Installing Fedora KDE Permanently

Step One: BACK UP ALL YOUR INFORMATION FROM YOUR EXISTING OPERATING SYSTEM

We will guide you through replacing your current OS with Fedora so installing Fedora will delete all of your current files, folders and information. This action is NOT reversible. You must back up your files, folders and videos that you wish to keep.

It’s possible to install Linux and other operating systems in parallel. However, this requires difficult and potentially dangerous operations like resizing OS partitions. Therefore, covering parallel (or 'dual-boot') installations is out of scope for this guide.

If you use the Thunderbird email client on your old system, make sure to export your profile using this guide. If you use the Firefox browser on your old system, make sure to export your profile using this guide so that you can later on import it into Firefox on Fedora (see Browsing the web). Store the Thunderbird and/or Firefox profile on your backup media for later import.

Step Two: Check your backups

Check your backups and re-read Step One (above). We will not be responsible if you lose your data!

Step Three: Install Fedora from the Live environment

To install Fedora permanently, click on the "Install to Hard Drive" icon on your desktop:

This will open the installation wizard which will guide you through the installation. Most pages will be self-explanatory. However, we’ll explain some of the installation options in more detail in the following sections.

Install Destination

When asked for the installation destination, make sure your computer’s hard drive is selected and choose "Use entire disk".

This will ERASE ALL DATA on the selected disk.

Encryption - yes or no?

During storage configuration you have the option to encrypt your data on the hard drive. Using encryption has some advantages and drawbacks. You decide!

Encryption will stop people from accessing your data when your computer is turned off or when you need to dispose of a broken hard drive. Decryption requires a passphrase. Without the passphrase it is impossible to recover the data on the disk. Don’t lose the passphrase!

Go For It!

You can review all settings and start the installation. When the installation is finished, return to your Live system, click the Fedora menu on the left hand side of the bottom menu bar and click on "Shut Down" to turn off your computer. Remove the USB drive and start the computer normally. This will boot into the freshly installed Fedora KDE.

Step Four: Set up user account

When your newly installed Fedora KDE has booted up, click Begin Setup. The wizard will take you through setting:

Your preferred language and keyboard layout.
Your preferred desktop theme (Dark or Light).
The username and password for your user account.
The "hostname" for your computer: this is the name that other devices on the network may use when referring to your machine. You can give whatever name you prefer, or just leave it as the default fedora if you like.
Your timezone.

After you complete these steps, the setup wizard disappears and you are prompted for your password. Log in using the password that you just set.

Step Five: Set up Internet & Install Updates

You should set up your internet connection as described in Connecting to Internet or Wi-Fi in the Let’s Try Fedora! section.

After connecting your computer to the internet, start the Discover app by clicking its icon in the menu bar:

Discover will open.
Select "Updates" from the menu on the left side. Click Refresh in the upper right corner.

If Discover indicates that there are updates available, simply click Update All in the upper right corner:

As soon as all updates have been downloaded (which can take quite some time after a fresh installation), Discover will inform you that you should restart and install updates:

Click the corresponding button. Fedora will now reboot and install all updates.

Discover can update your firmware as well as your software - if the manufacturer made the firmware available. Updating firmware is usually a good thing and you should let Fedora do all the necessary updates. DO NOT interrupt firmware updates! Leave your computer switched on and DO NOT turn off power even if the update takes a while!

Fedora displays a progress screen during updates:

As soon as all updates are installed, Fedora reboots (perhaps more than once if firmware updates are installed). The process is finished when you see the login screen.

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