Hi Jarda, thanks for the info!

We could discuss whether 10 or 20 seconds is a limit for user where to start to think what is going on, but nearly 4 minute many user will interrupt. I recommend to improve performance and create a bar with progress.

I completely agree. We should regularly update users on the progress to ensure they know that something is happening.

The next line is problematic: Warning: skipped PGP checks for 2687 packages from repository: @stored_transaction
How I can trust the transaction? It mentions repository that is not in transaction and it anyway does not check PGP keys. It scares me a lot.

We've already received a similar report and created an issue for it: #1668. Let's focus just on the progress report in this issue.

We should regularly update users on the progress to ensure they know that something is happening.

The key issue raised in this ticket remains unresolved, even after the changes in #1672. I tested upgrading from Fedora 40 to Fedora 41 using dnf5 system-upgrade and encountered insufficient feedback at two different times:

• Post-reboot, before the transaction starts: A spinning wheel is displayed for over a minute with no output for the user.

• End of the transaction: There’s still a long delay with no updates provided, even if the duration may have slightly improved after the PR.

These gaps make the upgrade process unclear and might be frustrating for users.

Today, I spent time experimenting with system upgrades and Plymouth.

First, let me identify the sources of insufficient feedback during the upgrade process:

1. Before the transaction starts – This occurs when DNF loads RPM files into the sack and resolves the transaction.
2. After the transaction – This delay is caused by post-transaction scriptlets, which can take a significant amount of time.

The first issue can be addressed by displaying a message such as: "Starting offline transaction. This will take a while."

The second issue can be mitigated by informing the user when pre/post-transaction scriptlets are being executed.
Everything seems great, right?

However, I also wanted to set the Plymouth mode to "system-upgrade", which looks much better and prominently displays a "Upgrading system, do not turn off your computer" warning. It also displays a progress bar. Unfortunately, in the default "bgrt" theme, this mode has "SuppressMessages=true" enabled. See the /usr/share/plymouth/themes/bgrt/bgrt.plymouth file.

And what does that mean? It means that all messages produced by dnf5 during the upgrade are suppressed - messages like:
"Upgrading ...", "Running post-transaction scriptlet: ..."

For the user, this makes the transaction appear stuck, with the progress bar seemingly frozen at 0% before the transaction begin, and at 99% while post-transaction scriptlets are executed.

Ideally, I’d like to have the best of both worlds: a clear warning message, a progress bar, and detailed DNF5 messages about the upgrade progress. I can file an issue with the plymouth component.

I'm adding some screenshots to illustrate the issue.

Version without system-upgrade mode, with dnf5 messages dispayed:

And this is how it looks in "system-upgrade" mode: