Bug 1830586

Description of problem:
After upgrade to RHEL 8.2 (from 8.1), the system hangs at "Starting Switch Root". Previously, whenever a new kernel update was available, I would need to follow the official instructions located at https://access.redhat.com/solutions/4134381 to install the proprietary NVIDIA graphics driver for my system; I am using a NVIDIA GeForce 2070 Super graphics card. This only needed to be done once per kernel update; after following the instructions, the kernel would boot into graphical.target with no further issues.

After updating to 8.2, these instructions have to be completed every time the computer loses power: either after shutdown and boot, reboot, or wake from sleep mode. I believe that somehow the NVIDIA driver is corrupting the initramfs somehow, but it was never a problem before 8.2. On reboot or boot from shutdown, I'll get the "Starting Switch Root" error, and the computer will not boot until forcefully shut down, booting into multi-user.target by appending "systemd.unit=multi-user.target" to the kernel parameters and following the instructions above; on wake from sleep, I'll get a blank screen and must shutdown forcefully and follow the steps above from multi-user.target.


Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
RHEL 8.2 on newest kernel 4.18.0-193.el8
NVIDIA graphics driver 440.82
Latest RHEL version of dracut


How reproducible:
After upgrade to 8.2, always.
Before 8.2, only on initial upgrade to new Red Hat issued kernel


Steps to Reproduce:
1. Remove power from computer (reboot, shutdown/boot, or wake from sleep)
2. Attempt to boot into RHEL 8.2 with graphical.target set as systemd default
3. Watch systemd output hang at "starting switch root" with no further progress; computer must be forcefully shutdown, booted into multi-user.target, and following official Red Hat NVIDIA driver installation instructions

Actual results:
Boot progress halts at "starting switch root", possibly due to a corrupted initramfs due to NVIDIA driver issues. While not a persistent problem before, it is now a persistent problem that must be addressed every boot.


Expected results:
System should boot into GNOME Shell using graphical.target without issues


Additional info:
Before 8.2, NVIDIA driver would install correctly without having KVM enabled in UEFI/BIOS. Upon upgrade to 8.2, the only way to correctly get NVIDIA driver installed was to enable KVM and allow NVIDIA driver to install a DKMS module.