Bug 2450672 - Black screen after installing a number of updates including dpkg + grub
Summary: Black screen after installing a number of updates including dpkg + grub
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED ERRATA
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: grub2
Version: 44
Hardware: x86_64
OS: Linux
unspecified
high
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Nicolas Frayer
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard: AcceptedFreezeException
Depends On:
Blocks: F44FinalFreezeException
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2026-03-24 10:16 UTC by tactless-avid-fame
Modified: 2026-04-13 21:06 UTC (History)
11 users (show)

Fixed In Version: grub2-2.12-56.fc44
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2026-04-13 21:06:13 UTC
Type: Bug
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)
After rollback via snapper + live usb I pulled up the list of available package updates (7.37 KB, text/plain)
2026-03-24 10:16 UTC, tactless-avid-fame
no flags Details

Description tactless-avid-fame 2026-03-24 10:16:02 UTC
Created attachment 2134642 [details]
After rollback via snapper + live usb I pulled up the list of available package updates

Description of problem:

After installing a number of updates including dpkg + grub I encountered a black screen on reboot.  See provided attachment.

How reproducible:
I haven't tried a second time since it was a PITA to roll back.


Steps to Reproduce:
1. Navigate to Discovery
2. Install last batch of updates (see attachment)
3. Reboot PC
4. Wait for installation to finish and reboot a second time.
5. Encounter a black screen
6. Wait 5m then give up

Actual results:
No grub menu was presented.  
The screen remained completely black after the Asus logo timed out.

Expected results:
Normally the grub menu would appear and auto-select my last selected kernel after a few seconds.

Additional info:

Operating System: Fedora Linux 44
KDE Plasma Version: 6.6.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.24.0
Qt Version: 6.10.2
Kernel Version: 6.19.9-300.fc44.x86_64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 16 × AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 8-Core Processor
Memory: 32 GiB of RAM (31.0 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
Manufacturer: ASUS

Comment 1 shayne.anthony.jewers 2026-03-26 00:50:49 UTC
do you have Secure Boot enabled? There's a thread on the fedora subreddit that says Secure Boot is broken in the latest grub-efi.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fedora/comments/1s2zjgj/secure_boot_broken/

Comment 2 Timo 2026-03-26 11:02:41 UTC
I think I'm experiencing the same issue with the latest grub2 packages 2.12-42.fc43 on Fedora Workstation 43. After upgrading via Gnome Software, I encountered a black screen. I tried several times to load grub from the UEFI menu and after several tries (and reboots) I managed to get a grub menu. Appending the boot command line with 'nomodeset' eventually allowed me to boot. I have Secure Boot enabled and did not disable it. I seems to me that there's something wrong with how the display is initialized or how the handover from UEFI to grub happens, but it's just a guess and I don't know what's really going on.

Downgrading my grub2 packages to 2.12-40.fc43 allows me to boot (reliably) again.

In terms of hardware, I'm also on an AMD platform using an ASRock DeskMeet X600 with AMD Ryzen 7 8700G with its integrated Radeon 780M GPU.

Comment 3 tactless-avid-fame 2026-03-26 15:13:04 UTC
(In reply to shayne.anthony.jewers from comment #1)
> do you have Secure Boot enabled? There's a thread on the fedora subreddit
> that says Secure Boot is broken in the latest grub-efi.
> 
> https://www.reddit.com/r/Fedora/comments/1s2zjgj/secure_boot_broken/

Yes.  I've always had secure boot enabled.

Comment 4 shayne.anthony.jewers 2026-03-26 15:30:25 UTC
(In reply to tactless-avid-fame from comment #3)
> (In reply to shayne.anthony.jewers from comment #1)
> > do you have Secure Boot enabled? There's a thread on the fedora subreddit
> > that says Secure Boot is broken in the latest grub-efi.
> > 
> > https://www.reddit.com/r/Fedora/comments/1s2zjgj/secure_boot_broken/
> 
> Yes.  I've always had secure boot enabled.

If you also have GRUB2 theme enabled, then you need to either disable the theme, or secure boot.

Apparently the problem is with GRUB themes and secure boot being enabled.

See also Bug 2451630

Comment 5 tactless-avid-fame 2026-03-26 15:56:50 UTC
(In reply to shayne.anthony.jewers from comment #4)
> (In reply to tactless-avid-fame from comment #3)
> > (In reply to shayne.anthony.jewers from comment #1)
> > > do you have Secure Boot enabled? There's a thread on the fedora subreddit
> > > that says Secure Boot is broken in the latest grub-efi.
> > > 
> > > https://www.reddit.com/r/Fedora/comments/1s2zjgj/secure_boot_broken/
> > 
> > Yes.  I've always had secure boot enabled.
> 
> If you also have GRUB2 theme enabled, then you need to either disable the
> theme, or secure boot.
> 
> Apparently the problem is with GRUB themes and secure boot being enabled.
> 
> See also Bug 2451630

I do have a theme installed as well.
Guess I'll try again over the weekend.
Thanks for LMK.

Comment 6 Timo 2026-03-26 18:58:05 UTC
I use a grub2 theme as well and disabling it allows me to boot again with the latest grub2 packages (2.12-42.fc43) and Secure Boot enabled. Thanks

Comment 7 tactless-avid-fame 2026-03-26 21:20:49 UTC
Decided to make another attempt today.
Commenting out GRUB_THEME within /etc/default/grub and regenerating the grub2 config beforehand allowed me to install the updates without disabling secure boot.

Comment 8 Fedora Blocker Bugs Application 2026-03-29 10:11:24 UTC
Proposed as a Freeze Exception for 44-final by Fedora user drewrm using the blocker tracking app because:

 Stops previously working machines with custom grub themes and secure boot enabled from booting and reaching graphical environment. 

Workarounds are available on the bug report.

Comment 9 Marta Lewandowska 2026-03-30 11:56:26 UTC
Hi,

We are not able to reproduce this on VMs. Could one of you please enable verbosity in shim and debugging in grub and post the output?
$ sudo mokutil --set-verbosity true
$ sudo grub2-editenv - set pager=0
$ sudo grub2-editenv - set debug=all

thanks!

Comment 10 Marta Lewandowska 2026-03-30 14:25:39 UTC
or maybe $ sudo grub2-editenv - set debug=all,-lexer,-scripting to cut down on noise. :)

Comment 11 Lukas Ruzicka 2026-03-30 18:22:28 UTC
AGREED AcceptedFinalFreezeException

Discussed at the 2026-03-30 (blocker / freeze exception) review meeting:

This is accepted on the basis that it's a pretty bad experience if you have the configuration that triggers this, and you can potentially hit it on upgrade to F44 during freeze since the updates-testing repository is not enabled by default on stable releases, and we want to avoid that happening if possible.

https://meetbot-raw.fedoraproject.org//blocker-review_matrix_fedoraproject-org/2026-03-30/f44-blocker-review.2026-03-30-16.00.log.txt

Comment 12 Jason Tibbitts 2026-03-31 11:54:21 UTC
I just wanted to note here (as I noted in https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2451630) that I appear to have this or an extremely similar issue after the F43 grub update on a number of Intel NUC11 machines and I _do not_ use any custom grub theming.  There might be some non-default stuff in my /etc/default/grub, though:

GRUB_TIMEOUT=1
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="$(sed 's, release .*$,,g' /etc/system-release)"
GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
GRUB_DISABLE_SUBMENU=true
GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT=gfxterm
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="resume=UUID=52913f59-0868-49d7-b46a-1d76302407ec rd.lvm.lv=os_593/root rhgb quiet rd.shell=0"
GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"
GRUB_ENABLE_BLSCFG=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden
GRUB_FONT=/boot/grub2/fonts/unicode.pf2

Perhaps the GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT and GRUB_FONT lines are important here (or count as "theming" somehow); I'll look into that.

Comment 13 Marta Lewandowska 2026-03-31 12:37:39 UTC
Hi Jason,

I believe the GRUB_FONT line is the reason that you're hitting this. Thanks for letting us know. We are working on it. :)

Comment 14 Marta Lewandowska 2026-04-10 08:47:03 UTC
Hi, the newest grub2 versions should fix this for you:

grub2-2.12-43.fc43
grub2-2.12-56.fc44 	
grub2-2.12-57.fc45

Please try updating to the relevant version for your fedora and let us know if it works.
thank you! :)

Comment 15 Timo 2026-04-10 12:15:54 UTC
(In reply to Marta Lewandowska from comment #14)
> Hi, the newest grub2 versions should fix this for you:
> 
> grub2-2.12-43.fc43
> grub2-2.12-56.fc44 	
> grub2-2.12-57.fc45
> 
> Please try updating to the relevant version for your fedora and let us know
> if it works.
> thank you! :)

Yes, it works for me again on Fedora 43 with my Grub theme and Secure Boot enabled.

Thank you!

Comment 16 Fedora Update System 2026-04-13 20:27:04 UTC
FEDORA-2026-1ad4c19a50 (grub2-2.12-56.fc44) has been submitted as an update to Fedora 44.
https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2026-1ad4c19a50

Comment 17 Fedora Update System 2026-04-13 21:06:13 UTC
FEDORA-2026-1ad4c19a50 (grub2-2.12-56.fc44) has been pushed to the Fedora 44 stable repository.
If problem still persists, please make note of it in this bug report.


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