This is a downstream report of upstream https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/issues/3708 , for blocker / FE tracking purposes. Multiple folks have reported that GNOME can crash on startup if certain keyboard accessibility features are enabled: specifically 'mouse keys' (which allows controlling the mouse pointer with the numeric keypad) and also org.gnome.desktop.a11y.keyboard , which is described in gsettings-desktop-schemas as "Enable accessibility keyboard shortcuts", and I think may be the "Turn accessibility features on or off using the keyboard" setting in the control center (not 100% sure). There are two MRs to fix this: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/merge_requests/4083 https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/merge_requests/4195 but both appear to be stalled currently. Proposing as a Final blocker and FE for F42. Note, though, that this bug is actually also present in F40 and F41, since we have updated them to GNOME 47.
Note that Ubuntu backported https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/merge_requests/4083 , so we are lacking a fix for this compared to them.
scratch build with 4195 applied: https://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/taskinfo?taskID=130701694 can folks test and see if that resolves the issue? thanks.
Discussed during the 2025-03-24 blocker review meeting [1]: * AGREED: 2354592 - AcceptedBlocker (Final) - this is accepted as a conditional violation of "A system installed with a release-blocking desktop must boot to a log in screen where it is possible to log in to a working desktop using a user account created during installation or a 'first boot' utility" in the case that an affected a11y setting is enabled [1] https://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/blocker-review_matrix_fedoraproject-org/2025-03-24/f42-blocker-review.2025-03-24-16.02.log.html
I can reproduce this by setting org.gnome.desktop.a11y.keyboard.enable to true . in my testing, https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/merge_requests/4195 does *not* fix it. https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/merge_requests/4083 *does* fix it.
New version of 4195 from today *does* fix the bug for me.
FEDORA-2025-c6e0804a85 (gdm-48.0-1.fc42, gnome-shell-48.0-1.fc42, and 3 more) has been submitted as an update to Fedora 42. https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2025-c6e0804a85
FEDORA-2025-c6e0804a85 has been pushed to the Fedora 42 testing repository. Soon you'll be able to install the update with the following command: `sudo dnf upgrade --enablerepo=updates-testing --refresh --advisory=FEDORA-2025-c6e0804a85` You can provide feedback for this update here: https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2025-c6e0804a85 See also https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Updates_Testing for more information on how to test updates.
FEDORA-2025-c6e0804a85 (gdm-48.0-1.fc42, gnome-shell-48.0-1.fc42, and 3 more) has been pushed to the Fedora 42 stable repository. If problem still persists, please make note of it in this bug report.
Verified, works.