Fedora Workstation 34 - Post installation setup

Below is my setup on Fedora 34. Over the pass couple of days I have been moving my computers from Kubuntu 20.04 to Fedora Workstation 34. I seem to be craving a little simplicity and integration in my life. It is largely based on Chris Marts "Fedora 34 Getting Started After Install Guide" at Hacking the Hike but has been altered and extended to suit me.

Initial setup

Update

Update the system immediately after install. Also, doing it this way with dnf doesn't ask you to reboot afterwards but it is a good idea to so you are starting from a clean system.

sudo dnf upgrade

Wait until the updates have installed and then reboot.

RPM Fusion

RPM Fusion provides software that Fedora doesn't want to ship due to licensing or copyright issues mainly. There are two repositories you need to install, free and non-free. 

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

After adding the repos you want to upgrade again.

sudo dnf upgrade --refresh

Install the app stream metadata so you can install packages through Gnome Software, the tainted repos to access the free and non-free software and the core dnf plugins to extend dnf.

The tainted free repo contains FOSS software that may be restricted in some countries and the tainted non-free contains non-FLOSS packages without a clear redistribution status by the copyright holder.

sudo dnf groupupdate core

sudo dnf install rpmfusion-free-release-tainted

sudo dnf install rpmfusion-nonfree-release-tainted

sudo dnf install -y dnf-plugins-core

You can also install some non-free firmware if needed but be aware that doing it this way will install everything including the app Cura Lulzbot for 3D printing. You can always remove it later but if your system doesn't need the firmware (eg; everything is working) then you don't need to.

sudo dnf install \*-firmware

Flatpaks

Flathub which contains flatpaks which are supposed to be stable containerised applications. In general I prefer the native Fedora applications but some applications are easier to install and maintain on Flathub.

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

flatpak update

AppImages

AppImages are also useful and there is, of course, AppImageHub who recommend using AppImageLauncher to install them. You can download the latest rpm from GitHub (most likely the one ending in x86_64.rpm). Once it has downloaded you can install it with dnf.

dnf install appimagelauncher-2.2.0-travis995.0f91801.x86_64.rpm

The end of the file name will probably be different.

AppImageLauncher isn't perfect but it does integrate appimages into the system slightly better and you can specify a hidden folder to keep the images in.

There is also an interesting flatpak called AppImagePool but unfortunately it doesn't seem to be working properly yet on Fedora Workstation 34. Looks good for the future though.

Multimedia

If you are going to be playing DVD's then you will probably need libdvdcss to decrypt them.

sudo dnf install -y libdvdcss 

Most other multimedia can be handled by gstreamer and lame. To install those.

sudo dnf install -y gstreamer1-plugins-{bad-\*,good-\*,ugly-\*,base} gstreamer1-libav --exclude=gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free-devel ffmpeg gstreamer-ffmpeg

and,

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

Then update the sound and video group.

sudo dnf -y groupupdate sound-and-video

If there are any problems then VLC is still the goto program for playing media.

sudo dnf install vlc

Archives

To be able to open archives such as rar, zip and 7zip you will need to install,

sudo dnf -y install unzip p7zip p7zip-plugins unrar

Theming

Extension management

I have some problems with the default usage of Gnome. Not many but I want appindicators, a better dash and the ability to connect my phone.

The first thing to note about installing extensions in Fedora 34 is that the extensions management has been moved out of Gnome Tweaks and into its own app. You can install it with.

sudo dnf install gnome-extensions-app

Dash to Dock

Dash to Dock extends and allows configuration of the default dash such as smaller icons, actions on click and intelligent autohide.

sudo dnf install gnome-shell-extension-dash-to-dock

AppIndicator Support

AppIndicators are the little icons that appear in the top bar and are very useful when the program is running in the background.

sudo dnf install gnome-shell-extension-appindicator

GSConnect

GSConnect is the Gnome version of KDE Connect. It relies on the KDE Connect app being installed on your phone but should not be installed alongside KDE Connect on your computer.

sudo dnf install gnome-shell-extension-gsconnect.x86_64

Gnome Tweaks

I also install Gnome Tweaks which gives a range of other options for fine tuning the usability of Gnome. In my case I add a minimise button to windows and stop the laptop suspending when I shut the lid.

sudo dnf install gnome-tweaks

File Mangement

Finally I prefer single click to double click when opening files. To change this open files (Nautilus) and select the hamburger menu on the right hand side, then preferences and then change Action to open items to single click.

The end

That is pretty much it. Well on the Gnome and Fedora Workstation side of things. After this it is all applications. If you are new to Linux (welcome!) then there are some application suggested in Fedora 34 Getting Started After Install Guide I referred to earlier but many other useful things are in the Fedora Magazine.