Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

About the Fedora Atomic Desktops projects

Is it Team Silverblue, Silverblue, or Fedora Silverblue?

Team Silverblue was the name used to refer to the overall project. Fedora Silverblue will be used for the OS, but calling it Silverblue in its short version is fine as well.

Why does the Silverblue logo look like a leaf?

Our favorite choice for a project name was Silverleaf, but that sadly did not work out. We just couldn’t quite let go of the leaf. You could also say that Silverblue is a new leaf on Fedora’s OSTree. 😀

Is Silverblue another GNOME OS?

GNOME OS was a codename that was used by the upstream GNOME project for a while to refer to the idea of designing the entire desktop user experience. By contrast, Silverblue is an effort inside the Fedora project, and will be built with existing Fedora technologies. However, the two efforts do share a desire to deliver a user experience that is polished and coherent.

Why is the project named Fedora Kinoite?

We chose the Kinoite name for the following reasons:

  • KDE based projects traditionally start with a "K".

  • Kinoite is a blue mineral (Wikipedia), thus referring to both the "silver" and "blue" part of Silverblue and the blue color of the KDE logo.

  • "Kinoite" means "There is a tree" in Japanese (Google Translate), thus referring to the "tree" in "ostree".

What is Fedora Atomic Desktops' relationship with Fedora IoT and Fedora CoreOS?

Fedora Atomic Desktops use the same core technology as Fedora IoT and Fedora CoreOS. However, Fedora Atomic Desktops are specifically focused on workstation and desktop use cases with the GNOME, KDE Plasma, Sway, Budgie and COSMIC desktops.

About using Fedora Atomic Desktops

How can I play more videos in Firefox, like YouTube?

Firefox is included in the OS image for now (see issue#3 for progress on moving to Flatpak by default). Until that changes, getting it to play videos works the same way as it does for the regular package mode Fedora: find a package with the needed codecs, and install it. The one difference is that you use rpm-ostree install instead of dnf install. An alternative solution is to install Firefox from Flathub.

How do I create a VPN connection?

/etc is not part of the read-only root filesystem, so you can just copy files into /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections (or let NetworkManager store them there when you recreate your connections). Certificates in /etc/pki need to be handled similarly.

How can I install my preferred IDE on Fedora Atomic Desktops?

You can install most IDE directly in a toolbox where you can also install all the developments tools from the Fedora repositories. To be able to launch them directly from menus, you can copy the .desktop file for the IDE from the toolbox to your home directory in ~/.local/share/applications/. You should then update the Exec line in the .desktop file to prepend toolbox run to start it from the toolbox. You can also use the IDEs packaged as Flatpaks from Flathub.

How can I see what packages were updated between two commits?

  • If you want to compare the booted deployment with the pending deployment (or rollback deployment), simply issue:

    $ rpm-ostree db diff
    You can also see the RPM changelog by adding the -c option like so: rpm-ostree db diff -c.

  • If you want to see which packages were updated between two specific commits:

    1. Find out which two commits you want to compare by issuing:

      $ ostree log <ref>

    2. You can now compare the two commits by issuing:

      $ rpm-ostree db diff <commit x> <commit y>

How can I check the version number of an installed package?

You can simply use:

$ rpm -q <package>

How can I check if an rpm software package is available in the repository?

To search for packages in your enabled repositories, use:

$ rpm-ostree search <package>

How can I downgrade my system’s kernel?

If, for whatever reason, you need to downgrade the kernel, you can do so by following these steps:

  1. For the version you need to downgrade, download <kernel>, <kernel-core>, <kernel-modules> and <kernel-modules-extra> from Koji.

  2. Install the packages downloaded on the previous step by issuing:

    $ rpm-ostree override replace <kernel> <kernel-core> <kernel-modules> <kernel-modules-extra>

  3. Reboot the system to apply the changes.

How can I upgrade my system to the next major version (for instance: rawhide or an upcoming Fedora release branch), while keeping my current deployment?

OSTree allows you to pin deployments (pinning ensures that your deployment of choice is kept and not discarded).

  1. Assuming that you want to keep your default deployment, issue the following command:

    $ sudo ostree admin pin 0
    0 here refers to the first deployment listed by rpm-ostree status

  2. Verify that you have pinned your deployment of choice by issuing:

    $ rpm-ostree status

  3. After the deployment is pinned, you can upgrade your system by using the instructions found here.

  4. When you have completed rebasing, reboot the system. The GRUB menu will now present you with both: the previous deployment major version entry (e.g.: "Fedora 42.YYYYMMDD.n") and the new deployment major version entry (e.g.: "Fedora 43.YYYYMMDD.n").

    At the moment it is not possible to name (pinned) deployments and their associated GRUB menu entries.

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