Fedora Linux: Practical Reference

This page covers the hands-on side. For Fedora's history, editions and its relationship to RHEL, see the Fedora overview. To get started, see how to install Fedora.

Support dates

There is no LTS release; the expectation is that you upgrade once or twice a year. You can skip one release (43 straight to 45 is supported), but not more. The step-by-step process is in upgrading Fedora with dnf system-upgrade; the short version is:

sudo dnf upgrade --refresh
sudo dnf system-upgrade download --releasever=45
sudo dnf system-upgrade reboot

Check your version with cat /etc/fedora-release. Compare support windows across distributions in Linux release cycles.

Everyday dnf commands

Make downloads faster by allowing more parallel connections in /etc/dnf/dnf.conf:

[main]
max_parallel_downloads=10

Desktop apps are also available as Flatpaks through GNOME Software or KDE Discover. Enable the full Flathub catalogue with:

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

RPM Fusion, codecs and NVIDIA

Fedora ships only freely licensed software, so some codecs and the NVIDIA driver come from RPM Fusion, the standard third-party repository.

sudo dnf install \
  https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm \
  https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm
# full ffmpeg instead of the reduced ffmpeg-free
sudo dnf swap ffmpeg-free ffmpeg --allowerasing
# hardware video decoding on Intel (newer GPUs) and AMD
sudo dnf install intel-media-driver
sudo dnf swap mesa-va-drivers mesa-va-drivers-freeworld

For NVIDIA, after enabling RPM Fusion:

sudo dnf install akmod-nvidia xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda
# wait until the module is built (a few minutes), then check
modinfo -F version nvidia
sudo reboot

With Secure Boot enabled, the akmod-built module must be signed with a key you enrol (RPM Fusion documents the akmods key steps). If you get a black screen after installing, see NVIDIA black screen fixes. Codec details for media players are on the VLC and Firefox pages.

SELinux and firewalld basics

SELinux is enforcing by default. When something works with SELinux permissive but fails when enforcing, fix the policy, not the switch.

getenforce
sudo ausearch -m avc -ts recent       # recent denials
sudo journalctl -t setroubleshoot     # human-readable explanations, if installed
sudo restorecon -Rv /path/to/files    # reset file labels (fixes most denials)
getsebool -a | grep httpd             # list booleans for a service
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

Files moved (rather than copied) into place keep their old label; restorecon fixes that. Temporary sudo setenforce 0 is acceptable for a quick test; switch back with sudo setenforce 1 and don't disable SELinux permanently.

firewalld is active on all editions:

sudo firewall-cmd --get-active-zones
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=ssh
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

More firewall examples are in Linux networking basics.

Common problems and fixes

Fedora keeps the last three kernels installed. If a new kernel fails to boot, pick the previous one in the boot menu (hold Shift or press Esc during boot if the menu is hidden).

Btrfs rollback

Desktop editions use Btrfs with root and home subvolumes, but Fedora does not take automatic snapshots by default. If you want rollback before big updates, install snapper and take a snapshot before upgrades (sudo snapper -c root create -d "before upgrade" after creating a config with sudo snapper -c root create-config /), or use the Atomic desktops, where rpm-ostree rollback returns to the previous deployment.

Fedora compared with the alternatives

Fedora sits between the rolling Arch Linux and the long-support Ubuntu LTS and Debian: recent kernels and desktops, tested releases, and an upgrade roughly every year. On Fedora Workstation you also get GNOME close to upstream, which makes it a good place to see what later lands in other distributions.

Frequently asked questions