17 Things to Do After Installing Fedora 39

Installed Fedora 39 on your system? Here are some tips for you to follow to enhance your desktop experience.
Warp Terminal

Fedora 39 is an exciting upgrade with numerous features and visual treats.

Can’t wait already? If you have already installed Fedora 39 or upgraded to Fedora 39, we recommend following a few essential things that can help enhance your desktop experience with Fedora 39.

If you still haven’t installed it, you may want to check out the feature list of Fedora 39 to explore more about it.

πŸ“‹
This guide should apply to all the recent Fedora versions unless there is a drastic change between the upgrades.

Suggested Read πŸ“–

How to Upgrade From Fedora 38 to Fedora 39
This tutorial shows you how to upgrade the Fedora version to a new major release.

Some of the most essential things to do include:

1. Configure DNF for Faster Downloads of Packages

Several methods can enhance the speed of downloading packages in Fedora. By selecting the fastest mirrors, the package download speed can increase. Furthermore, if you have a sufficiently faster internet connection, then the number of parallel downloads can be changed to get faster downloads.

Just edit the DNF configuration files located at /etc/dnf/dnf.conf.

For this, open a terminal and type:

sudo nano /etc/dnf/dnf.conf

Append the following line and save:

max_parallel_downloads=10

The fastest mirrors work by selecting the mirror with the lowest latency. The speed difference may or may not be noticeable. So, you only choose to increase max_parallel_download as above or add the following line to pick the fastest mirror for downloads:

fastestmirror=true
configure dnf to download packages faster
Configure DNF to download packages faster

2. Update the System

Whether you have the latest and greatest out-of-the-box, it is always a good thing to perform a system update, refreshing the list of repositories and upgrading any packages pushed last minute.

You can do that from the GNOME Software Center (from the Updates section) or use the terminal.

fedora 38 update with gnome 44.1 update packages

For the terminal, use the following command:

sudo dnf update

A restart may be required to complete the system update.

3. Enable RPM Fusion Repository

Fedora installer provides a method to enable additional third-party repositories for convenience.

You should also get a prompt to do it in the Software Center.

However, only the RPM repository for NVIDIA driver, Google Chrome, and Steam are added, and software such as VLC and MPV, usually available from RPM Fusion, will not be available.

unable to locate vlc without rpm fusion enabled
Unable to locate VLC without rpm fusion enabled

So, if you need extra tools that aren’t usually available in the default repositories and the filtered RPM fusion repo, adding the RPM Fusion repo is a good idea.

To enable RPM Fusion (both free and non-free), Open a terminal and enter the following commands:

sudo dnf install https://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm

sudo dnf install https://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm

4. Enabling the Flathub Repository

proprietary software through Flathub

Fedora has Flatpak enabled by default. However, with Fedora 37 and older, it initially featured only a particular Flatpak repository tailored for Fedora and a filtered Flathub repo.

So, to get access to the wide range of Flatpak apps available, you had to add the Flathub repository separately.

But now with Fedora 38 and above, you can simply enable the Flathub repo by enabling "Third-Party Repositories" right after installation or when you get the prompt when accessing the Software Center.

fedora repositories software center

You can also head to the 'Software Repositories' option using the GNOME Software Center and enable Flathub if it is still not active.

5. Install Multimedia Plugins

While you can install and use the shiny new desktop experience with Fedora 39, you cannot play videos/media on it β€” yet.

Of course, you can choose to install VLC, MPV with codecs packed in. Or, just manually install the multimedia codecs?

To achieve any of those, you will have to eventually enable the RPM Fusion repository.

For instance, if you want to install the VLC player after enabling the RPM fusion repo, just type the following command in the terminal:

sudo dnf install vlc

If you want to install the media codecs, use the following commands:

sudo dnf install gstreamer1-plugins-{bad-\*,good-\*,base} gstreamer1-plugin-openh264 gstreamer1-libav --exclude=gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free-devel

sudo dnf install lame\* --exclude=lame-devel

sudo dnf group upgrade --with-optional Multimedia

6. Change Hostname After Installation

After installation, the default hostname is set up as fedora.

So, if you want to personalize your system hostname after installation, you can use the following command to set a new hostname:

sudo hostnamectl set-hostname "New_Custom_Name"

You can also do the same thing from the system settings. For this, open GNOME Settings and go to the About section. On this page, you can change the name from fedora to your liking.

fedora about section that allows changing hostname

7. Install Essential Applications

gnome software center
GNOME Software Center

You can install essential Linux applications from the terminal using the dnf package manager or through the GNOME Software Center.

You can use the following command to install anything that you need:

sudo dnf install <package_name>

8. Install Gnome Tweaks and Extensions App

gnome extensions app
GNOME Extensions App

To tweak the gnome look and feel, you need to install both GNOME Tweaks and the extensions manager app. It can be done either through the software center or through the terminal using the following command:

sudo dnf install gnome-tweaks gnome-extensions-app

In my case, chrome-gnome-shell was automatically installed, which is required to make the browser extension work. You can refer to our resource on installing GNOME tweaks on Fedora if you still face issues with it.

It can be helpful to use some of the best GNOME extensions to enhance your desktop workflow.

9. Enable Minimize or Maximize Button

This isn’t for you if you are already comfortable without a minimize button in the window.

add minimize button to windows
Add minimize button to windows

But, if you want a dedicated minimize button, you can enable it using GNOME Tweaks by heading to the Window Titlebars option and enabling the minimize button.

While you can already double-click on a window to maximize, you can still add the maximize button.

10. Tweak Privacy Settings

It is worth double-checking if you have the problem reporting enabled/disabled.

You can head to the Privacy settings and check if β€œAutomatic Problem Reporting” is enabled/disabled.

automatic problem reporting feature
Automatic problem reporting feature

You should enable it if you do not mind sharing anonymous data for developers to improve the experience.

If you do not like the concept, disable it.

11. Screen Lock and Power Settings

If you are using a laptop, the default power saving options turn the screen blank and suspend it after a period of inactivity.

But, if you do not want that to happen, head to the power settings and disable the β€œScreen Blank” and β€œAutomatic Suspend” options.

power settings
Power settings

You can also choose to display the battery percentage from the same settings.

12. Use Night Light Settings

Every distribution comes packed with the night light feature to help you reduce eye strain.

night light settings
Night Light settings

For Fedora, you can access it in the display settings and enable it or set a schedule for it to automatically enable/disable the night light as required.

13. Sort Folder before files in Nautilus File Manager

This is rather a simple thing but may annoy a first-time user if you want to view the folders listed first.

In that case, go to preferences in Files and toggle the Sort Folders Before Files option as shown in the image below.

sort folder before files
Sort folder before files

14. Automatically Delete Trash Content

We tend to delete things, but then forget to delete them from the trash.

In such cases, the size of the trash/bin grows, and we may end up with low storage space.

To avoid this, Go to Settings β†’ Privacy and toggle the Automatic Delete Trash Content option as required.

The automatic deletion period can be set in the same window if you want to tweak that. The default value is set to 30 days.

15. Set the Power Profiles

fedora 38 power profiles

Power profiles are accessible from the Settings page and through the top panel (or the system tray).

Use the appropriate mode, like balanced (which should be the default for best performance) and power saver, for better battery savings and a minor hit to the performance.

16. Reduce the Animation effect for a faster response

If you notice any stutters with the system performance, such as launching apps or the navigation in general, try reducing the animation from accessibility settings (under seeing) as shown in the image below.

Reduce animation

17. Manage Software Repositories

access software repository settings in software manager
Access software repository settings in software manager

With Flathub and third-party repositories enabled, if the need arises, you can head to the Software Center and access the software repositories from the menu.

software repositories listed in software center

Wrapping Up

Per your use case, you can do countless more things with your Fedora 39 system.

After all, you get some of the latest and greatest packages (and kernel). So, feel free to explore more.

What do you usually do after installing/upgrading to a new version of Fedora? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

About the author
Ankush Das

Ankush Das

A passionate technophile who also happens to be a Computer Science graduate. You will usually see cats dancing to the beautiful tunes sung by him.

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