+++ This bug was initially created as a clone of Bug #1196065 +++

Description of problem:

Plymouth is not loading on 64 bit machines due to a line in /etc/grub.d/10_linux

sixteenbit=""
linuxefi="linux"
initrdefi="initrd"
case "$machine" in
i?86|x86_64)
    sixteenbit="16"
    linuxefi="linuxefi"
    initrdefi="initrdefi"
    ;;
aarch64)
    linuxefi="linux"
    initrdefi="initrd"
    ;;
esac

The line is: sixteenbit="16"

Instead setting it to: sixteenbit=""

Will restore Plymouth. 


Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):


How reproducible:

Run plymouth graphical boot on a 64 bit machine on Fedora 21 (possibly affects NVidia graphics drivers). 

Steps to Reproduce:
1. reboot at 64 bit machine iwth fedora 21 installed

Actual results:

Text mode boot.

Expected results:

Graphical Plymouth boot.

Additional info:

Discussion and solution links:

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=302370#5
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=301929#9

--- Additional comment from Laszlo Pal on 2015-08-14 15:28:25 EDT ---

Hi,

Please note this affects Fedora 22 too and it seems in only case when proprietary nvidia driver is installed. I've used nouveau driver for months and I never had such issue

--- Additional comment from Fedora End Of Life on 2015-11-04 05:01:35 EST ---

This message is a reminder that Fedora 21 is nearing its end of life.
Approximately 4 (four) weeks from now Fedora will stop maintaining
and issuing updates for Fedora 21. It is Fedora's policy to close all
bug reports from releases that are no longer maintained. At that time
this bug will be closed as EOL if it remains open with a Fedora  'version'
of '21'.

Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you
plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, simply change the 'version' 
to a later Fedora version.

Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that we were not 
able to fix it before Fedora 21 is end of life. If you would still like 
to see this bug fixed and are able to reproduce it against a later version 
of Fedora, you are encouraged  change the 'version' to a later Fedora 
version prior this bug is closed as described in the policy above.

Although we aim to fix as many bugs as possible during every release's 
lifetime, sometimes those efforts are overtaken by events. Often a 
more recent Fedora release includes newer upstream software that fixes 
bugs or makes them obsolete.

--- Additional comment from Eduardo on 2015-11-04 09:32:06 EST ---

Hello,
I do not about others, but I have a Fedora 22 and Fedora 23 where this is still happening every time I rerun grub2-mkconfig manually.
Also this is happening on systems that do not have proprietary video drivers (one radeon, one i915).

--- Additional comment from  on 2015-11-04 17:10:41 EST ---

Hi

It's also affecting me on Fedora 22, with an ATI graphics.

--- Additional comment from NSLW on 2015-11-22 05:25:07 EST ---

Still issue on Fedora 23.

--- Additional comment from Fedora End Of Life on 2015-12-02 04:26:12 EST ---

Fedora 21 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status on 2015-12-01. Fedora 21 is
no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further
security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug.

If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of
Fedora please feel free to reopen this bug against that version. If you
are unable to reopen this bug, please file a new report against the
current release. If you experience problems, please add a comment to this
bug.

Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.

--- Additional comment from Maksim Zubkov on 2015-12-06 10:56:49 EST ---

Still issue on Fedora 22 and 23 too.

--- Additional comment from Stanislav on 2016-08-08 07:31:18 EDT ---

It's still actual on Fedora 24.

--- Additional comment from Levente Farkas on 2016-12-02 01:34:01 EST ---

It's still actual on Fedora 25

--- Additional comment from Andreas Schöneck on 2017-07-24 02:40:10 EDT ---

Code in *Fedora 26* looks still like that:

---
linux_entry ()
{
  os="$1"
  version="$2"
  type="$3"
  isdebug="$4"
  args="$5"

  sixteenbit=""
  linuxefi="linux"
  initrdefi="initrd"
  case "$machine" in
    i?86|x86_64)
        sixteenbit="16"
        linuxefi="linuxefi"
        initrdefi="initrdefi"
        ;;
    aarch64)
        linuxefi="linux"
        initrdefi="initrd"
        ;;
  esac

...
---

--- Additional comment from "FeRD" (Frank Dana) on 2017-09-08 08:40:07 EDT ---

Interestingly, I discovered that the use of linux16 is something INTENTIONAL that Fedora is patching into our grub builds, it's not actually part of the 10_linux script from upstream grub at all.

The patch to do this was checked in by pjones on 2013-10-28 and can be seen here (though a later patch further modifies the code to include the linuxefi lines):

http://pkgs.fedoraproject.org/cgit/rpms/grub2.git/tree/0099-Use-linux16-when-appropriate-880840.patch

The commit message reads:
"The kernel group really would prefer that we use the 16 bit entry point
on x86 bios machines. Resolves: rhbz#880840"

Most curious of all, attempting to view bug 880840 here in bugzilla produces a severe-looking message screen, admonishing
"You are not authorized to access bug #880840. Most likely the bug has been restricted for internal development processes and we cannot grant access." 

So, apparently the information about WHY the kernel group wants that sixteenbit switch in there is Highly Classified Information. Disappointing.