrong way.
I have wasted two days attempting to solve a problem, and although I really regret it, have had to go back to Linux Mint after several years enjoying Fedora.
I am using the latest version of Fedora Workshop, and two days ago I had a notice that there were updates available. I followed instructions: updated and rebooted. Then I found that nothing worked. Whatever bit of software I ticked, I got a colourless square on the desktop. I didn’t panic at first and simply re-booted; unfortunately with the same result. I then did get concerned and reinstalled from the same usb stick I had used originally. The same thing happened. I then downloaded the iso to a new usb stick, thinking that would do the job. There was the same result. Since I was helpless, being unable to use the terminal, or anything else, I had no option that I could see, except to go to another OS. I really prefer Fedora, but this grave failure has put me off. After so many attempts I can’t face reinstalling yet again.

[tqcharm (Mike B.)]

Probably Mesa regression related issue. You’ll be able to find several such recent topics here on the forums, as well as the workaround regarding downgrading mesa, such as this one here.

EDIT: if the issue is as suspected, please also update the title accordingly.

[pramodvu1502 (Pramod V. U.)]

Try fedora silverblue/kinoite… It has never broken on me.

[tqcharm (Mike B.)]

@pramodvu1502

Try fedora silverblue/kinoite…

I am too a Fedora Atomic user, but in this particular case (supposing Mesa is the culprit) the issue would reproduce on Silverblue too (with the notable difference that one has the easy option to roll back to the previous stable deployment).

[anotheruser (Mark)]

or update to mesa-25.0.7-2

https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2025-df3c68a7ce

[pramodvu1502 (Pramod V. U.)]

@tqcharm

(with the notable difference that one has the easy option to roll back to the previous stable deployment).

That’s a major difference for users like the original poster here…

[gnwiii (George N. White III)]

@beacon

I was helpless, being unable to use the terminal, or anything else

Linux gives much better chances to recover from such issues with reinstalling, and the process is similar across many distros. I have introduced many users to Linux and recommend that they find an experienced Linux buddy willing to help in case of problems. An experienced user looking over your should can often give you help that might otherwise require multiple posts to a support forum.

As alread mentions, your issue is likely the mesa package, easily fixed if you can get to a command line, less easily fixed if you have to use a Live Environment and loop mount the Fedora system.

Ways to get a command line when the GUI environment has failed:

• Enter <Ctrl-Alt-F3> This should give a full-screen text console with a login prompt
• Use the grub2 editor to add a <space 3> at the end of the kernel command line. This should boot to a text console.
• ssh from another system, but you need to have ssh configured

Once you have a command line, you can do:

@anotheruser

update to mesa-25.0.7-2

FEDORA-2025-df3c68a7ce — bugfix update for mesa — Fedora Updates System

[pg-tips (P G)]

@beacon

I then did get concerned and reinstalled from the same usb stick I had used originally. The same thing happened.

Did you have the “colourless square” issue immediately after reinstalling, or only after doing a dnf update on the new install?

I think the mesa bug would have shown itself only after doing an update, because the version of mesa on your original live USB would be earlier than the one with this bug.

[beacon (Larry Johnston)]

Hello and many thanks to everyone who tried to help with my plight. Unfortunately, as is obvious from my inability to do anything with Fedora, they arrived only after I had had to change my OS. I believe from what I have learned that it is a problem with Mesa, although I’m not sure what that is, and I am surprised that official updates would be released when there is such an obvious fault.

I appreciate the helpful tip about getting on-line from wgniii and with respect to pg-tips, I really can’t recall: I feel certain that I tried after the reinstallation, but before updating, but I can’t say that with 100% certainty.

I’m so tired of installing that I can’t at the moment face another one, but I may try again at a later stage. I might try the silver blue that was suggested, but I always have problems with anything slightly out of the mainstream.

Kind regards,

[jrredho (john r red-horse)]

@gnwiii

ssh from another system, but you need to have ssh configured

I agree with everything in this post, but wonder if you meant “need sshd installed and configured” there?

Thanks for the great summary of things!

[anotheruser (Mark)]

@beacon

I am surprised that official updates would be released when there is such an obvious fault.

this bug slipped through, because it only affects certain Intel systems . The Update was in test repository for almost two weeks and none of the feedback suggested that anything was wrong. Only after the update was made available to everyone as stable did the first negative feedback come in.

[jrredho (john r red-horse)]

Fedora is known for tracking pretty close to upstream for many of its components; this is true of the Mesa suite, which was the source of the problem for you. Unfortunately, this will continue to happen with this and other software components due to that fact. It’s part of the deal. Fedora users catch problems that make their way out of the upstream since the hardware/software configurations are so diverse in the Fedora user arena.

In this case, as is usual, it got caught pretty quickly, and various workarounds were suggested until it got sorted.

[pramodvu1502 (Pramod V. U.)]

Sorry if I’m rude, but this isn’t a practical “linux life plan” for simple basic users like the original poster.

What they need is an atomic OS like Fedora Kinoite. “Rollback” is just “click shift then down arrow at boot”; No breakages

[pramodvu1502 (Pramod V. U.)]

@karlsruhe

My plan is superior.

That’s not practical!!!

@karlsruhe

One perfect installation - no updates - no changes. = 100 % Linux stability. Forever.

The new features you’ll gain after an update? The existing bugs’ fixes?
This is not what many would prefer…

@karlsruhe

Kinoite is not completely error-free.

Obviously. It just reduces the impact of bugs by allowing you to immediately rollback.

@karlsruhe

But never-change-a-running-system is error-free.

It isn’t. You’re stuck with the errors of that version.
Even if there aren’t any, soon the version’ll be “outdated”…

@karlsruhe

““Never change a running system” is a saying that means if something is working well, it’s best not to alter it, as changes could introduce new problems.

True, but we want updates, new features, improvements, etc… We are desktop users, this statement applies for corporate servers…

@karlsruhe

This principle is often applied in computing and software development.”

We use the computer for different purposes than “computing and software development”.
We are desktop users. It is unreasonable to not update a system and it’s components beyond a reasonable timeframe.

There’s always slower distros like Ubuntu, RHEL, openSUSE-Leap, etc… for such cases. Fedora is for those who want the updates earlier.

[pramodvu1502 (Pramod V. U.)]

@karlsruhe

A.) My plan is super-practical. Since Linux installations no longer have the complexity they did in the past. You misinterpreted that I am against updates. I am against the plan all-in-one. This means that all Linux users FAIL non-stop.

And now we have here a FAIL (again). And i am the solution.

Please be sensible.

@karlsruhe

B.) With DNF you can select, only security updates should be installed. This minimizes the risk of a BRICK.

dnf update --security

C.) If you need new features, improvements etc. install a new Fedora OS on a second NVMe SSD. If that new installation is stable - destroy your old one.

This is exactly what the atomic distros do, more efficiently and less work for the user.

@karlsruhe

D.) You don’t understand what happened here. A totaly Linux BRICK, his Fedora OS is destroyed = unusable. He switched to Linux Mint (btw. this will solve not his problem).

I KNOW THAT. His device isn’t “bricked”, it’s “broken”. The hardware/firmware is fine. Please read the wikipedia article which you have linked.

Linux Mint has slower updates and thus is more stable…

@karlsruhe

E.) The Linux kernel is the same (desktop users or servers), all sit in the same boat.

Linux kernel commnits: sometimes more than 90 000 changes!

It is fatal to think with an upgrade everything will be fine. It cannot be that 90,000 changes do not lead to a single problem.

Exactly, it’s fatal to think that somehow one of the releases based on the very same commits, is bug-free and you can stay on it without updating.
Enough software expect modern features, which aren’t available just 2-3 versions behind. Software is changing fast on fedora.

@karlsruhe

If Larry doesn’t change his digital life plan, he will soon leave Linux altogether and switch to iOS (the most stable OS in the world).

Uh! He could’ve used windows or macOS; He chose linux for a reason.

Kindly avoid such extreme promotion of a “solution” which has other downsides which others can’t accept. It might be used in servers etc.. which can’t afford small downtimes at all, but the servers have other means to update than to not update. ostree/bootc does “atomic” updates, similar to “reinstalling” as you said, but then things are easy.
Not updating at all, etc.. aren’t practical (“super-practical” basically means “not practical” because “practical” means usability and the actual problems are considered than superlative targets and modes of operation)
Fedora Discussion isn’t reddit, sorry.
Myself sorry for replying in reddit-like tone…

[lendenu (Lorenzo Celsi)]

I guess since Fedora is about catching problems that make their way out of the upstream, by default there should be some easy way to roll back updates, like you press some keys at boot and you are presented the list of the last x snapshots.
I have always thought it is strange Fedora doesns’t have such a basic safety mechanism.
Yes, the “atomic” distributions.
In my opinion they are like flatpak, a good idea for corporate deployments and a bad idea anywhere else.

[ankursinha (FranciscoD)]

Folks, please let us try to remain on-topic to help the user here with their specific issue.

Discussions about the “right way” of maintaining/running a Linux system are quite general and should please be done in the “water cooler” category.

In general, not installing updates is not recommended on Linux or any other OS.

The Water Cooler

Please refrain from additional discussion that does not directly address the issue at hand.

[pramodvu1502 (Pramod V. U.)]

@lendenu

I guess since Fedora is about catching problems that make their way out of the upstream, by default there should be some easy way to roll back updates, like you press some keys at boot and you are presented the list of the last x snapshots.
I have always thought it is strange Fedora doesns’t have such a basic safety mechanism.
Yes, the “atomic” distributions.

Atomic distros are highly modifyable, despite what the popular opinion is about them.
I use Fedora Kinoite, with quite a few packages layered, and even a sysext or two.
They just keep the base OS free from arbitrary changes and encourage more usage of more separated components like flatpak, toolbox, systemd-sysexts.
Anyways, this is the wrong thread to tell too much about it.

@lendenu

In my opinion they are like flatpak, a good idea for corporate deployments and a bad idea anywhere else.

Flatpaks are actually good for personal uses too. They just sometimes conflict with the old workflows, and you need to adjust. I use exclusively flatpaks for most of my GUI. I just had to unlearn some assumptions… (one caveat is that for some flatpaks like virt-manager-GUI is that you need to install the libvirt daemon API etc… on the host, like via systemd-sysext)

[lendenu (Lorenzo Celsi)]

I wrote about adding some easily accessible feature to roll back updates to regular Fedora. Also because probably it would make use of BTRFS which is already default.
In light of Fedora being some sort of “test bed”, It looks like it makes more sense than telling everybody quit regular Fedora and use any “atomic” version.

[jrredho (john r red-horse)]

Assuming that a user had the updates-archive repo available and enabled in their repo set, wouldn’t sudo dnf history undo last accomplish what you’re suggesting?

Under those same circumstances, it would also seem that, once the actual problem package was determined, it would then be the case that sudo dnf downgrade <last-working-package-spec-for-it> would address the issue in a more granular way.

I don’t know the history of how it came into existence or how it even came into being in the first place, but I have often wondered why the updates-archive isn’t included by default in baseline Fedora Workstation at installation. It sure would make dnf history undo and dnf downgrade last more effective.