---
id: 2bc5c944-36d9-4f52-873d-9f1eb436436f
type: solution
title: "Nobara 43 system update failure - GUI updater hanging"
tags: [nobara, fedora, dnf, system-update, troubleshooting, python, x264, efi, kernel, package-management]
importance: 0.8
confidence: 0.8
created: "2026-02-06T12:51:18.463036+00:00"
updated: "2026-02-06T12:51:18.463036+00:00"
---

## Problem
GUI updater (dnf/PackageKit) hanging on Nobara 43 (Fedora 43 based) during system updates.

## Root Causes Identified
1. **Python version conflict**: System had both Python 3.13 and 3.14 packages installed, preventing upgrade resolution
   - Solution: Removed python3.13, python3.13-libs, python3.13-tkinter packages
   
2. **x264-libs repository exclusion**: RPM Fusion repos had x264-libs excluded (Nobara-specific config)
   - x264-libs needed upgrade from 1.164 (fc42) to 0.165 (fc43)
   - Solution: Used 'dnf swap' to force install x264-libs-0.165 from nobara-pikaos-additional repo
   
3. **/boot/efi partition full**: 96MB partition at 100% capacity
   - Old kernel EFI file (52MB) from 6.12.9-200.fsync.fc41 in /boot/efi/EFI/Linux/
   - Solution: Removed old kernel EFI file, freed 52MB (now at 47% usage)

## Commands Used
```bash
# Clean DNF cache
sudo dnf clean all

# Remove Python 3.13 versioned packages
sudo dnf remove -y python3.13 python3.13-libs python3.13-tkinter

# Force x264-libs upgrade (swap old for new)
sudo dnf swap -y x264-libs-1.164 x264-libs-0.165 --allowerasing

# Remove old kernel EFI file
sudo rm /boot/efi/EFI/Linux/cba6e2cdd7ae4f0f8907c42ff6dd971f-6.12.9-200.fsync.fc41.x86_64.efi

# Run system upgrade
sudo dnf upgrade -y

# Clean up unused packages
sudo dnf autoremove -y
```

## Results
- Successfully updated 3,217 packages
- Freed 562MB of disk space from autoremove
- EFI partition now at 47% usage (52MB free)
- New kernel 6.18.7-200.nobara.fc43 installed

## Post-Reboot Steps
1. System currently running kernel 6.15.5-200.nobara.fc42
2. After reboot, will boot into 6.18.7-200.nobara.fc43
3. Can remove old kernel 6.15.4: `sudo dnf remove kernel-6.15.4-200.nobara.fc42`

## Key Learnings
- Nobara excludes certain packages (x264-libs, ffmpeg, etc.) from RPM Fusion repos via /etc/yum.repos.d/*.repo exclude lists
- These excluded packages come from nobara-pikaos-additional repo instead
- Small EFI partitions (96MB) can fill quickly with unified kernel images (UKI files)
- Python versioned packages (python3.X) can conflict with main python3 package during distro upgrades