How to Upgrade to Fedora 40 Beta Right Now

Fedora 40 will be releasing soon. Fedora 40 beta is already available, and it features the awesome new GNOME 46.

If you are running Fedora 39 right now and want to enjoy GNOME 46 and all the other features that come with Fedora 40, you can easily do that.

In this tutorial, I’ll show the steps for upgrading to Fedora 40 beta using terminal as well as the GUI method.

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Keep in mind that you cannot downgrade to Fedora 39 the same way you upgraded to Fedora 40. You will have to reinstall it.

Upgrade to Fedora beta via command line

Unlike upgrading to a beta version in Ubuntu, Fedora doesn’t need additional steps to exclusively mention that you are looking for a pre-release version upgrade. The steps are the same as upgrading to any Fedora stable version. Fedora presumes that you know what you are asking for.

With that information, it’s time to see the steps of the upgrade procedure.

The first step is to upgrade all the installed packages to the latest available version. Normally, it should not take long if you update your Fedora system regularly.

sudo dnf upgrade --refresh

Upgrade installed packages using DNF refresh — Upgrade all installed packages

Then, install the system upgrade plugin for DNF if not already installed. This will be quick.

sudo dnf install dnf-plugin-system-upgrade

Check if DNF-Plugin System Upgrade is installed — DNF-Plugin System Upgrade

At this step, you should provide the number of version you are upgrading. In this case, you are looking to upgrade to Fedora 40, so instruct your system to download the release of Fedora 40 with releasever=40.

sudo dnf system-upgrade download --releasever=40

This will warn you about performing a full system update, before proceeding.

Notify about the need for a full system update before continuing — Notify about system update

If you have completed the update, enter "y" and press the Enter key to continue.

List the statistics of packages that need to be upgraded/downgraded — Package Upgrade overview

The longest time will be taken by this step. Grab a cup of coffee or even go to lunch if you don’t have superfast internet.

Downloading the packages progress — Downloading Updates

Once downloaded, it will ask you to accept the Fedora key.

Accept the Fedora GPG Key — Accept Fedora Key

If you have RPM fusion enabled on your system, you need to accept the RPM Fusion key as well.

Accept the RPM Fusion GPG key, if you have RPM fusion enabled and packages installed — Accept RPM Fusion Key

The downloaded packages will be saved locally for you to upgrade the system using the next step.

Packages downloaded and waiting for update — Download Complete

When this process completes, you need to reboot your system with this command to start the actual upgrade process:

sudo dnf system-upgrade reboot

You’ll see a dark screen with the progress of your system upgrade:

The Offline upgrade process of Fedora — Update Process

Once the process completes, you’ll be logged in to Fedora 40 beta.

Running Fedora 39 Beta (Prerelease Version) — Fedora 40 Beta (Prerelease Version)

Suggested Read 📖

Upgrading to Fedora 40 beta graphically with GNOME Software Center (works only for GNOME desktop)

If you are using the GNOME desktop environment that comes with Fedora by default, you have the option to upgrade to the beta version graphically using the GNOME Software application.

Well … almost graphically. Because you’ll need to run this command in the terminal anyway:

gsettings set org.gnome.software show-upgrade-prerelease true

With that done, open the GNOME Software Center and go to the Updates tab. Make sure there are no pending updates to install. If there are any, install them.

If you don’t see the availability of the next release in the software center, you can either restart your system or kill any instance of GNOME Software with this command:

pkill gnome-software

Now start GNOME Software again, and you should see the availability of the beta version of Fedora 40. Hit the download button.

Fedora 39 Upgrade Available in GNOME Software — Fedora 39 Available

When the download finishes, you’ll be prompted to install and restart your system.

Click on Restart and Upgrade button to start upgrade process — Restart and Upgrade

It may ask for your password. Enter it when prompted. You now need to confirm the process.

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Since update can take some time, plug your system to a power supply to avoid interruptions.

Confirm restart and start installation after reading the warnings like plug your system to a power supply. — Confirm Upgrade

You will be logged in to the new Fedora 39 system, once this process finishes.

Upgrade Completed Message — Upgrade Completed

Suggested Read 📖

What happens when the stable version of Fedora 40 is released?

You don’t have to do anything special to get the stable version if you are already using the beta version. Just keep your system updated and you’ll have the stable version automatically. That’s convenient, right?

I hope you find the steps to upgrade to Fedora 39 beta useful. If you need any clarification, please do ask in the comment section.

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