Fedora 44 delayed again as installer and KDE bugs block release

At a glance:

• Fedora 44 release pushed to April 28 after two postponements
• Four confirmed blocker bugs (installer, keyboard layout, btrfs) must be resolved
• Additional proposed blockers include a ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 black‑screen issue and slow Wi‑Fi on certain laptops

What happened

Fedora 44 was originally slated for an April 14, 2026 launch. After a handful of critical bugs surfaced, the community moved the date to April 21. A second wave of issues—most notably in the Anaconda installer and KDE Plasma’s keyboard‑layout setup—forced another postponement, with the new target now set for April 28, 2026.

The Fedora project treats “blocker bugs” with a formal process. When a bug is proposed as a blocker, the community votes on its severity. If the vote passes, the bug must be fixed before the distribution can be declared release‑ready. As long as any blocker remains open, the release calendar is frozen.

Confirmed blocker bugs

The current blocker list contains four bugs that have been formally accepted:

• 2458907 – anaconda – ON_QA – Installation fails with the error "NoneType object has no attribute 'path'" while storing configuration files and kickstarts.
• 2448283 – plasma-setup – NEW – Selecting a non‑ASCII capable keyboard layout should automatically also select US English as a second layout, but this does not happen.
• 2453216 – plasma-setup – POST – The Keyboard Layout page pre‑selection is broken: it always shows English (US) if that is the system language, otherwise it shows nothing.
• 2458901 – python-blivet – ON_QA – An incomplete spanned Btrfs volume prevents Anaconda from seeing the drive and causes a crash during rescanning.

Each of these bugs blocks a core part of the installation experience or the default desktop environment, which is why the Fedora release team has refused to ship until they are resolved.

Proposed blockers and potential impact

Beyond the confirmed list, four additional issues are under review as possible blockers. The most visible is a black‑screen problem on the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13, reported by users who see no display after the KDE Plasma session starts. Another concern is slow Wi‑Fi performance on specific laptop models, which could degrade the out‑of‑the‑box networking experience.

If any of these proposals gain enough votes, they will be promoted to confirmed blockers, potentially pushing the release date past April 28. The community monitors these tickets closely, and developers have already begun reproducing the ThinkPad issue on test hardware.

Community response and timeline

Fedora’s reputation for stability is a key selling point, and the project’s leadership prefers a delayed, polished release over a buggy launch. Community forums and the Fedora mailing list show a mixture of patience and frustration; many users appreciate the transparency, while others worry about downstream projects that depend on the new release schedule.

Developers have pledged to prioritize the four confirmed bugs and are allocating additional CI resources to the ThinkPad and Wi‑Fi test suites. Assuming no new blockers emerge, the Fedora release engineering team expects to have a release candidate ready by April 24, giving a final four‑day window for regression testing before the official April 28 launch.

Looking ahead

Fedora 44 is expected to ship with updated versions of GNOME, the Linux kernel, and a refreshed Anaconda installer. The delays, while inconvenient, underscore the project’s commitment to quality. Observers will be watching the next few days closely, as the resolution of these blockers will set the tone for Fedora’s release cadence in 2026 and beyond.