Bug 2411195 - System boots to emergency rescue shell after upgrading to Fedora 43 because of missing runlevel5.target
Summary: System boots to emergency rescue shell after upgrading to Fedora 43 because o...
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED ERRATA
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: systemd
Version: 43
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
unspecified
high
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: systemd-maint
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
: 2411697 (view as bug list)
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2025-10-31 23:58 UTC by Oleg Girko
Modified: 2025-11-13 00:51 UTC (History)
11 users (show)

Fixed In Version: systemd-258.2-1.fc44 systemd-258.2-1.fc43
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2025-11-07 17:03:50 UTC
Type: ---
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description Oleg Girko 2025-10-31 23:58:47 UTC
New systemd 258 does not contain runlevel[0-6].target any more.

As a result, Fedora systems that are results of multiple consecutive upgrades from early days of systemd fail to boot after upgrading to Fedora 43.
This is because on these systems default.target may point to runlevel5.target (or runlevel3.target if no graphical login is needed).

In systemd up to 257, /usr/lib/systemd/system/runlevel[234].target are symlinks to multi-user.target, and /usr/lib/systemd/system/runlevel5.target is a symlink to graphical.target. This was preserving compatibility with older systems, but this compatibility was removed in systemd 258.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Have a Fedora system that was a result of consecutive upgrades since early days of systemd, so it has /etc/systemd/system/default.target as a symlink to /lib/systemd/system/runlevel5.target
2. Upgrade this system to Fedora 43.
Actual Results:
System boots to emergency rescue shell because of missing default.target (pointing to runlevel[2-5].target that no longer exists).

Expected Results:
System should boot to either graphical desktop or multi-user mode as it was configured before.

There should be a post-install script that fixes default.target if in points to legacy runlevel[2-5].target. If it points to runlevel[2-5].target, it should be changed to point to multi-user.target. If it points to runlevel5.target, it should be fixed to point to graphical.target.

Comment 1 Sammy 2025-11-02 18:22:59 UTC
I also upgrade via dnf upgrade and can confirm the missing links, I am graphical so I was OK on reboot BUT since the
upgrade "init 6" is not working anymore,it does nothing, I have to issue "reboot" command to reboot.

Comment 2 Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek 2025-11-05 16:49:20 UTC
Yeah, the removal of runlevelX.target units is a compat break. Not only default.target can link to those, but also people could have used those in arbitrary ways, e.g. linking units into the targets. So I'll restore those units in the next update.

'init 6' is not working anymore… This is intentional, please use one of the other commands.

Comment 3 Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek 2025-11-05 16:56:45 UTC
*** Bug 2411697 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 4 Fedora Update System 2025-11-07 13:57:08 UTC
FEDORA-2025-0c5b003313 (systemd-258.2-1.fc44) has been submitted as an update to Fedora 44.
https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2025-0c5b003313

Comment 5 Fedora Update System 2025-11-07 17:03:50 UTC
FEDORA-2025-0c5b003313 (systemd-258.2-1.fc44) has been pushed to the Fedora 44 stable repository.
If problem still persists, please make note of it in this bug report.

Comment 6 Vadym Chepkov 2025-11-10 20:37:32 UTC
A related bug/feature is the fact that one can't fix older version of Fedora easily:

[root@fedora ~]# systemctl get-default 
multi-user.target

# ls -l /etc/systemd/system/default.target
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 36 Jul 29  2012 /etc/systemd/system/default.target -> /lib/systemd/system/runlevel3.target

That has been while :)

[root@fedora ~]# systemctl set-default multi-user.target
[root@fedora ~]# echo $?
0
[root@fedora ~]# ls -l /etc/systemd/system/default.target
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 36 Jul 29  2012 /etc/systemd/system/default.target -> /lib/systemd/system/runlevel3.target

Comment 7 Fedora Update System 2025-11-11 17:15:18 UTC
FEDORA-2025-5c83c2df70 (systemd-258.2-1.fc43) has been submitted as an update to Fedora 43.
https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2025-5c83c2df70

Comment 8 Fedora Update System 2025-11-12 02:58:34 UTC
FEDORA-2025-5c83c2df70 has been pushed to the Fedora 43 testing repository.
Soon you'll be able to install the update with the following command:
`sudo dnf upgrade --enablerepo=updates-testing --refresh --advisory=FEDORA-2025-5c83c2df70`
You can provide feedback for this update here: https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2025-5c83c2df70

See also https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Updates_Testing for more information on how to test updates.

Comment 9 Fedora Update System 2025-11-13 00:51:28 UTC
FEDORA-2025-5c83c2df70 (systemd-258.2-1.fc43) has been pushed to the Fedora 43 stable repository.
If problem still persists, please make note of it in this bug report.


Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.