Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

About the project

Why is this project named Kinoite?

We chose the Kinoite name for the following reasons:

  • KDE based projects traditionally start with a 'K'

  • Kinoite is a blue mineral (Wikipedia), thus referring to both the 'silver' and 'blue' part of Silverblue and the blue color of the KDE logo.

  • "Kinoite" means "There is a tree" in Japanese (Google Translate), thus referring to the 'tree' in 'ostree'.

What is Fedora Kinoite’s relationship with Fedora Silverblue, Fedora IoT and Fedora CoreOS?

Fedora Kinoite uses the same core technology as Fedora Silverblue, Fedora IoT and Fedora CoreOS. However, Kinoite is specifically focused on workstation/desktop use cases with the KDE Plasma desktop.

About using Kinoite

How can I play more videos in Firefox, like YouTube?

Firefox is included in the OS image for now. Until that changes, getting it to play videos works the same way as it does for the regular Fedora Workstation: find a package with the needed codecs, and install it. The one difference is that you use rpm-ostree install instead of dnf install. An alternative solution is to install the nightly Firefox, which is available as a Flatpak.

How do I create a VPN connection?

/etc is not part of the immutable OS image, so you can just copy files into /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections (or let NetworkManager store them there when you recreate your connections). Certificates in /etc/pki need to be handled similarly.

How can I see what packages were updated between two commits?

  • If you want to compare the booted deployment with the pending deployment (or rollback deployment), simply issue:

    $ rpm-ostree db diff
You can also see the RPM changelog by adding the -c option like so: rpm-ostree db diff -c

  • If you want to see which packages were updated between two specific commits:

    1. find out which two commits you want to compare by issuing:

      $ ostree log <ref>

    2. you can now compare the two commits by issuing:

      $ rpm-ostree db diff <commit x> <commit y>
How can I check the version number of an installed package?

You can simply use:

$ rpm -q <package>
How can I check if an rpm software package is available in the repository?

At this point in time, there is no rpm package search function built into rpm-ostree. However, you can use toolbox with the following command:

$ toolbox run dnf search <package>
The assumption is that you have already created a toolbox matching the version of your Fedora Kinoite installation.
How can I downgrade my system’s kernel?

If, for whatever reason, you need to downgrade the kernel, you can do so by following these steps:

  1. For the version you need to downgrade, download <kernel>, <kernel-core>, <kernel-modules> and <kernel-modules-extra> from Koji.

  2. Install the packages downloaded on the previous step by issuing:

    $ rpm-ostree override replace <kernel> <kernel-core> <kernel-modules> <kernel-modules-extra>

  3. Reboot the system to apply the changes.

How can I upgrade my system to the next major version (for instance: rawhide or an upcoming Fedora release branch), while keeping my current deployment?

OSTree allows you to pin deployments (pinning ensures that your deployment of choice is kept and not discarded).

  1. Assuming that you want to keep your default deployment, issue the following command:

    $ sudo ostree admin pin 0
    0 here refers to the first deployment listed by rpm-ostree status

  2. Verify that you have pinned your deployment of choice by issuing:

    rpm-ostree status

  3. After the deployment is pinned, you can upgrade your system by using the instructions found here.

  4. When you have completed rebasing, reboot the system. The GRUB menu will now present you with both: the previous deployment major version entry (e.g.: "Fedora 30.YYYYMMDD.n") and the new deployment major version entry (e.g.: "Fedora 31.YYYYMMDD.n").

    At the moment it is not possible to name (pinned) deployments and their associated GRUB menu entries.