Jun Aruga, Kamil Páral, Ben CottonVersion F37, F38, F39, F40Last review: 2024-06-15
This article mainly describes the update procedures for the Fedora Desktop variants. Some of the descriptions also apply to the server versions. However, the latter may provide their own documentation for the release upgrade. Please check this yourself.
| Make sure your system is fully up-to-date before attempting a system upgrade to a new Fedora Linux release. Be sure to back-up your data before upgrading your Fedora Linux system in the event something breaks and leaves your system unusable. This is extremely unlikely, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. It’s a good idea to back up important data regularly in any case, and now is a great time to double-check. Read the Release Notes carefully before attempting an upgrade.
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Upgrading to the next Fedora Workstation release
| This is the recommended upgrade method for Fedora Workstation. |
In Fedora Workstation, when the next stable release is available, a graphical notification will appear similar to the update notifications.Clicking this, or running the Software application and going to the Updates pane, will display a simple graphical interface for upgrading the system.
Important: Before you start upgrading, your system needs to be fully up-to-date, to ensurethat the system upgrade will be smooth.
First, please click the Refresh button in top left to make sure that Software is aware of thelatest updates. If there are any unapplied updates shown, please click the Download button nextto them (and then Restart & Update button, when it appears), to fully update your existingsystem. This is really important, please do not skip this step. Once that is done, you can clickDownload in the "Fedora Linux <number> Available" section to begin upgrading your system tothe new release.
Upgrading using the DNF System Upgrade plugin
| This is the recommended upgrade method for all other Fedora Linux installations. |
This method is used to a upgrade Fedora Linux installation using the command-line.It is also used to troubleshoot issues with packages preventing the graphical method from upgrading.
For instructions on upgrading with the DNF system upgrade plugin, refer to the DNF System Upgrade Plugin page.
Upgrading between major versions in Fedora Silverblue
| Upgrading between major versions (such as from Fedora Linux 38 to Fedora Linux 39) can be completed using the Software application. Alternatively, Silverblue can be upgraded between major versions using the ostree command.. |
For instructions on upgrading Fedora Silverblue Host, refer to the dedicated page.
Can I upgrade between Fedora Linux releases using only DNF?
| This is not a supported upgrade method. |
Upgrading between Fedora Linux releases without the DNF System Upgrade plugin or GNOME Software are not tested by the Fedora Quality team, and are therefore not supported by the community. You can follow Upgrading Fedora Linux using package manager, but you’re doing that at your own risk.
Upgrading from pre-release (beta) to final public release (stable)
If you are using a pre-release of Fedora Linux, you shouldn’t need to do anything to get the final public release, other than updating packages as they become available. You can use sudo dnf upgrade or wait for desktop notification. When the pre-release is released as final, the fedora-repos packages will be updated and your updates-testing repository will be disabled. Once this happens (on the release day), it is highly recommended to run sudo dnf distro-sync in order to align package versions with the current release.
How do I upgrade to Rawhide and Branched?
Rawhide and Branched are the development releases of Fedora Linux.They are suitable for users developing or testing Fedora Linux before public release.They are NOT SUITABLE for regular day-to-day use unless you are a fairly experienced user, and certainly not suitable for mission-critical use.You should read through those pages carefully before deciding to run Branched or Rawhide.See the Fedora Release Life Cycle for more information on how the whole Fedora cycle works from Rawhide, to Branched, to the milestone releases (Beta), to the 'Final' release.
Upgrading to a Branched release or to Rawhide can be done using DNF System Upgrade.
Can I upgrade from an End Of Life (EOL) release?
Fedora strongly discourages running an end-of-life release on any production system, or any system connected to the public internet.You should never allow a production Fedora Linux deployment to reach end-of-life in the first place.
With that in mind, if you do have an end-of-life release installed on a system you cannot just discard or re-deploy, you upgrade using DNF System Upgrade. Note that upgrades are only tested from the two previous releases.
Upgrading to a pre-release version using Gnome Software
Upgrading to pre-released versions of Fedora Linux can be enabled in Gnome software using the following command:
gsettings set org.gnome.software show-upgrade-prerelease true
If the upgrade banner does not show after executing that command, terminating the gnome-software process may be necessary.
Once the upgrade is complete, it is highly recommended to disable that function so you do not get unwanted future pre-releases. Running the same command in reverse accomplishes that:
gsettings set org.gnome.software show-upgrade-prerelease false
| If your installation is located on a 'specialized' storage device, be sure to configure and select it. |
Want to help? Learn how to contribute to Fedora Docs ›
FAQs
In Fedora Workstation, when the next stable release is available, a graphical notification will appear similar to the update notifications. Clicking this, or running the Software application and going to the Updates pane, will display a simple graphical interface for upgrading the system.
Can I upgrade my Fedora without reinstalling? ›
You can upgrade to the latest version of Fedora manually instead of relying on dnf system upgrade. This involves booting the installer as if you were performing a clean installation, letting it detect your existing Fedora system, and overwriting the root partition while preserving data on other partitions and volumes.
Should I upgrade to Fedora 39? ›
Most people will want to upgrade to the latest stable release, which is 40 , but in some cases, such as when you're currently running an older release than 39 , you may want to upgrade just to Fedora Linux 39 . System upgrade is only officially supported and tested over 2 releases at most (e.g. from 38 to 40 ).
How do I upgrade my Fedora 38 to 39? ›
Upgrade Fedora 38 to 39
- dnf upgrade --refresh.
- dnf install dnf-plugin-system-upgrade.
- dnf system-upgrade download --releasever=39.
- dnf system-upgrade reboot.
The upgrade is worth it for its performance improvements alone. The new GNOME is noticeably faster. You'll notice as soon as the upgrade is completed. Also consider that old Fedora releases drop out of support rather quickly.
What is the difference between fresh install and upgrade in Fedora? ›
Fresh install sets things up as included on the install media. Only the software versions on that media are installed and only basic configs. An upgrade (for the most part) leaves all configs as they were at the time of the upgrade.
Is it easy to upgrade Fedora? ›
Upgrading from pre-release (beta) to final public release (stable) If you are using a pre-release of Fedora Linux, you shouldn't need to do anything to get the final public release, other than updating packages as they become available. You can use sudo dnf upgrade or wait for desktop notification.
Is Fedora end of life? ›
Fedora Linux Version 36 End of Life
Fedora Linux version 36 will go end of life on the 16th of May, 2023.
What are the disadvantages of Fedora OS? ›
Disadvantages of Fedora Operating System
It requires a long time to set up. It requires additional software tools for the server. It does not provide any standard model for multi-file objects. Fedora has its own server, so we can't work on another server in real-time.
Which is better, Ubuntu or Fedora? ›
A key difference between Fedora and Ubuntu is their perspective on software licensing. Fedora supports Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) only. This means that running for-profit software on the OS is out of the question. Ubuntu, on the other hand, supports whatever software that will run on it — free or otherwise.
Fedora 38 will go end-of-life in 6 days, on 2024-05-21. Most importantly, that means no more security updates will be published.
Is Fedora 38 stable? ›
Should you use Fedora 38? Even though Fedora 38, in its beta form, is as stable and usable as my current desktop OS, Pop!_ OS, I wouldn't recommend using this release on production machines. Yes, it's stable.
What are the minimum requirements for Fedora 38? ›
Dedicated Machine Requirements
- Computer with an empty storage drive of at least 15GB.
- Computer with at least 2GB of memory (RAM)
- USB Storage Device of at least 12GB.
- Internet Connection (optional after media download)
A new version of Fedora Linux is released every six months. As of February 2016, Fedora Linux has an estimated 1.2 million users, and is also the distribution used by Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel (as of May 2020).
Which Fedora version is best? ›
I really like Fedora Workstation (which uses the Gnome desktop environment). I would suggest choosing either Fedora Workstation or Fedora KDE Plasma spin, these are the two that will support Wayland.
Is Fedora good for older hardware? ›
Fedora 40's default desktop environment, GNOME3, functions best with hardware acceleration. Alternative desktops are recommended for users with older graphics hardware or those seeing insufficient performance with LLVMpipe.
Does Fedora update automatically? ›
You can use a service to automatically download and install any new updates (for example security updates). The dnf-automatic RPM package as a DNF component provides a service which is started automatically.
How do I update my Fedora software? ›
Let us see all commands in details to update Fedora Linux using terminal to get latest software patches.
- Open the terminal application. ...
- Update Fedora Linux using the terminal dnf command. ...
- Note down the Fedora Linux kernel version. ...
- Reboot the Fedora Linux box. ...
- Verify new Fedora Linux kernel.
Hover the cursor over the upper-left corner of the screen and type "Software" and select the Software application to open it. Click the Updates button to view the available updates. Click the Download button to download new updates. After the updates are downloaded click the Restart & Update button.
Do I need to disable secure boot to install Fedora? ›
Secureboot is supported out of the box. You can install Fedora with secureboot, because Microsoft signs the correct files. After installing, in many UEFIs you can configure custom secureboot keys, this works on most distros. For Fedora, you dont need to do this, but can, if you want to.
