Unable to boot after 5.3.* Kernel upgrade but still able to boot older 5.2.*, what should I do now?

Am using Fedora30 but unable to boot after 5.3.* Kernel upgrade (screens just flash, no login) though am still able to boot previous/older 5.2.* Kernel in Grub2, what should I do now to fix this?
Possibly an Nvidia issue?
Any assistance gratefully received,
Tom

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Hi @aviceda and welcome to Ask Fedora!

Did you install proprietary NVidia driver and if you did – how did you do it (what how-to / guide did you use)? Providing model of your NVidia GPU can also help.

One other useful thing to know is if you can to switch to text console (tty) when boot finishes (if it actually does) using [Ctl-Alt-F3] (also F4-F6).

Also please check this post (and the whole thread), and maybe try the solution provided. Chances are pretty slim you have exactly the same issue, but screen flashing rings the bell:

P.S. you can add these parameters temporarely by editing grub’s menu (by pressing [e] in grub) – that’s a good way to try them without making permanent changes.

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You are not alone. I am seeing the exact same problem and there are multiple reports of this in this forum and over at fedoraforum.org. Although I think that people are reporting the same problem as different observed symptoms.

I am pretty sure that it isn’t an NVIDA issue. I am experiencing this using Intel graphics (i7-8700) on my desktop. But a laptop with all the same package versions and the NVIDA driver (from rpmfusion) installed doesn’t have the problem.

When the screen starts flashing I can switch to a tty using [Ctl-Alt-F3], so the system is actually booting.

I am not convinced that this is a kernel problem either. At least not the kernel on its own.

Systemd was updated at the same time for me and I am seeing some incorrect behavior there, but only when booting to the 5.3 kernels. For instance NFS mounts and unbound starting before the network is up, despite my having NetworkManager-wait-online.service enabled. This does not happen with the 5.2 kernels, so maybe some interaction between the two?

I haven’t the time to investigate further at the moment. So I have just set my default boot kernel to 5.2.18 with grubby and increased installonly_limit to 10 (from 3 ) in /etc/dnf/dnf.conf so that i don’t loose the working kernel any time soon.

Actually, DNF doesn’t permit deleting the currently booted kernel.

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Still unable to boot kernel 5.3, what’s causing this?

I’ve seen the same issue, and it also persists into Fedora 31. My last working kernel is 5.2.18. I am on Intel graphics.

I even tested this by trying to boot the live installer, and its the same thing so I know its not anything I’ve installed. If anyone knows what information to check or gather I’d like to help.

I literally spoke too soon, this morning the only update was 5.3.7. I just checked and updated to 5.3.8 and the issue is resolved. I can upgrade to F31 now :slight_smile:

I’m stuck.
(Or for sure I don’t know something.)
Latest update shown is 5.3.6-200.fc30.x86_64.
Before those, there are 5.2.11, 5.2.9

Cannot boot with any of those.
Only one that boots is a Fedora 12 release.
But with this one I can’t do anything either.
The Firefox version wit this release 12 is too old and cannot get into any site.

So, I cannot even download release 31 iso image to install the system from scratch.
I thought of purchasing a new drive.
Now, all data in my current drive are intact.

I tried to boot from the Fedora 30 rescue mode.
It halted too.
This time it halted when attempting to load the GNOME display manager.

Any suggestion?