The Fedora Spin SIG rebuilds .iso install media for Fedora Workstation as well as 6 other desktop spins. We have noticed a problem with the Workstation respin ; The install goes just fine but on first boot... gnome-initial-setup runs but doesn't present anything other than the standard desktop background image... and the menu at the top. In the right-side part of the top menu, gnome-initial-setup is listed and Log off is there... which isn't helpful. The program doesn't allow a root password to be set or a user to be created so the system is basically unusable. Switching to a text-console with Alt-Control-F2, one can not login. I have also noticed this on my personal F29 Workstation remix.
BTW, my testing was done inside of a KVM virtual machine. I believe Ben Williams was also able to reproduce running a VirtualBox VM. Have not tried a physical machine.
This bug also affects F29 (in addition to respins of F28) so I changed the version to reflect F29... so hopefully it'll get more attention.
I just tested the latest Fedora 29 Workstation devel build (https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/29/Workstation/x86_64/iso/Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-29-20180827.n.0.iso) it it too... as the issue. 1) Boot install media works 2) Install process works... but the root password setting and user account creation portion was moved to a post install thingie (gnome-inital-setup) 3) Post install boots and gives me a desktop background with the standard top GNOME menubar stuff on the right... with an entry for "Wired Connection" and "gnome-initial-setup"... but it just sits there... and never presents the dialogues for setting a root password (if desired) nor creating a user account (if desired)... the the install is functionally broken. Again, this was tested inside of a KVM VM... and could potentially be related to the video emulation stuff... I have no idea. I haven't tested it on physical hardware. I did a search for bugs related to gnome-initial-setup and did not find any... but I'm guessing I'm not the only person who has noticed this bug, especially with the upcoming F29 beta freeze in place. Perhaps this is a duplicate issue filed under some other package I didn't notice... although I thought I checked anaconda bugs too... but sometimes I find myself being as blind as a bat.
I can confirm this bug on a bare-metal installation. Exactly as described in comment #3 and with the same latest build. I can configure wifi and do logout/shutdown. Nothing more.
I've noticed that another bug (https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1618865) appears to be the cause of this, the gnome-initial-setup bug. Since I was using a KVM VM with a .qcow2 disk image and I knew what file to check (/etc/security/pwquality.conf.d/10-authconfig-pwquality.conf), I used virt-edit to zero out the contents of that file from the VM disk image and then booted the VM... and gnome-initial-setup ran, allowed me to create an account and set the password... and the system was working. I don't recall it asking me if I wanted to set a root password, but maybe it wasn't supposed to to begin with. I'm not a frequent GNOME installer / user.
Also posted this to related bug 1618865 but now here too: This screencast that is 6:47 in length shows that the fix is also needed in F28 for the purpose of NOT breaking the Fedora Respin SIGs F28 post-GA isos... although since it's recording Ben Williams said that he tested removing the file post-install (by booting with "rw init=/bin/sh") and that, "i removed the file and it hosed it". In the video I just remove the contents of the file and that works. https://www.montanalinux.org/files/videos/respin-problem-20180904.mp4 Later we decided that Ben's issue was in how he had replaced the file that angered SELinux, I think. In any event, clearing out the contents (as shown in the video) definitely works.
This was fixed.
I'm running into this issue trying to install the latest F29 Workstation image (Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-29-1.2.iso) on my XPS 13 9360. I downloaded the full image, and installed fairly normally, but when I booted the new OS, the gnome-initial-setup stage never presented any dialogs. It happened both times I tried installing the OS. Not really sure what to do, considering that this bug says it's already been fixed.