Essential commands for installation, package management, system administration, and troubleshooting Uses dnf (primary) and flatpak/rpm-ostree (for Silverblue/Atomic). All privileged commands require sudo.
1. Installation (Live USB / Anaconda)
Task Command / Action Boot live ISO Select “Start Fedora-Workstation” Launch installer Click “Install to Hard Drive” Disk partitioning Use Blivet-GUI or manual (/boot/efi, /, swap) Post-install (first boot) Complete user setup via GNOME Initial Setup Manual install (netinstall) Boot netinstall ISO → dnf install @base-x (or minimal) Enable RPM Fusion (Free & Nonfree) sudo dnf install https://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpmsudo dnf install https://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpmUpdate system sudo dnf upgrade --refresh
2. DNF (Package Management)
Action Command Update system sudo dnf upgrade --refreshInstall package sudo dnf install packageRemove package sudo dnf remove packageSearch package dnf search keywordList installed dnf list installedAutoremove unused sudo dnf autoremoveClean cache sudo dnf clean allView package info dnf info packageList files in package rpm -ql packageWhich package owns file dnf provides /path/to/fileEnable COPR repo sudo dnf copr enable user/repoHistory (undo/redo) dnf historysudo dnf history undo ID
Flatpak (GUI & CLI) flatpak install flathub org.mozilla.firefoxflatpak updateflatpak uninstall package
3. System Administration (systemd)
Task Command List services systemctl list-unit-files --type=serviceEnable service sudo systemctl enable serviceStart service sudo systemctl start serviceStatus systemctl status serviceView logs journalctl -u serviceReboot rebootShutdown poweroffView kernel messages dmesg | lessDisk usage df -hMemory free -hProcesses htop or topKill process kill PID or pkill name
4. Users & Permissions
Action Command Add user sudo useradd -m usernameSet password sudo passwd usernameAdd to wheel (sudo) sudo usermod -aG wheel usernameChange owner sudo chown user:group fileChange permissions chmod 755 file
5. Networking
Task Command Check IP ip a or nmcli device showList Wi-Fi nmcli device wifi listConnect Wi-Fi nmcli device wifi connect SSID password "pass"Restart NetworkManager sudo systemctl restart NetworkManagerCheck DNS cat /etc/resolv.confFirewall (firewalld) sudo firewall-cmd --list-allsudo firewall-cmd --add-service=http --permanent
6. Filesystem & Storage
Task Command Mount USB sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usbUnmount umount /mnt/usbFormat ext4 sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX1Check disk sudo fsck /dev/sdX1Find large files du -ah / | sort -rh | head -n 20Search files find / -name "filename" 2>/dev/null
7. Fedora Variants
Fedora Silverblue / Kinoite (Immutable)
Task Command Rebase to new version rpm-ostree upgraderpm-ostree rebase fedora:fedora/40/x86_64/silverblueLayer package rpm-ostree install packageRemove layered rpm-ostree override remove packageRollback rpm-ostree rollbackCheck status rpm-ostree statusBoot into previous Select from GRUB
Toolbox (containerized dev) toolbox createtoolbox enter
8. Troubleshooting
Issue Command Boot to recovery GRUB → e → add systemd.unit=rescue.target → Ctrl+X Fix broken deps sudo dnf distro-syncReinstall all packages sudo dnf reinstall $(dnf list installed | awk '{print $1}')Clear journal sudo journalctl --vacuum-time=2weeksBoot errors journalctl -b -p errRegenerate initramfs sudo dracut -fUpdate GRUB sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg (BIOS)sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfg (UEFI)
9. Useful Tools to Install
sudo dnf install vim htop git curl wget unzip tree dnf-automatic firewall-config
10. One-Liners
# Full update + clean
sudo dnf upgrade --refresh && sudo dnf autoremove && sudo dnf clean all
# Enable fastest mirrors
sudo dnf install dnf-plugins-core
sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled fedora-cisco-openh264
echo "fastestmirror=True" | sudo tee -a /etc/dnf/dnf.conf
# Show orphan packages
dnf leaves
# Update Flatpaks
flatpak update
# Rebase Silverblue to latest
rpm-ostree update && reboot
11. Fedora Docs & Resources
Official Docs: https://docs.fedoraproject.org Ask Fedora: https://ask.fedoraproject.org
# Install offline docs
sudo dnf install fedora-docs
12. Quick Install Scripts
# Post-install script (Workstation)
sudo dnf install https://rpmfusion.org/... (both repos)
sudo dnf upgrade --refresh
sudo dnf install vim htop git @development-tools
Pro Tip : Use gnome-software or dnfdragora for GUI package management. For immutability: Silverblue + Toolbox + Flatpak = future-proof desktop