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Fedora Silverblue - Post Installation

A Fedora Silverblue (36) post installation guide (slightly outdated by now).

Motivation

This repository was created to keep track of the installation and configuration steps (personally) required after a clean installation of Fedora Silverblue.

Index

Updating the system

Since we've just done a clean install Fedora Silverblue, it would be a good to start off with the latest updates.

rpm-ostree upgrade --check # dry run to see what will be updated
rpm-ostree upgrade # perform upgrade
systemctl reboot # to use new deployment image

Note: Fedora Silverblue inherently needs a reboot after installing updates or new packages via rpm-ostree. This is due to the way os-tree handles deployment images.

Updating firmware

At this point, it would be good to retrieve and install the latest firmware for your hardware.

sudo fwupdmgr get-devices
sudo fwupdmgr refresh --force
sudo fwupdmgr get-updates
sudo fwupdmgr update
systemctl reboot

Configuring DNF

Since DNF is not particularly fast out of the box, we can make some adjustments in its configuration.

echo 'fastestmirror=1' | sudo tee -a /etc/dnf/dnf.conf
echo 'max_parallel_downloads=10' | sudo tee -a /etc/dnf/dnf.conf
echo 'deltarpm=true' | sudo tee -a /etc/dnf/dnf.conf
cat /etc/dnf/dnf.conf # see current configuration

Setting the hostname

hostnamectl set-hostname fedora-sb

Package layering

Fedora Silverblue uses os-tree to layer packages over the base system. This way, rollbacks and upgrades can be performed on the base system while keeping the layered packages as they were. Moreover, rollbacks can be performed to deployments where a (possibly problematic) layered package had not been layered yet.

Enabling RPM Fusion repositories

It was assumed that the RPM Fusion repositories have been enabled prior to the following steps.

If not enabled yet, run:

rpm-ostree install https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm # free packages
rpm-ostree install https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm # non-free packages
systemctl reboot # to use new deployment image

NVIDIA driver installation (with CUDA)

# Install NVIDIA driver
rpm-ostree install akmod-nvidia xorg-x11-drv-nvidia # NVIDIA
rpm-ostree install xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-CUDA # CUDA
rpm-ostree kargs --append=rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau --append=modprobe.blacklist=nouveau --append=nvidia-drm.modeset=1 # Blacklist nouveau driver
systemctl reboot # to use new deployment image

Other packages

rpm-ostree install ulauncher neofetch lm_sensors dkms mscore-fonts-all gnome-tweaks podman-compose
systemctl reboot # to use new deployment image

Note: To enable ULauncher short-cut to be Super + /, add a custom keyboard shortcut for command ulauncher-toggle in GNOME settings.

Note: If the microsoft fonts installed with mscore-fonts-all are not being picked up properly. Try copying the fonts from /usr/share/font to ~/.local/share/fonts.

Fish shell

To install the Fish shell and make it the default shell, run:

rpm-ostree install fish
sudo lchsh $USER # to /bin/fish
systemctl reboot # to use new deployment image

To install custom plugins (using Fisher), run:

curl -sL https://git.io/fisher | source && fisher install jorgebucaran/fisher
fisher install IlanCosman/tide@v5
fisher install franciscolourenco/done
fisher install jorgebucaran/autopair.fish

To change the default colours in GNOME Terminal (using Gogh), run:

bash -c "$(wget -qO- https://git.io/vQgMr)"

Configuring Flatpak

In Fedora Silverblue, Flatpak is enabled out of the box. However, the Flathub repository may or may not yet be added yet:

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

Next, update the Flatpak apps and install Flatseal (to manage app permissions):

flatpak update
flatpak install flathub com.github.tchx84.Flatseal

To enable the Flatpak apps to use Adwaita-dark (or any other GTK theme), run:

mkdir ~/.themes
cp -R /usr/share/themes/* ~/.themes
sudo flatpak override --filesystem=~/.themes
sudo flatpak override --env=GTK_THEME=Adwaita-dark

Firefox

To install Firefox Nightly and remove the pre-installed Firefox version, run:

flatpak install https://gitlab.com/proletarius101/firefox-nightly-flatpak/raw/master/firefox-nightly.flatpakref
rpm-ostree override remove firefox
systemctl reboot

Note: While this may work out of the box, some issues with X11 can occur (especially when spawning new windows). This may be fixed by adding an environment variable. For Fish add set -gx MOZ_DBUS_REMOTE 1 to the configuration file (e.g. ~/.config/fish/config.fish).

Toolbox

Toolboxes will be used as development environments. They'll contain the dnf packages which are field/project/toolbox specific. Toolboxes can simply be destroyed and recreated when problems arise.

Constructing a base image

Since there may be packages which all toolboxes will need/use, it would be nice to construct a base image to create future toolboxes from. First, we create a base toolbox:

toolbox create fedora36-base
toolbox enter fedora36-base

Next, we'll install some packages which may be useful for all future toolboxes (we can use dnf now):

sudo dnf groupinstall "Development Tools"
sudo dnf groupinstall "C Development Tools and Libraries"
sudo dnf install fish # already installed with rpm-ostree, but this avoids toolbox issues

To create an image out of this toolbox, first exit the container using Ctrl + D, then run:

podman stop fedora36-base
podman commit fedora36-base
podman images # note the added image
podman tag <IMAGE_ID> fedora36-base # for convenience
toolbox rm fedora36-base # can be removed now

Using the base image

To create a toolbox by extending from the base image, the --image flag can be used.

As an example, we can create a toolbox for working with LaTeX:

toolbox create --image fedora36-base latex
toolbox enter latex
sudo dnf install -y texlive-scheme-full latexmk

As another example, we can create a toolbox for working with AI stuff:

toolbox create --image fedora36-base AI
toolbox enter AI
sudo dnf install python3 python3-pip python3-matplotlib python3-notebook python3-numpy \
    python3-pandas python3-pillow python3-scikit-image python3-scikit-learn python3-scipy \
    python3-ipykernel python3-ipython python3-jupyter-client python3-jupyter-core
pip3 install torch torchvision torchaudio --extra-index-url https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cu116

Installing Flatpak Apps

The following script installs quite some applications may be useful.

flatpak install flathub org.gnome.Extensions # GNOME customization
flatpak install flathub com.mattjakeman.ExtensionManager # GNOME customization
flatpak install flathub com.bitwarden.desktop # Password manager
flatpak install flathub nz.mega.MEGAsync # File sync between devices
flatpak install flathub md.obsidian.Obsidian # Taking notes with enhanced markdown
flatpak install flathub org.onlyoffice.desktopeditors # Office suite of choice
flatpak install flathub org.videolan.VLC # Codecs
flatpak install flathub com.discordapp.Discord
flatpak install flathub org.gimp.GIMP # Image editing
flatpak install flathub org.inkscape.Inkscape # SVG/Image editing
flatpak install flathub com.transmissionbt.Transmission # Torrents
flatpak install flathub org.gnome.Evolution # Email
flatpak install flathub io.github.mimbrero.WhatsAppDesktop
flatpak install flathub com.spotify.Client # Music
flatpak install flathub com.visualstudio.code # Coding

Installing Gnome Extensions

A list of extensions which could be useful:

  • AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support
  • Extension list
  • franciscolourenco
  • NoAnnoyance v2
  • OpenWeather
  • Removable Drive Menu
  • Sound Input & Output Device Chooser
  • Todo.txt

Next to that, it would be convenient to set the window/app-switcher to detect only the apps in the current workspace:

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.window-switcher current-workspace-only true
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.app-switcher current-workspace-only true

Adding aliases

Generally, it would be useful to have aliases for toolboxes and Visual Studio Code. An example setup would add the following lines to the Fish configuration file (e.g. ~/.config/fish/config.fish):

# Previously constructed toolboxes
alias tb-ai="toolbox enter AI"
alias tb-latex="toolbox enter latex"

# VSCode flatpak
alias code="flatpak run com.visualstudio.code"

Adding GPG- and SSH-key to GitHub

GPG-key

Add a GPG-key (for signing commits) using:

gpg --full-generate-key
gpg --list-secret-keys --keyid-format=long
gpg --armor --export <KEY_ID>
git config --global user.signingkey <KEY_ID>

Then, add the following line to the Fish configuration file (e.g. ~/.config/fish/config.fish):

set -gx GPG_TTY (tty)

Lastly, enter the output of the following command in GitHub:

gpg --armor --export <KEY_ID>

SSH-key

Add a SSH-key using:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "<account_email>"
eval (ssh-agent -c)
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

Lastly, enter the output of the following command in GitHub:

cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

Installing Docker

sudo ostree remote add docker-ce https://download.docker.com/linux/fedora/docker-ce.repo
rpm-ostree update
rpm-ostree install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-compose-plugin
systemctl reboot # to use new deployment image

Post installation:

sudo systemctl enable --now docker
sudo groupadd docker
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
systemctl reboot

sudo chown root:docker /run/docker.sock
sudo chown -R root:docker /run/docker
sudo chown $USER:docker /run/docker.sock
sudo chown -R $USER:docker /run/docker

Then, add the following line to the Fish configuration file (e.g. ~/.config/fish/config.fish):

set -gx DOCKER_HOST unix:///run/docker.sock

Restart the terminal and run:

docker run hello-world

Enabling RTL88x2BU WiFi drivers

In Fedora Silverblue, the WiFi driver installation is more of a pain than for Fedora Workstation. A solution was found where the ostree image is hotfixed with the WiFi drivers. However, this script needs to be re-run after every new image deploy, since the hotfix get's "reset". Fortunately, after the initial setup of the system, this shouldn't have to be done often.

sudo ostree admin unlock --hotfix # ugly but working
sudo git clone "https://github.com/RinCat/RTL88x2BU-Linux-Driver.git" /usr/src/rtl88x2bu-git
sudo sed -i 's/PACKAGE_VERSION="@PKGVER@"/PACKAGE_VERSION="git"/g' /usr/src/rtl88x2bu-git/dkms.conf
sudo dkms remove -m rtl88x2bu -v git # if already present
sudo dkms add -m rtl88x2bu -v git # add driver
sudo dkms autoinstall # install driver
systemctl reboot # to load in driver

These commands can be put into a script (e.g. install_wifi_drivers.sh) and run when the deployment image has changed.

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