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Installing Fedora

Companion resources for Chapter 3 — Fedora 43 installation walkthrough with Anaconda installer guide, Btrfs partition layout diagram, VM setup link, and post-install scripts.

nextsteplinux.com/lf3
You scanned the QR code from Chapter 3 of Linux Fundamentals. This page expands on the book content — it does not replace it. The full explanations, exam objectives, practice questions, and glossary are in the book.


Step 1 · Get Fedora

Download Fedora Workstation 43

The book covers Fedora Workstation 43 — the current stable release. Download the ISO from the Fedora Project’s official servers. Always verify the checksum before installing.

🪶

# Step 1 — Download the official checksum file
curl -O https://fedoraproject.org/static/checksums/Fedora-43-1.0-x86_64-CHECKSUM

# Step 2 — Verify the ISO (both forms are equivalent)
sha256sum --check Fedora-43-1.0-x86_64-CHECKSUM

# Generate a checksum for any file manually
sha256sum Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-43-1.0.iso

# Other hash commands — all use the same -c / --check syntax
md5sum -c file.md5 $ sha1sum -c file.sha1
sha512sum --check file.sha512

Exam — Hash algorithms compared:
• md5sum — MD5, 32 hex chars. Fast, cryptographically broken. Valid for integrity only, not security.
• sha1sum — SHA-1, 40 hex chars. Deprecated for security use. Still in exams and older docs.
• sha256sum — SHA-256, 64 hex chars. Current standard. Used by Fedora and Ubuntu.
• sha512sum — SHA-512, 128 hex chars. Strongest of the four. Same syntax as sha256sum.

Security strength ranking: SHA-512 > SHA-256 > SHA-1 > MD5

# Import Fedora's GPG key
curl https://fedoraproject.org/fedora.gpg | gpg --import

# Verify the checksum file's GPG signature
gpg --verify-files Fedora-43-1.0-x86_64-CHECKSUM

Exam note: GPG = GNU Privacy Guard, an implementation of the OpenPGP standard.
“Good signature” means the file was signed by the claimed key and has not been modified. 
GPG is covered in depth in Chapter 19 (Security – for this chapter, understanding what GPG verification proves is sufficient.


Step 2 · Lab Environment

Need to Set Up a Virtual Machine?

The full VM setup guide — VirtualBox and VMware Player, step by step — lives on the Chapter 1 companion page. It covers everything you need before installing Fedora.

Exam note: GPG = GNU Privacy Guard, an implementation of the OpenPGP standard.
“Good signature” means the file was signed by the claimed key and has not been modified. 
GPG is covered in depth in Chapter 19 (Security – for this chapter, understanding what GPG verification proves is sufficient.


Visual Reference

Fedora Default Partition Layout

This is the partition layout Anaconda creates automatically on a 50 GB disk with UEFI. The book explains each partition and why Fedora defaults to Btrfs instead of ext4.


After Installation · Scripts

Post-Install Scripts

These scripts automate the post-installation steps from Chapter 3. Copy and paste into your terminal — each is commented so you know exactly what it does.

01-update-system.sh

Updates all packages to the latest versions. Always run this immediately after a fresh install — the ISO may be weeks behind the latest packages.
#!/bin/bash
# 01-update-system.sh — Update Fedora after fresh install
# Website: nextsteplinux.com/lf3

echo "Starting Fedora system update..."

# Update all installed packages (-y auto-confirms all prompts)
sudo dnf update -y

# Optional: Clean up old metadata to save space
sudo dnf clean all

echo "Update complete. System will now reboot to apply kernel changes."

# Reboot to load the new kernel if one was installed
sudo reboot

02-install-essentials.sh

Installs the tools used throughout the rest of the book. Run after updating the system.
#!/bin/bash
# 02-install-essentials.sh — Install tools used throughout the book
# Website: nextsteplinux.com/lf3

echo "Installing essential development and system tools..."

# 1. Development tools and kernel headers
# Needed for compiling code and installing VM Guest Additions
sudo dnf groupinstall "Development Tools" -y
sudo dnf install kernel-devel kernel-headers -y

# 2. Common CLI utilities
sudo dnf install -y \
    vim \
    git \
    curl \
    wget \
    tree \
    htop \
    net-tools \
    bind-utils \
    bash-completion \
    man-pages

echo "Essential tools installed successfully!"

03-verify-install.sh

Installs the tools used throughout the rest of the book. Run after updating the system.
#!/bin/bash
# 03-verify-install.sh — Verify Fedora installation
# Website: nextsteplinux.com/lf3

echo "=========================================="
echo "      FEDORA VERIFICATION REPORT          "
echo "=========================================="

# 1. Fedora Version
echo -e "\n--- Fedora Version ---"
cat /etc/fedora-release

# 2. Kernel Version
echo -e "\n--- Kernel Version ---"
uname -r

# 3. Disk Layout and Btrfs Subvolumes
# Fedora defaults to Btrfs, which uses subvolumes instead of traditional partitions.
echo -e "\n--- Disk Layout ---"
lsblk
echo -e "\n--- Btrfs Subvolumes ---"
sudo btrfs subvolume list /

# 4. SELinux Status
# Critical for Fedora/Red Hat administration and certification exams.
echo -e "\n--- SELinux Status ---"
getenforce

# 5. Memory and Swap Status
echo -e "\n--- Swap Status ---"
swapon --show
echo -e "\n--- Memory Usage ---"
free -h

# 6. Network Connectivity
echo -e "\n--- Network Connectivity ---"
if ping -c 2 google.com &> /dev/null; then
    echo "Status: Network OK"
else
    echo "Status: Network FAILED"
fi

echo -e "\n=========================================="
echo "          Verification Complete           "
echo "=========================================="

Next →

Chapter 4: Installing Arch Linux