Bug 2366967

Summary:	Installation media is not recognised by the 32-bit EFI of the 64-bit-CPU LINX 1010.
Product:	[Fedora] Fedora	Reporter:	Mr. Beedell, Roke Julian Lockhart (RJLB) <8ru2u4gz>
Component:	anaconda	Assignee:	anaconda-maint
Status:	CLOSED CURRENTRELEASE	QA Contact:	Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity:	high	Docs Contact:
Priority:	unspecified
Version:	42	CC:	anaconda-maint, kkoukiou, marcus-schaefer, mirh, mkolman, ngompa13, w
Target Milestone:	---	Keywords:	Desktop, Regression, Upgrades
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	x86_64
OS:	Linux
URL:	https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/how-to-install-onto-32-bit-efi/85941/7?u=rokejulianlockhart#:~:text=Villy%20Kruse:-,Fedora%20ships%20with%20grub2%2Defi,yet%20to%20recieve%20a%20response.,-I%20think%20I%E2%80%99ll
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	---
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2025-09-15 10:28:16 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
Bug Depends On:	1474861
Bug Blocks:

Description Mr. Beedell, Roke Julian Lockhart (RJLB) 2025-05-17 10:37:09 UTC

openSUSE, as of 2024-01, supports installation of 64-bit OSes on 32-bit EFIs. [^1] Fedora should have supported this since at least 2019-04, should have supported this. [^2] Its acceptance by FESCo, and implementation, are explicitly documented at Fedora's MediaWiki instance. [^3] However, it hasn't functioned since at least F39, and it's now F42, with the aforecited RHBZ issue still in NEEDSINFO to the assignee without response. Consequently, I've submitted this issue to request that the *existing* support [^4] be fixed.

Reproducibility:

:	Always

Steps to Reproduce:

:	1. Write https://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/42/KDE/x86_64/iso/Fedora-KDE-Desktop-Live-42-1.1.x86_64.iso to a (15-GiB) USB-A ⪆ 2.0 storage device with mediawriter-5.2.5-1.fc42.x86_64.

	2. Close Media Writer.

	3. (Safely) eject the storage device via `plasmashell`.

	4. Connect it to the USB-A port of the LINX whilst it is unpowered.

	5. Connect a keyboard to the LINX.

	6. Boot the LINX.

	7. (Press ESC to) invoke the EFI GUI.

	8. Enter the relevant page.

Actual Results:

:	The installation media does not appear in the LINX 1010's EFI's GUI.

Expected Results:

:	It should.

Additional Information:

:	I've yet to evaluate whether Rawhide supports it, but have no reason to believe so.

	[^1]: https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1208003#c45:~:text=it%20did%20actually%20install

	[^2]: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1474861

	[^3]: https://fedoraproject.org/w/index.php?title=Changes/32BitUefiSupport&oldid=500123#Release_Notes:~:text=Approved%20by%20FESCo%20for%20F27%20https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1474861%23c4&text=SystemWideChange-,ChangeAcceptedF27,-About

	[^4]: https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/how-to-install-onto-32-bit-efi/85941/7?u=rokejulianlockhart#:~:text=Villy%20Kruse:-,Fedora%20ships%20with%20grub2%2Defi,yet%20to%20recieve%20a%20response.,-I%20think%20I%E2%80%99ll

Comment 1 Martin Kolman 2025-05-27 15:25:09 UTC

I don't think this has been officially deprecated yet, but at least here in the installer team we don't really have the physical hardware necessary to properly test this. So I think the expectation so far was that it might still work, but we would not really know if it breaks due to some changed in the bootloader related code.

If this is important for you I suggest to start a wider discussion on the Fedore Devel mailing list[0] or perhaps on Fedora Discussions[1], where maybe someone people who know more will be able to reply or possibly other affected users might chime in.

[0] https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/devel@lists.fedoraproject.org/
[1] https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/

Comment 2 Mr. Beedell, Roke Julian Lockhart (RJLB) 2025-05-27 16:37:38 UTC

(In reply to Martin Kolman from comment #1)

> I don't think this has been officially deprecated yet, but at least here in
> the installer team we don't really have the physical hardware necessary to
> properly test this. So I think the expectation so far was that it might
> still work, but we would not really know if it breaks due to some changed in
> the bootloader related code.

If of use, I have a spare LINX 1010 that I can send to you, if you provide an address.

> If this is important for you I suggest to start a wider discussion on the
> Fedore Devel mailing list[0] or perhaps on Fedora Discussions[1], where
> maybe someone people who know more will be able to reply or possibly other
> affected users might chime in.
> 
> [0]
> https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/devel@lists.fedoraproject.org/
> [1] https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/

I'm unfamiliar with the mailing lists, but if you check the bibliography again, you'll see a URI to the Fedora Discourse instance, where I did commence a discussion ⪆ 2 years ago. Since I was in Army BRTC at the time, I tried to supply whatever relevant information I could, but haven't had much chance to research it until now. Regardless, little discussion appears to have come of it, presumably because few possess the expertise and knowledge to state anything useful, which is understandable. (I don't!) Do you believe the mailing list would be different? I ask because it'd be my first foray into mailing lists, so I'm reluctant... 😅

Comment 3 Martin Kolman 2025-05-30 09:54:05 UTC

(In reply to Mr. Beedell, Roke Julian Lockhart (RJLB) from comment #2)
> (In reply to Martin Kolman from comment #1)
> 
> > I don't think this has been officially deprecated yet, but at least here in
> > the installer team we don't really have the physical hardware necessary to
> > properly test this. So I think the expectation so far was that it might
> > still work, but we would not really know if it breaks due to some changed in
> > the bootloader related code.
> 
> If of use, I have a spare LINX 1010 that I can send to you, if you provide
> an address.
> 
> > If this is important for you I suggest to start a wider discussion on the
> > Fedore Devel mailing list[0] or perhaps on Fedora Discussions[1], where
> > maybe someone people who know more will be able to reply or possibly other
> > affected users might chime in.
> > 
> > [0]
> > https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/devel@lists.fedoraproject.org/
> > [1] https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/
> 
> I'm unfamiliar with the mailing lists, but if you check the bibliography
> again, you'll see a URI to the Fedora Discourse instance, where I did
> commence a discussion ⪆ 2 years ago. Since I was in Army BRTC at the time, I
> tried to supply whatever relevant information I could, but haven't had much
> chance to research it until now. Regardless, little discussion appears to
> have come of it, presumably because few possess the expertise and knowledge
> to state anything useful, which is understandable. (I don't!) Do you believe
> the mailing list would be different? I ask because it'd be my first foray
> into mailing lists, so I'm reluctant... 😅
Oh, right - fair enough. :) So I have started a mailing list thread[1] - maybe it will get some more traction that way. :) BTW, I think it should be possible to interact with the mailing list thread just via the linked web interface after you log in with your Fedora account if you want to. :)

[1] https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/devel@lists.fedoraproject.org/thread/PLMK77EDJSTZKJSX7JZBVERFEFKGE5JR/

Comment 4 Mr. Beedell, Roke Julian Lockhart (RJLB) 2025-05-30 10:56:30 UTC

(In reply to Martin Kolman from comment #3)

> BTW, I think it should be possible to interact with the mailing list
> thread just via the linked web interface after you log in with your
> Fedora account if you want to. :)
> 
> [1]
> https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/devel@lists.fedoraproject.org/
> thread/PLMK77EDJSTZKJSX7JZBVERFEFKGE5JR/

Thank you! It's a little buggy – https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure/issue/12582 – but how quickly the respondents have already identified the problem is remarkable. I'll try to track https://pagure.io/fedora-kiwi-descriptions/pull-request/193, and when built into Rawhide, attempt installation of the produced ISO.

Comment 5 Neal Gompa 2025-05-30 11:50:21 UTC

I've attempted to restore it and discovered we don't handle this case in kiwi, so I've filed a bug to fix it: https://github.com/OSInside/kiwi/issues/2822

Comment 6 Mr. Beedell, Roke Julian Lockhart (RJLB) 2025-09-15 10:28:16 UTC

With https://pagure.io/fedora-kiwi-descriptions/pull-request/193#flags, this appears to have been remediated: installation succeeded on 2 LINX 1010s (with 32-bit EFIs).