DNF5 Configuration dnf.conf

To improve package cache, colored display output etc., add the following lines to your /etc/dnf/dnf.conf file.

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[main]
color=true
max_parallel_downloads=10
keepcache=true
defaultyes=true

• color Enables color output during DNF operations
• max_parallel_downloads Enables parallel downloading for faster updates & installations
• keepcache Keep downloaded packages in the Cache
• defaultyes If enabled default answer to user confirmation prompt will be Yes

You can also add:

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fastestmirror=true

It will rate the mirror based on latency. But not all mirrors have up-to-date packages, you might see mirror errors during updates and installations. The DNF5 can automatically handle mirrors based on their availability and speed. You don’t generally need this option.

Upgrade

System

Go to Gnome-Software and Click on updates tab. Then Click Downloads button.

Or upgrade via DNF:

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sudo dnf update

And Restart your system.

Firmware

You can update your firmware (BIOS, Device Drivers) if your system supports it:

sudo fwupdmgr refresh --force
sudo fwupdmgr get-devices # Lists devices with available updates.
sudo fwupdmgr get-updates # Fetches list of available updates.
sudo fwupdmgr update

You may need to restart to apply updates.

Beautiful Cursors

First install gnome-tweaks, it will be helpful in many ways.

sudo dnf install gnome-tweaks

Download the Bibata Cursors, from their release page, or with the following command directly:

wget https://github.com/ful1e5/Bibata_Cursor/releases/latest/download/Bibata.tar.xz

Let’s make an icon directory:

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/icons

Now let’s extract the Bibata.tar.xz to the icons directory:

tar -xvf Bibata.tar.xz -C ~/.local/share/icons

• tar Archival and extraction utility
• -x/--extract Extract files from an archive
• -v/--verbose Verbosely list files processed
• -f/--file=ARCHIVE Use archive filename or device ARCHIVE
• -C/--directory=DIR Change to DIR before performing any operations

Now just open gnome-tweaks app, go to Appearance. Under Styles > Cursors, change it to your liking:

RPM Fusion: Free and Non-Free

RPM Fusion repos are necessary to obtain pieces of software which are not available in the Official Repos due to licensing restrictions like multimedia codecs, GPU drivers etc.

Using DNF:

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

To enable WebRTC support:

sudo dnf config-manager --enable fedora-cisco-openh264

Appstream metadata provide GUI way to install RPM Fusion packages via GNOME Software or KDE Discover.

sudo dnf update @core

# Since DNF5(F41 & later), the Fedora groups cannot be extended by RPM Fusion. So you need to mention the package explicitly

sudo dnf install rpmfusion-\*-appstream-data

Multimedia Codecs

It’s a good idea to switch to full ffmpeg package to avoid version mismatches.

sudo dnf swap ffmpeg-free ffmpeg --allowerasing

Install Additional Codecs

To play all kinds of multimedia in Browsers as well as through multimedia players.

sudo dnf update @multimedia --setopt="install_weak_deps=False" --exclude=PackageKit-gstreamer-plugin

Hardware Accelerated Codec

Intel

For Intel Recent Hardware (rpmfusion-nonfree):

sudo dnf install intel-media-driver

For Broadwell (5th gen) and newer chipsets particularly Ice Lake (10th gen) and newer.

For older Hardware (rpmfusion-free):

sudo dnf install libva-intel-driver

Hardware codes with AMD (mesa)

This is needed since Fedora 37 and later. It mainly concerns the AMD hardware:

sudo dnf swap mesa-va-drivers mesa-va-drivers-freeworld

If using i686 compact libraries (for steam or a likes) for older 32-bit systems:

sudo dnf swap mesa-va-drivers.i686 mesa-va-drivers-freeworld.i686

Brave and Chromium: Hardware Video Acceleration

You will need following flags to enable hardware-based video acceleration on Brave and chromium based browsers.

Add following config to brave-flags.conf file to $HOME/.config/ directory:

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--ozone-platform=wayland
--ozone-platform-hint=wayland
--enable-features=TouchpadOverscrollHistoryNavigation
#extension=~/.local/share/omarchy/default/chromium/extensions/copy-url
# Chromium crash workaround for Wayland color management on Hyprland - see https://github.com/hyprwm/Hyprland/issues/11957
#--disable-features=WaylandWpColorManagerV1

For Chromium/Chrome browser save following config to chromium-flags.conf or chrome-flags.conf to $HOME/.config/ directory:

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--ozone-platform=wayland
--ozone-platform-hint=wayland
--enable-features=TouchpadOverscrollHistoryNavigation
--enable-features=AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxGL
--enable-features=AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxZeroCopyGL
--enable-features=AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxGL,AcceleratedVideoEncoder
# Chromium crash workaround for Wayland color management on Hyprland - see https://github.com/hyprwm/Hyprland/issues/11957
#--disable-features=WaylandWpColorManagerV1

Flathub Repo

To add official Flathub repo:

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

Fedora comes with the Fedora Flathub Repo, which has limited number of apps curated by Fedora Maintainers, not the respective app developers. To remove it:

flatpak remote-delete fedora
flatpak remote-delete fedora-testing

Disable GNOME Super + NUM Keybinds

On Fedora Workstation, pressing any number from 0 to 9 with Super key, will open respective app from GNOME dock. Let’s disable it for good:

for i in $(seq 1 9); do gsettings set org.gnome.shell.keybindings switch-to-application-${i} "[]"; done

The Super + NUM can be better use for quickly switching among GNOME workspaces.

GNOME Extensions

I like clean GNOME experience with only my chosen few extensions. Let’s remove default Fedora Workstation Extensions:

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sudo dnf remove gnome-shell-extension-window-list gnome-shell-extension-window-list

I had these two installed by default. To check whether there are more:

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dnf list --installed | grep gnome-shell-extension

It will list all the installed packages and then using grep will only print packages with gnome-shell-extension pattern in their name.

GNOME: Extension Manager

It allows you to manage and install gnome extensions in a single application.

Let’s install:

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flatpak install com.mattjakeman.ExtensionManager

My minimal but useful extension list:

1. AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support: It will add Notification tray icon support.

2. Caffeine: Disable screensaver and auto suspend.

3. Copyous: My favorite and most used tool, a clipboard manager with text & images support.

There are many more extensions available. You can choose whatever you like. I’m personally a fan of default GNOME experience with necessary extensions only.

System Backups: Btrfs Assistant

Fedora uses btrfs file system. Backups can be extremely fast.

Let’s install:

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sudo dnf in btrfs-assistant

Open btrfs-assistant app, go to snapper settings create a backup config like this:

After sometime, backups will start appearing in the Snapper section of the app. The btrfs-assistant app will take of backups creation and cleanups, but you can manually create and delete backups too.

Useful Applications

Improve your Fedora experience with useful apps. Following apps are recommended and used by me.

Brave Browser

Add brave-browser repository and install:

sudo dnf install dnf-plugins-core

sudo dnf config-manager addrepo --from-repofile=https://brave-browser-rpm-release.s3.brave.com/brave-browser.repo

sudo dnf install brave-browser

Chromium is available through Fedora repos:

sudo dnf in chromium

Visual Studio Code

Install the key and add yum repo:

sudo rpm --import https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc &&
echo -e "[code]\nname=Visual Studio Code\nbaseurl=https://packages.microsoft.com/yumrepos/vscode\nenabled=1\nautorefresh=1\ntype=rpm-md\ngpgcheck=1\ngpgkey=https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc" | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/vscode.repo > /dev/null

Then update package cache and install the package:

dnf check-update &&
sudo dnf install code # or code-insiders

Screenshots: Gradia and Flameshot

Gradia is a screenshot taking and annotation tool. It’s available as flatpak:

flatpak install be.alexandervanhee.gradia

Add custom shortcut to via GNOME settings:

flatpak run be.alexandervanhee.gradia --screenshot=INTERACTIVE

It will take interactive screenshot via GNOME’s built-in tool, then pipe that image to Gradia.

Flameshot is another great screenshot tool with annotation support.

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sudo dnf install flameshot

Due to Wayland limitations, it doesn’t run without certain changes.

Let’s make a script:

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#!/bin/sh
# Fix 'Unable to Capture Screen'
export QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland
# Fixes Copy to Clipboard not working
sh -c "QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb flameshot gui -r | wl-copy"

Save these lines to flameshot-fix file. Put this file inside $HOME/local/bin/ directory. Make it executable:

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chmod +x flameshot-fix

• +x Makes script file executable, without you can’t run it

Make sure $HOME/.local/bin is in the path. Add this to your .bashrc

export PATH=~/.local/bin:$PATH

Close the terminal and open again.

Let’s create a GNOME custom shortcut:

Name: Flameshot

Command: flameshot-fix

Shortcut: [YourChoice]

Bitwarden

It’s a free and open-source Password Manager of choice. Let’s install it:

latest=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/bitwarden/clients/releases/latest \
         | grep "browser_download_url.*x86_64.rpm" \
         | cut -d '"' -f 4)
wget "$latest"

The curl commands uses GitHub API to fetch latest package name and pass it to variable latest which is turn used by wget to download.

Run inside the download directory

sudo dnf install ./Bitwarden*.rpm

Or install it via Flathub:

flatpak install com.bitwarden.desktop

Obsidian

Obsidian is a note-taking app:

flatpak install md.obsidian.Obsidian

MegaSync Desktop

Mega is cloud storage solution like Google Drive. Install it via:

wget https://mega.nz/linux/repo/Fedora_42/x86_64/megasync-Fedora_42.x86_64.rpm && sudo dnf install "$PWD/megasync-Fedora_42.x86_64.rpm"

It will install megasync app, and add the repo to /etc/yum.repos.d/ directory. Subsequent upgrades can be done via DNF.

Cryptomator

It’s a File based Encryption tool. Let’s install it:

flatpak install org.cryptomator.Cryptomator

VPNs: Windscribe, ProtonVPN and Cloudflare Warp

To install windscribe:

sudo dnf install windscribe

Windscribe is a privacy respecting VPN provider. It also gives 10 GB free VPN usage data per month.

ProtonVPN has more involved installation process.

Download the package containing Repo config and keys:

wget "https://repo.protonvpn.com/fedora-$(cat /etc/fedora-release | cut -d' ' -f 3)-stable/protonvpn-stable-release/protonvpn-stable-release-1.0.3-1.noarch.rpm"

Install the ProtonVPN repo:

sudo dnf install ./protonvpn-stable-release-1.0.3-1.noarch.rpm && sudo dnf check-update --refresh 

Install the app:

sudo dnf install proton-vpn-gnome-desktop 

Accept OpenPGP key during installation by replying y to the prompt.

To show system tray icon (optional):

sudo dnf install libappindicator-gtk3

It requires AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support extension installed on the GNOME system. Restart.

To completely remove the ProtonVPN app, follow the official guide.

Check detailed guide on installation and configuration of cloudflare-warp on Linux.

Virtual Machine Manager

Fedora comes preconfigured with KVM/QEMU support. It comes bundled with gnome-boxes, but it’s very limiting so uninstall it:

sudo dnf remove gnome-boxes

Let’s install virt-manager:

sudo dnf install virt-manager

To fix passwords prompts on opening Virtual Machine Manager, see this.

Distrobox

Distrobox helps you run any Linux distribution inside your terminal. Fedora comes preconfigured with podman and toolbox which is what distrobox is based on.

The toolbox only supports Fedora with pretty limited features, let’s get rid of it:

sudo dnf remove toolbox

And install distrobox:

sudo dnf install distrobox

Misc.

Let’s install FFaudioConverter, Flatseal, GIMP, Kid3, LocalSend, and Calibre:

flatpak install com.github.Bleuzen.FFaudioConverter com.github.tchx84.Flatseal org.gimp.GIMP org.kde.kid3 org.localsend.localsend_app com.calibre_ebook.calibre

• FFaudioConverter Audio conversion and compression app
• GIMP FOSS Photoshop alternative
• Kid3 Audio metadata Editor
• LocalSend Sends and Receives file via Local Network
• Calibre E-Book reader and metadata editor

Install few useful programs for Fedora repos:

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sudo dnf install neovim imagemagick tealdeer bat lsd yazi tmux fzf ripgrep fd-find seahorse

• neovim CLI text editor
• imagemagick CLI based image display and manipulation program
• tealdeer Show simplified usage of CLI commands with examples
• bat Better cat
• lsd Better ls
• yazi Terminal based file manager with vim keybindings
• tmux Terminal multiplexer
• fzf A CLI fuzzy finder
• ripgrep A better grep
• fd-find A better find
• seahorse GNOME encryption keys manager, a keyring manager

Fix GTK3 Apps Theming

To fix theming for megasync, cloudflare-warp please install:

sudo dnf install adw-gtk3-theme

Open gnome-tweaks app, go to Appearance tab, under Styles > Legacy Applications, select Adw-gtk3-dark

For Flatpak’s like FFaudioConverter and Obsidian:

flatpak install org.gtk.Gtk3theme.adw-gtk3 org.gtk.Gtk3theme.adw-gtk3-dark

Flatpak applications should pick up the right theme automatically. Reboot, if theming is still bad see this.

References

• Fedora 43 Post Install Guide — A Great Optimization Guide
• Bash CLI Tips & Tricks — Learn Terminal Superpowers
• Practical BASHRC Tweaks — Make Your Terminal, a Beautiful Place to Spend Time
• How to Diagnose and Fix Slow Boot on SystemD-based Linux Distros — Investigate and Fix Slow Boot-up
• GNOME: ScreenIdle and ScreenLock Customization — If You Love KDE Screen Idle and Lock Settings
• Managing dotfiles the Right Way: GNU Stow and ln -s — How to Manage Linux Configuration Files Across Distros
• GNOME Tips: Keyboard Shortcuts for More Than 4 Workspaces — Need More than 4 Default Workspaces
• SysRq: The Secret Key to Safely Shutting Down a Frozen Linux System — No More Hard Reboots for Frozen System