How to upgrade to Fedora 39
Fedora 39 is out, and it is packed with exciting new features, like Gnome 45, Linux kernel 6.5, new drivers, and a slew of improvements. In this guide, we’ll show you how you can upgrade your Fedora Desktop or Laptop to Fedora 39.
How to upgrade to Fedora 39 – GUI
Upgrading Fedora 39 is best done with the GUI, especially if you use the Gnome Shell release of the operating system. To start the upgrade process, open up the “Gnome Software” app on the Fedora Desktop. You can open up the app by searching for “Software” in the app menu.
Once the “Gnome Software” app is open, find the “Updates” tab, and click on it with the mouse. When you select this tab, the app will load up pending software updates for your current version of Fedora. You must install these updates before attempting to upgrade Fedora.
After installing the updates, you should notice a notification in “Gnome Software” that says “Fedora Linux 39 Available.” Below that notification will be a “Download” button. Select this button to begin downloading the Fedora 39 upgrade files to your PC.
The download will take a bit, as there are a lot of things to install during a Fedora upgrade. When the download process is complete, you’ll see a notification to “Restart & Update.” Select it to install the updates on your Fedora computer.
How to upgrade to Fedora 39 – Terminal
Upgrading to Fedora 39 is possible to do in the terminal, thanks to RedHat’s robust package manager. To start the upgrade process, open up a terminal window on the Fedora desktop. You can open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt +T on the keyboard. Or, by searching for “Terminal” in the app menu.
Once the terminal app is open, you’ll first need to update the current release of Fedora so that all packages are up to date. To do this, run the following dnf update command in a terminal.
sudo dnf --refresh update -y
When you’ve installed all the pending updates for your Fedora 38 system, you need to install the upgrade tool on your system. The upgrade tool is a plugin for DNF. To get it working, run the following dnf install command.
sudo dnf install dnf-plugin-system-upgrade
With the “dnf-plugin-system-upgrade” package downloaded and installed on your Fedora Linux system, it is time to download the Fedora 39 upgrade packages to your Fedora 38 Desktop or Laptop. This is done with the system-upgrade command below in a terminal.
sudo dnf system-upgrade download --releasever=39
The download process for Fedora 39 is going to take a bit of time to complete. A few minutes (or longer), depending on your internet connection. When the download process is complete, use the following system-upgrade reboot command to restart your computer. Your Fedora system can only install upgrades when rebooted.
sudo dnf system-upgrade reboot
Once you restart your Fedora Linux system, it will begin installing the Fedora 39 packages, removing the Fedora 38 packages, and getting your system ready to use. This process will take some time, so be patient.
When the upgrade process is complete, Fedora will boot your system up. Once everything is booted up, log into your user account and begin using Fedora 39. Enjoy!
How to try out Fedora 39 fresh
The Fedora project makes every new release available as an ISO on its homepage. If you want to start fresh with Fedora 39, rather than upgrade you can. Here’s how.
First, head over to the official Fedora website. Once there, locate “Fedora Workstation,” and select the “Download Now” button with the mouse. After you select this button, you’ll be taken to the Fedora Workstation download page.
On the Fedora Workstation download page, locate “Just want an ISO file?” and select the download button next to Fedora 39. Alternatively, you can download and install the Fedora Media Writer app.
Using Fedora Media Writer
Launch the Fedora Media Writer on your Windows, Linux, or Mac OS system. Then, select the “Download automatically” option. Then, click the “Next” button to move to the next page in the installer.
On the next page, you must choose your edition of Fedora. Using the selector, choose from the available Fedora editions. Then, click the “Next” button to continue.
On the next page, insert a USB drive, and choose your hardware architecture. Then, click the “Download & Write” button to write Fedora 39 to USB.
When you’ve finished creating your Fedora 39 USB, reboot your PC, and log into the BIOS. Configure it to boot from USB to install Fedora 39.
