I recently changed from an AMD GPU to an Nvidia card and now have Fedora and Windows 11 set up in a dual-boot configuration. Fedora worked very well with the AMD card, but I've had several odd issues since switching to Nvidia. The most frustrating problem is that my gaming monitor works while the TV connected to the same PC no longer receives a display signal. The TV worked normally with the previous AMD setup, and driver updates haven't fixed it for several months. Is there a way to refresh or reinstall Fedora while keeping my personal files, similar to Windows' Refresh option? I'm wondering whether reinstalling the operating system and its key components could resolve the problems without deleting my data.
3 Answers
A reinstall may not fix this, especially if the issue is related to Nvidia drivers, display configuration, the cable, or the TV input. Linux systems generally don’t become tangled in quite the same way Windows installations can, so it’s worth checking whether the TV works in Windows and reviewing the graphics and display logs before wiping Fedora.
Back up anything important first, then perform a clean reinstall if you decide that’s the best route. Fedora doesn’t really have a one-click equivalent to Windows Refresh. You can preserve a separate /home partition during installation, but you should still make an external backup because reinstalling can go wrong and configuration files may carry old problems over.
If you reinstall, copy your personal files elsewhere first. During Fedora’s custom installation, you can reuse an existing /home partition without formatting it, while formatting the root partition to replace the operating system. Just be careful: keeping /home also keeps user configuration files, so a clean test may require renaming or selectively removing old desktop and display settings afterward.
The TV has been used as a monitor for years and worked with my previous Nvidia GTX 1070 as well as the AMD card. I’m used to reinstalling Windows when difficult problems appear, so I was wondering whether Fedora had a similar recovery option.