Bug 2402975

Summary: inst.sdboot does not install or configure systemd-boot
Product: [Fedora] Fedora Reporter: Chris Murphy <bugzilla>
Component: anacondaAssignee: anaconda-maint
Status: CLOSED ERRATA QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: unspecified    
Version: 43CC: a.badger, alpha, anaconda-maint, bugzilla, cmdr, jeremy.linton, kkoukiou, kobuck75, lars.bohl, paul, w
Target Milestone: ---   
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: Unspecified   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: anaconda-44.8-1.fc44 Doc Type: ---
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2025-12-10 16:59:27 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:
Attachments:
Description Flags
syslog
none
anaconda.log
none
storage.log
none
packaging.log
none
dnf.log
none
program.log
none
anaconda-logs-f43.tgz
none
updates.img none

Description Chris Murphy 2025-10-10 03:32:14 UTC
Boot Fedora-Server-dvd-x86_64-43-20251009.n.0.iso with inst.sdboot and complete an automatic installation, reboot and the boot loader is GRUB not systemd-boot.


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Boot Fedora-Server-dvd-x86_64-43-20251009.n.0.iso in qemu-kvm with inst.sdboot
2. Complete an automatic installation [1]
3. Reboot

Actual Results:
GRUB is the bootloader

Expected Results:
systemd-boot is the bootloader

Additional Information:
/run/install/repo/Packages/s/systemd-boot-unsigned-258-1.fc43.x86_64.rpm is present on the install media, but doesn't get installed per rpm -qa | grep systemd-boot

/mnt/sysroot/dnf.package.cache does not have this file

[1] attached logs will show custom partitioning, fiddling around, ultimately deleting the layout I imagined, and clicking on the blue text to automatically create the layout with the default LVM scheme for server.

Comment 1 Chris Murphy 2025-10-10 03:32:56 UTC
Created attachment 2109236 [details]
syslog

Comment 2 Chris Murphy 2025-10-10 03:33:30 UTC
Created attachment 2109237 [details]
anaconda.log

Comment 3 Chris Murphy 2025-10-10 03:33:46 UTC
Created attachment 2109238 [details]
storage.log

Comment 4 Chris Murphy 2025-10-10 03:34:03 UTC
Created attachment 2109239 [details]
packaging.log

Comment 5 Chris Murphy 2025-10-10 03:34:17 UTC
Created attachment 2109240 [details]
dnf.log

Comment 6 Chris Murphy 2025-10-10 03:34:27 UTC
Created attachment 2109241 [details]
program.log

Comment 7 Simon de Vlieger 2025-10-11 07:43:32 UTC
I can confirm this happens (even when not tinkering with any layouts). Fedora 42 Server ISO's do correctly use sd-boot when inst.sdboot is passed.

Comment 8 Paul Maconi 2025-10-11 13:31:37 UTC
Confirmed with the F43 1006 compose on x86_64 bios and uefi using both the DVD ISO as well as the NetBoot ISO.

Comment 9 Paul Maconi 2025-10-11 20:02:10 UTC
Also confirmed with the F43 1009 compose on x86_64 bios and uefi using both the DVD ISO as well as the NetBoot ISO.

Comment 10 Paul Maconi 2025-10-11 20:32:15 UTC
Not unique to server. Can replicate on KDE, WS, Kinoite, and Silverblue, both UEFI and BIOS boot modes.

Comment 11 Jeremy Linton 2025-10-15 15:11:23 UTC
Looks like anaconda is getting the right parms

DEBUG:anaconda.modules.storage.bootloader.bootloader:The default type is set to 'BootloaderType.SDBOOT'.
but then goes and creates:
INFO:anaconda.modules.storage.bootloader.factory:Created the boot loader EFIGRUB.

which i'm guessing is one of the commits that are changing the bootloader selection if there is a GPT/whatever partition already on the drive, but I don't see the exact issue at the moment.

But, then looking at the anaconda log, I don't see sdubby there either, and afaik it should be, meaning that once anaconda actually activates the right path, it might not work anyway.

Comment 12 otheos 2025-12-02 10:24:11 UTC
I can replicate on bare metal installation using the Everything ISO. KDE and Gnome tested so far.

Comment 13 kompost 2025-12-05 19:47:00 UTC
Fedora 42 is not affected. This new issue was introduced with the F43 installer. See bug 2418280.

Comment 14 kompost 2025-12-07 18:40:04 UTC
I think I found the issue. See pull request:
https://github.com/rhinstaller/anaconda/pull/6798

Comment 15 kompost 2025-12-07 21:43:25 UTC
*** Bug 2418280 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 16 kompost 2025-12-09 15:17:08 UTC
Created attachment 2118150 [details]
anaconda-logs-f43.tgz

The fix was merged to main (F44) on 2025-12-08. We have confirmed that the fix in commit 15e1891414 works. Systemd-boot gets installed as expected. See anaconda-logs-f43.tgz.

Comment 17 kompost 2025-12-09 15:35:02 UTC
Created attachment 2118154 [details]
updates.img

Hotfix for the F43 sdboot problem: Download updates.img, copy to web server and add it to the installer's kernel cmdline options. Example:

inst.updates=http://my.webserver.local:8080/updates.img

Instructions for building updates.img:

* git clone https://github.com/rhinstaller/anaconda.git
* git checkout fedora-43
* git cherry-pick 2107e59 e462d41 # e462d41 is the fix. 2107e59 optional, logging improvement
* for file in dockerfile/anaconda-iso-creator/lorax-build*; do sed -i 's|dl\.fedoraproject\.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/43|dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/43|' $file; done
* git commit -am "fix lorax build" # The previous step changed some configuration files . This was necessary for successful build. Commit these changes.
* scripts/testing/rebuild_iso # needs root, takes a long time
* scripts/testing/update_iso -t anaconda-43.33 # needs root?

Documentation for inst.updates option: https://anaconda-installer.readthedocs.io/en/latest/boot-options.html

sha256sum updates.img: 0c6d5ca2b935d92b40bddddb4b023dc1b0a285c3748524a950bace2969586e47

Comment 18 Fedora Update System 2025-12-10 16:17:49 UTC
FEDORA-2025-3190649b5c (anaconda-44.8-1.fc44 and anaconda-webui-60-1.fc44) has been submitted as an update to Fedora 44.
https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2025-3190649b5c

Comment 19 Fedora Update System 2025-12-10 16:59:27 UTC
FEDORA-2025-3190649b5c (anaconda-44.8-1.fc44 and anaconda-webui-60-1.fc44) has been pushed to the Fedora 44 stable repository.
If problem still persists, please make note of it in this bug report.

Comment 20 John 2026-01-16 22:04:52 UTC
*** Bug 2396399 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***