How to Upgrade Fedora 44 to Fedora 45

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

Before you start: five pre-checks

Most failed Fedora upgrades come from one of these, so spend five minutes here.

1. Confirm your version and edition. Workstation, KDE Plasma, Server and the Spins use dnf system-upgrade. Silverblue, Kinoite and other Atomic desktops use rpm-ostree instead (see below).

   cat /etc/fedora-release
   rpm -E %fedora
   # Atomic desktops show a deployment list here; normal installs say "command not found"
   rpm-ostree status

2. Back up. At minimum your home directory — the rsync home backup script does this. Fedora Workstation uses Btrfs by default, so you can also take a snapshot of the root subvolume (next section).
3. Check free space. The download lands in the DNF cache under /var and the install needs room on / as well. Aim for at least 5–10 GB free, and some headroom on /boot for the new kernel.

   df -h / /boot /var
   sudo dnf clean all

4. List your third-party repositories. RPM Fusion is fine; COPRs, vendor repos (Google Chrome, VS Code, Docker, NVIDIA CUDA) and manually installed RPMs are what cause dependency errors.

   dnf repo list --enabled
   # packages not from any enabled repo (local RPMs, removed repos)
   dnf list --extras

5. Plug in the power and use a stable connection. The download can be resumed; the offline install phase cannot be interrupted safely.

Optional: a Btrfs snapshot to roll back to

dnf has no rollback for release upgrades. If your root filesystem is Btrfs (the Workstation and KDE default), a read-only snapshot gives you a copy of the Fedora 44 system to restore from a live USB if things go badly wrong:

# check the filesystem type of /
findmnt -no FSTYPE /
# create a read-only snapshot of the root subvolume
sudo btrfs subvolume snapshot -r / /f44-pre-upgrade
sudo btrfs subvolume list /

This snapshot covers / only, not /home (a separate subvolume) and not /boot (a separate ext4 partition). It is a safety net for the system, not a replacement for a backup of your files. Delete it after a week or two of a working Fedora 45 with sudo btrfs subvolume delete /f44-pre-upgrade, because it holds disk space.

Option 1: upgrade from the desktop (GNOME Software or Discover)

On Workstation, once Fedora 45 is released, GNOME Software shows a banner: Fedora Linux 45 Now Available. Click Download, wait, then Restart & Upgrade. On the KDE Plasma edition, Discover shows the same offer under Updates. Both use the same offline upgrade mechanism as the terminal method.

The graphical route hides error messages. If the download fails or the banner never appears, use the terminal method below; it tells you exactly which package or repository is the problem.

Option 2: upgrade with dnf system-upgrade (recommended)

Step 1: fully update Fedora 44 and reboot

sudo dnf upgrade --refresh
sudo reboot

The upgrade is computed against the newest Fedora 44 packages, and running the current kernel and DNF avoids known upgrade bugs that were fixed in late updates.

Step 2: download the Fedora 45 packages

sudo dnf system-upgrade download --releasever=45

DNF resolves the whole transaction, shows the package count and download size, and asks for confirmation. It may also ask you to import the Fedora 45 GPG key — accept it if it says Fedora 45 and comes from /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/. Nothing is installed yet; you can keep using the machine while it downloads.

If the download complains about a conflict or a package that cannot be upgraded, retry with --allowerasing, which lets DNF remove packages that block the upgrade:

sudo dnf system-upgrade download --releasever=45 --allowerasing

Read the list of packages it plans to remove before typing y. Removing an old library or a retired application is normal; removing something you rely on means you should fix the repository it came from first (see the third-party section).

Step 3: reboot into the offline upgrade

sudo dnf system-upgrade reboot

The system reboots into a minimal target that installs the packages with nothing else running, which is why Fedora upgrades are reliable. You see the Fedora logo with a progress bar (press Esc for text output). Do not power off during this phase. When it finishes, the machine reboots into Fedora 45.

With DNF5, dnf system-upgrade reboot and dnf offline reboot do the same thing; either works.

Step 4: confirm it worked

cat /etc/fedora-release
uname -r
# log of the offline upgrade
sudo dnf system-upgrade log
sudo dnf system-upgrade log --number=-1

Example output:

Fedora release 45 (Forty Five)

Third-party repositories: RPM Fusion, COPR, vendor repos

To disable a repository by its ID (shown in dnf repo list) with DNF5:

sudo dnf config-manager setopt REPO_ID.enabled=0
# re-enable after the upgrade
sudo dnf config-manager setopt REPO_ID.enabled=1

A metadata error such as Failed to download metadata for repo during the download step is almost always a third-party repo that does not have a Fedora 45 tree yet. See Failed to download metadata for repo for the full diagnosis.

NVIDIA drivers from RPM Fusion

The akmod-nvidia package rebuilds the kernel module for the new kernel on first boot. That build can take a few minutes, during which you may land on a lower-resolution desktop or nouveau. Wait, then reboot once more. If you get a black screen instead, follow NVIDIA black screen fix. A quick check after boot:

modinfo -F version nvidia
sudo akmods --force
nvidia-smi

Silverblue, Kinoite and other Atomic desktops

Image-based editions upgrade with rpm-ostree. The new image is staged beside the old one, and the old deployment stays in the boot menu, so rollback is built in.

rpm-ostree status
sudo rpm-ostree upgrade
# Silverblue example; use kinoite, sericea, etc. for your edition
rpm-ostree rebase fedora:fedora/45/x86_64/silverblue
systemctl reboot
# if Fedora 45 misbehaves
rpm-ostree rollback

Check the exact ref names with ostree remote refs fedora | grep 45 before rebasing. GNOME Software also offers the upgrade on Silverblue.

After the upgrade: cleanup

None of these steps are required, but they keep a long-lived install tidy.

# remove the downloaded upgrade packages
sudo dnf system-upgrade clean
# sync any packages that were held back or are newer in 44 updates
sudo dnf distro-sync
# packages that no longer exist in Fedora 45
sudo dnf install remove-retired-packages
remove-retired-packages 44
# dependency problems and duplicates
sudo dnf repoquery --unsatisfied
sudo dnf repoquery --duplicates
# orphaned dependencies (review the list before confirming)
sudo dnf autoremove

Configuration files you edited and that the new package also changed are saved as .rpmnew (new default kept aside) or .rpmsave (your version kept aside). Merge them with rpmconf:

sudo dnf install rpmconf
sudo rpmconf -a

Finally, re-enable any repositories you disabled and run sudo dnf upgrade --refresh.

When the upgrade fails: recovery

The download step refuses to resolve

• "Problem: package X requires Y, but none of the providers can be installed" — usually a third-party or local package. Remove it (sudo dnf remove X) or retry with --allowerasing.
• Metadata or 404 errors — a repo without Fedora 45 content. Disable it as shown above.
• GPG key errors — make sure Fedora 44 is fully updated (fedora-gpg-keys ships the next release's key), then sudo dnf system-upgrade download --releasever=45 --refresh.
• If you want to start over: sudo dnf system-upgrade clean, then run the download again.

The system will not boot after the upgrade

1. Boot an older kernel. Press Esc or hold Shift during boot to show the GRUB menu and pick the previous kernel entry. The rest of the system is already Fedora 45, but an older kernel often gets you to a desktop when a driver module failed to build.
2. Get a shell. In GRUB press e on an entry and add systemd.unit=multi-user.target (text login) or rd.break to the linux line. See kernel parameters for how editing the boot line works.
3. Finish an interrupted transaction. If power was lost during the offline phase, boot to a shell and run:

   sudo dnf distro-sync --releasever=45
   sudo dnf reinstall kernel-core
   sudo dracut --regenerate-all --force

4. Read the errors. journalctl -b -1 -p err shows errors from the previous boot; sudo dnf system-upgrade log --number=-1 shows the upgrade log.
5. GRUB itself is broken. Use a Fedora live USB and follow fix grub rescue.

Restoring the Btrfs snapshot

If you took the snapshot above and want Fedora 44 back, boot a Fedora live USB, mount the Btrfs top level and swap the subvolumes:

# on the live system; replace /dev/nvme0n1p3 with your Btrfs partition (check with lsblk -f)
sudo mount -o subvolid=5 /dev/nvme0n1p3 /mnt
# Fedora names the root subvolume "root"; confirm with: sudo btrfs subvolume list /mnt
sudo mv /mnt/root /mnt/root-broken-f45
# writable copy of the snapshot becomes the new root subvolume
sudo btrfs subvolume snapshot /mnt/root-broken-f45/f44-pre-upgrade /mnt/root
sudo umount /mnt

Upgrade paths and timing

Fedora's own documentation is at docs.fedoraproject.org: Upgrading Fedora using DNF system plugin. For how Fedora's release and support windows compare with Ubuntu and Debian, see Linux release cycles.

Frequently asked questions