The massive Fedora 34 release is here with cutting-edge technology across modules and packages. And I’m sure you have downloaded/upgraded to Fedora 34 already. Keeping that in mind, we present a list of 10 things to do after installing Fedora 34.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a beginner or an advanced user of Fedora. Certain tweaks are definitely required after you do a fresh install/upgrade. A list always trivial varies based on users. And these are not the final list as something you may do as well which is not listed here.
This is just a guideline for you to get started with Fedora 34 after install.
Table of Contents
10 Things to Do After Installing Fedora 34
1. Update Your System
The first thing that you should do after installing Fedora 34 Workstation edition is to make sure that you update the system. You can open a terminal window and run the below command.
sudo dnf update
The first time you do this, it would take some time to get the updated repo information. So be patient while the command executes.
2. Change Touchpad settings (Laptop)
This is probably the most annoying thing on the GNOME desktop. Until this very day, I still do not know why this ‘tap to click’ option is not enabled by default. So problematic for laptop users.
To enable ‘Tap to click’, open Settings and go to the ‘Mouse and Touchpad’ tab. Then enable Tap to Click under Touchpad settings.
3. Enable RPM Fusion Repository
The RPM Fusion software repo is a community-maintained software repo that provides additional packages for Fedora Linux which are not distributed by the official Fedora team such as DVD playback, media playback, software from GNOME and KDE, etc. This is because of licensing and other legal reasons and country-specific software norms as well.
sudo dnf install https://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm
sudo dnf install https://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm
4. Install GNOME Tweaks
This extension is super useful because of a lot of settings that require changes after a fresh installation of Fedora – GNOME edition. For example, changing themes, enabling maximize buttons in window dialogs, and many more.
To install Open Software and search for Gnome Tweak, Or, run the below command from the terminal.
sudo dnf install gnome-tweak-tool
After installation, finds the GNOME Tweak tool in the application menu. Now you can use this to change different settings of your GNOME desktop.
5. Enable Minimize, Maximize buttons
Open the GNOME Tweak tool and go to Window Titlebars. Enable the Maximize and Minimize buttons. I know that GNOME has a different workflow where, in an ideal world, you should not minimize anything, ever. But still, I think the maximize and minimize buttons are required and should be enabled by default.
6. Install Additional Extensions for GNOME 40 Desktop
The GNOME extensions give you many ways to customize your desktop. There are hundreds of extensions out there which you can use for your own need. There are extensions for almost all possible scenarios.
Right now, the existing GNOME 3.38 based extensions are being ported by their respective developers for the new GNOME 40 desktop. And many popular ones’ already ported. So try some cool extensions from the GNOME Extension website for your GNOME 40 desktop.
To get you started, we featured a complete article on GNOME 40 Extensions with a top 10 list of cool extensions you can use right away.
7. Install Additional Software
The GNOME edition comes with basic utilities to get you started, unlike other desktops. For example, Cinnamon, KDE Plasma, etc – they come with preloaded applications for various needs.
But not GNOME. Hence, you can consider installing some additional applications as per your need. I have added some important ones below for your reference.
You can install these either via command line or search in Software.
- GIMP – advanced image editor
- Download MPV and SM Player
- Leafpad – Notepad replacement
- Any code editor : Atom / Sublime Text / Brackets
8. Install additional multimedia codecs
You can enable RPM Fusion to play multimedia files that use gstreamer, and additional multimedia playback packages via the below command.
sudo dnf groupupdate multimedia --setop="install_weak_deps=False" --exclude=PackageKit-gstreamer-plugin
sudo dnf groupupdate sound-and-video
9. TLP for Battery health management
TLP is a great utility to help optimize your Laptop’s battery. This utility comes with various command-line options to tweak and view reports about power consumption.
TLP is so good that you just need to install it and forget it. This doesn’t require any settings or set up to make it work. It just works out of the box after you install it with its default settings.
dnf install tlp tlp-rdw
If you have a Thinkpad laptop, you may consider running the below commands for Thinkpad specific packages for TLP which gives you more info and control on your battery.
dnf install https://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm
dnf install https://repo.linrunner.de/fedora/tlp/repos/releases/tlp-release.fc$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm
dnf install kernel-devel akmod-acpi_call akmod-tp_smapi
After installation, run below to view the Battery information and status.
sudo tlp-stat -b
10. Install Additional Desktop Environments
It is very easy to install other desktop environments in Fedora when you are running the GNOME version. The core is already installed for you, hence you can easily install the basic framework for other desktops.
For example, if you like to install KDE Plasma or XFCE desktop with Fedora 34 – you do not need to download and install the entire respective Fedora Spin .iso file. You can easily follow this method to install an additional desktop environment. Open a terminal and run the below commands.
First, run below to check the available environment package names.
sudo dnf grouplist -v
You can see the list of environments available below.
Now you can install your favorite desktop using the name below.
sudo dnf install [environment name]
sudo dnf install @cinnamon-desktop-environment
Remember this will install the entire desktop environment minus the common packages which you might have already as you are running native Fedora with default desktop environment.
After download and install, reboot the system. Then choose the installed desktop on the login page.
Bonus Tip
Configure DNF for faster download
The dnf package manager provides various config options which help you to download faster or update your system faster. The configuration options are described here.
One of the options I would suggest is the max_parallel_downloads option. This takes a number from 3 to 20 – which means that many numbers package download can be done using dnf.
To do that, open the config file via below command and add the switch as below.
sudo nano /etc/dnf/dnf.conf
Then add –
max_parallel_downloads=10
So, these are 10 things that you may consider doing after a fresh install of the Fedora 34 workstation edition. I know these are a complete or ideal list or only things that you do typically. But I believe these can be a starting point for your journey with the brand new Fedora 34 desktop.
Do let me know if there are other things that you do but no on this list to make yourself productive.
