Setup Fedora machine

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Introduction

Here is a comprehensive list of pieces of software and tools you need to getting started with a Fedora-based Linux machine. Fedora uses dnf as package manager.

If you came from Ubuntu, take a look at APT vs. DNF commands.

Add user to sudo

It could happen that the current user has no root privileges. Every Linux machine has at least root user.

# login current terminal as root user ('sudo su' command could not work)
su - root

# add given user to sudo group
usermod -aG sudo <non-sudo-user>

# check which users have sudo permissions
getent group sudo

Run a Service at boot with systemctl

Running services at boot a common use of systemctl, especially in servers. You can tell a service to run at startup by typing:

sudo systemctl enable yourservice

If you need to disable a service:

sudo systemctl disable yourservice

If the service isn’t found, you may need to point to its direct file path with:

sudo systemctl enable /path/to/yourservice.service

However, this won’t work if the file isn’t on the root file system.

Tools

Balena Etcher

This tool allows you to write bootable SD card or USB drives starting from an .ISO file. It comes in help when working with Raspberry Pi or any Linux distributions.

# update the system
sudo dnf upgrade --refresh

# (optional) install curl utility
sudo dnf install -y curl

# import the repository
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/balena/etcher/setup.rpm.sh' | sudo -E bash

# install balenaEtcher
sudo dnf install balena-etcher

Docker Engine

Follow the official documentation: install engine on Fedora

# 1) Uninstall old versions
sudo dnf remove docker docker-client  docker-client-latest  docker-common docker-latest docker-latest-logrotate docker-logrotate docker-selinux docker-engine-selinux docker-engine

# 2) Install using the repository
# 2.1) set up the repository
sudo dnf -y install dnf-plugins-core
sudo dnf config-manager \
    --add-repo \
    https://download.docker.com/linux/fedora/docker-ce.repo

# 3) Install Docker Engine
sudo dnf install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

If prompted to accept the GPG key, verify that the fingerprint matches:

060A 61C5 1B55 8A7F 742B 77AA C52F EB6B 621E 9F35

Let’s start and test Docker:

sudo systemctl start docker

Take care to follow Docker Engine post-installation steps to manage Docker as non-root user.

Start Docker on boot

Many modern Linux distributions use systemd to manage which services start when the system boots. To automatically start docker and containerd on boot, run the following commands:

sudo systemctl enable docker.service
sudo systemctl enable containerd.service

# disable the "start on boot" behaviour
sudo systemctl disable docker.service
sudo systemctl disable containerd.service

Manage Docker as a non-root user

Create the docker group and add your user:

sudo groupadd docker
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Log out and log back in so that your group membership is re-evaluated. You can also run the following command to activate the changes to groups:

newgrp docker

git

git is a VCS (Version Control System) created by Linus Torvalds.

Version control systems is used to track changes in a directory over the time. Nowadays, they’re used to maintaining the history of all the software products’ codes. To allow several developer to work on the same code, a VCS must rely on platform like GitHub or GitLab where the code is uploaded and versioned.

The key features that a VCS must provide are:

  1. Maintain independent branches of code for team members
  2. Ease of comparison of code across different branches
  3. Merging of code from several branches of multiple team members
  4. Annotate changes with the name of author and message in a version of the code
  5. Simple comparison across versions
  6. Revert changes made to the code to any state from its history

To install git and its extension git-flow, you need to type:

# https://git-scm.com/download/linux
sudo dnf install -y git
# should be already installed

# https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/elegos/gitflow/
# enable the copr repository
sudo dnf copr enable elegos/gitflow

# install gitflow
sudo dnf install -y gitflow

# Large File Support extension: https://git-lfs.github.com/
sudo dnf install -y git-lfs

Configure global settings like email, name and commands colorization:

# set the email that will be attached to your commits
git config --global user.email "you@example.com"

# set the username that will be attached to your commits
git config --global user.name "Your Name"

# enable helpful colorization for command line output
git config --global color.ui auto

# set merge as git pull default polic 
git config --global pull.rebase false

# show the customized values
git config --global --list

Configure SSH client

It’s better to have a different pair of SSH keys foreach server (i.e. GitHub, GitLab, BitBucket, self-hosted, …) you connect to.

Let’s start:

cd ~/.ssh/

# generate a new key
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "I am the key label"

It will output:

# Generating public/private ed25519 key pair.
# Enter file in which to save the key (/home/$USER/.ssh/id_ed25519):

If you accept the default files location, their names will contain the encryption algorithm name. If you need to use multiple SSH key, it’s better to have the provider’s name inside file names.

Specify the new name after : sign of the line above.

# /home/$USER/.ssh/id_[PROVIDER]

# Example: add GitLab.com SSH key
/home/$USER/.ssh/id_gitlab

You can also rename the files later on. Remind to rename both the private and public keys:

# mv id_[ALGORITHM] id_[PROVIDER]
# mv id_[ALGORITHM].pub id_[PROVIDER].pub

Once you have both private and public keys, you’re read to start ssh-agent in background:

eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"

# add your SSH private key to the ssh-agent
ssh-add id_gitlab
# ssh-add id_[PROVIDER]

# show the content to copy
cat id_gitlab.pub
# cat id_[PROVIDER].pub

Copy the public key and add in the right place inside the website of the server provider.

Here are the most used git providers’ guides:

Create a configuration file foreach server provider you need, even the self-hosted ones.

nano config

My config file looks like

Host github.com
  HostName github.com
  User git
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_github
  IdentitiesOnly yes

Host gitlab.com
  HostName gitlab.com
  User git
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_gitlab
  IdentitiesOnly yes

Host bitbucket.org
  HostName bitbucket.org
  User git
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_bitbucket
  IdentitiesOnly yes

Configure SSH remote access

By default, remote access via SSH is not allowed.

# it should already be installed
sudo dnf install -y openssh-server

# check the version
rpm -qa | grep openssh-server

# allow SSH daemon to start at boot
sudo systemctl enable sshd

# manually start SSH daemon to avoid rebooting the computer
sudo systemctl start sshd

# check the status of SSH
sudo systemctl status sshd

# should see the port 22 open for a new incoming connections
sudo ss -lt

# connect to a SSH server
# ssh <username>@<ip_address>

You can now move files or directories with rsync utility.

# rsync <file/directory> <username>@<ip_address>:<destination>
# for example
rsync my-file.log remote-pit@192.168.0.100:/home/remote-pit/Downloads

gcc

GCC stands for as GNU Compiler Collection. It includes front ends for C, C++, Objective-C, Fortran, Ada, Go, and D, as well as libraries for these languages.

GCC helps you write and execute programs in Linux.

sudo dnf install -y gcc

Node Package Manager

NPM is a must-have tool when developing Web applications. Starting from Fedora 24, npm is a part of Node.js package and does not need to be installed separately. Therefore, to install both the utilities, run:

sudo dnf install -y nodejs

By default, it will install Node’s LTS:

npm --version
# 9.5.0

node --version
# v18.15.0

You can manage multiple Node.js versions with nvm. Node Version Manager is a bash script you can install using yarn. Please refer Installing and Updating guide.

Java

Useful programming language to build cross-platform desktop application. Java is already installed in Fedora:

java --version
openjdk 17.0.6 2023-01-17
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (Red_Hat-17.0.6.0.10-1.fc38) (build 17.0.6+10)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (Red_Hat-17.0.6.0.10-1.fc38) (build 17.0.6+10, mixed mode, sharing)

Postman

Postman is an API platform for building and using APIs. It simplifies each step of the API lifecycle and streamlines collaboration, so you can create better APIs faster.

# should already be installed
sudo dnf install -y wget tar

# download the archive
wget https://dl.pstmn.io/download/latest/linux_64

# I don't like the way it has installed the archive (need to investigate)
tar -xvzf linux_64 # will create a Postman directory

# move to the appropriate directory
sudo mv Postman /opt/
cd /opt/Postman/
./Postman

It could be useful to craete an alias inside the Shell configuration file (like .bashrc).

ZSH Shell & Oh-My-ZSH

Replace Bourne Shell with a more advanced shell, like ZSH:

sudo dnf install -y zsh fzf

zsh --version # check version
zsh 5.8.1 # (...)
echo $SHELL
# /bin/bash

chsh -s $(which zsh)

Logout and login to let the change take effect.

echo $SHELL
# /usr/bin/zsh

Install Oh-My-ZSH extension to have better code completions:

sh -c "$(wget -O- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

Many themes require Powerline Font or Nerd Font. Take a closer look when choosing the shell theme.

Moreover, I suggest you to add the following plugins to .zshrc file:

plugins=(
  git
  emotty
  emoji
  zsh-interactive-cd
  zsh-autosuggestions
  zsh-syntax-highlighting
)

To enable the changes, run:

source ~/.zshrc

Please Note: If you get this error:

[oh-my-zsh] plugin 'zsh-autosuggestions' not found
[oh-my-zsh] plugin 'zsh-syntax-highlighting' not found

Run those commands:

git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions
git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting.git ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting
source ~/.zshrc

It’s also suggested to set a default bahaviour for oh-my-zsh update policy. I choose to update automatically without asking:

# Uncomment one of the following lines to change the auto-update behavior
# zstyle ':omz:update' mode disabled  # disable automatic updates
zstyle ':omz:update' mode auto      # update automatically without asking
# zstyle ':omz:update' mode reminder  # just remind me to update when it's time

IDEs

IDE stands for Integrated Development Environment. They’re tools that helps you while programming and allow you to be more productive, efficient and effective.

Android Studio

Android Studio is the official IDE for Android application development.

The easiest way is by using JetBrains’ ToolBox or from snap store.

On most Linux machine, you can also configure hardware acceleration for the Android Emulator. Moreover, if you have enough RAM, I strongly suggest to increase heap size to allow a better coding experience.

Arduino IDE 1.x

Go to software section of official Arduino website. Download the version labelled Linux 32 bits (or 64 bits, if your machine supports it).

Open a terminal window:

# navigate to Downloads directory
cd ~/Downloads

# extract the archive contents
tar -xvf arduino*.tar.xz

# remove the archive
rm -rf arduino*.tar.xz

# move the extracted folder from $HOME/Downloads to /opt/
sudo mv arduino* /opt/arduino

# complete the installation
sudo /opt/arduino/install.sh

Moreover, you need to allow your current user to use the serial communication to communicate with the Arduino boards.

Add yourself to the dialout group:

sudo usermod -a -G dialout $USER

Please Note:

  1. Logout and then log back in for the group changes to take effect (or just sudo restart the machine).
  2. If you accidentally stop the sketch from uploading, you just need to double-click the reset button (reference).

Arduino IDE 2.x

Download the Arduino IDE 2.0 from the official software page.

Then, follow the steps below:

cd ~/Downloads

# extract the archive contents to the right sub-directory in /opt/
sudo unzip arduino-ide_2*.zip -d /opt/arduino2

# remove the archive
rm -rf arduino*.zip

# run the IDE (mandatory without sudo)
/opt/arduino2/arduino-ide

# Hit Ctrl + C to stop the execution of the IDE

Depending on your shell type, open the configuration file (.bashrc, .zshrc, …) and add the following alias:

alias arduino2="/opt/arduino2/arduino-ide"

You can now run Arduino IDE 2.x by using the command:

arduino2

Fritzing

Fritzing is an easy-to-use electronic design software. Luckily, there’s an apt package for it:

sudo dnf install -y fritzing

JetBrains IDEs

JetBrains is a software house which develop several IDEs. Unfortunately, they’re closed source pieces of software. They’re very similar to one another and are nearly one for each programming language (or framework). The most famous are:

There are some “Community” versions which are available for free. You can use them with a Student Licensee or buy the standard license.

JetBrains also developed Toolbox App. It helps you to easily install, update automatically, update the plugins together with IDE, roll back and downgrade.

Dowload the latest .tar.gz archive from download link and run those commands:

cd ~/Downloads

# use wget utility only for downloading a package at a specific version
# wget https://download-cdn.jetbrains.com/toolbox/jetbrains-toolbox-1.28.1.15219.tar.gz

# estract the archive
tar -zxvf jetbrains-toolbox*.tar.gz

# delete the archive
rm jetbrains-toolbox*.tar.gz

# move to /opt/ directory
sudo mv jetbrains-toolbox* /opt/jetbrains-toolbox

# run the installer
/opt/jetbrains-toolbox/./jetbrains-toolbox

# the command above perform the two below at the same time
cd /opt/jetbrains-toolbox
./jetbrains-toolbox

MATLAB & Simulink

MATLAB (abbreviation of “MATrix LABoratory”) is a proprietary multi-paradigm programming language and numeric computing environment developed by MathWorks. MATLAB allows matrix manipulations, plotting of functions and data. It allows algorithms’ implementation, creation of UIs and interfacing with programs written in other languages.

Simulink is a MATLAB-based graphical programming environment for modeling, simulating and analyzing multi-domain dynamical systems.

You need to have a MathWorks account to install MathWorks’ products. Go to Download page and download the .zip Linux installer.

sudo dnf install -y unzip

cd ~/Downloads

# create a folder to extract files
mkdir matlab

# unzip the MATLAB file
unzip -qq matlab*.zip -d matlab
cd matlab

# launch installer with sudo permissions
sudo ./install

# if the graphical installer does not starts
xhost +SI:localuser:root && sudo ./install

Once the graphical installer starts, follow the steps below:

  • Login with MathWorks Account
  • Select the available License
  • Select Matlab Products or Toolbox to install
  • Select the Destination address

The default is:

/usr/local/MATLAB/R2023a/bin

Where R2023a refers to the release year and version (usually a and b).

Please Note: Set as username the actual name of the user logged-in in the computer. You can find you name by launching this command in a Terminal window:

echo $USER

Create MATLAB Symbolic link with:

sudo ln -s /usr/local/MATLAB/R2023a/bin/matlab /usr/local/bin/matlab

Create Matlab Desktop Shortcut Linux with:

nano ~/Desktop/Matlab.desktop

Edit the file as follows:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=MATLAB
Exec=/usr/local/MATLAB/R2023a/bin/matlab
Icon=/usr/local/MATLAB/R2023a/resources/coreui/matlab/splash.png
Terminal=false

Save the Desktop Shortcut file by pressing Ctr + X and the type Y followed by the Enter Key. Go to the Desktop, right-click on the created file and select the “Allow Launching” option for the desktop entity. You can now launch MATLAB by double-clicking the desktop icon.

Once the installation is complete, remind to clear the Downloads directory:

cd ~/Downloads

rm -rf matlab*.zip matlab

Install new toolboxes after installation

If you try to install new toolboxes using Add-Ons manager, it will throw errors since you have not write access to /usr/local/MATLAB/. If you launch MATLAB as root user, it will throw a License Manager Error -9 Your username does not match the username in the license file.

The correct solution is to set the permission for the current user:

sudo chown -R $USER /usr/local/MATLAB/

Now the user has write access: use the Add-Ons manager carefully! After installing the desired toolboxes, revert the permission change for security reason:

sudo chown -R root /usr/local/MATLAB/

Mbed Studio

Mbed OS is an operative system tailored for IoT devices provides. It provides APIs to develop C++ application, tools, code examples, libraries and drivers for common components.

Mbed Studio is the official IDE for Mbed OS.

cd ~/Downloads
wget https://studio.mbed.com/installers/latest/linux/MbedStudio.sh
chmod +x MbedStudio.sh
./MbedStudio.sh -y -f # -y option accepts all license agreements, -f generates a log of the installation

OpenMV

OpenMV project is about creating low-cost, extensible, Python powered, machine vision modules. It aims to become the Arduino of Machine Vision.

Go to Download page and select the installer based on your operating system and architecture version. It will download a .run file. Open a Terminal and prompt the following commands:

cd ~/Downloads

# rename since long file names are bad to visualize
mv openmv-ide-*.run openmv-ide.run

# give the file execute permission
chmod +x openmv-ide.run

# launch, follow the installer instructions
./openmv-ide.run

# remove the installer
rm openmv-ide.run

Telegram

Telegram is a well-known GPL v3-licensed messagging app.

# navigate to Downloads directory
cd ~/Downloads

# download the archive
wget https://updates.tdesktop.com/tlinux/tsetup.4.8.4.tar.xz

# extract the archive contents
tar -xvf tsetup.4.8.4.tar.xz

# delete the archive and move the extracted directory to /opt/
sudo rm tsetup.4.8.4.tar.xz
sudo mv Telegram /opt

# run Telegram app
/opt/Telegram/./Telegram

I suggest you to create an alias with the last command or add it to startup scripts. You can also run it in the background silenced using:

/opt/Telegram/./Telegram </dev/null &>/dev/null &

Typora

Typora is one of the most powerful Markdown and LaTeX editor I’ve ever seen.

wget https://download.typora.io/linux/Typora-linux-x64.tar.gz

# estract the archive
tar -zxvf Typora-linux-x64.tar.gz

# it will estract everything in a directory called bin/
# move its content in /opt/
sudo mv bin/Typora-linux-x64 /opt/typora

# remove unnecessary files
rm -rf Typora-linux-x64.tar.gz ./bin

# run Typora
/opt/typora/./Typora

Take a look at Theme Gallery and don’t forget to activate inline math support to start write LaTeX inside .md files!

You can also ad an alias to your configuration file. The alias below launches typora in the background and silenced. The terminal is detached, and you don’t have to open another one to work:

alias typora="/opt/typora/./Typora </dev/null &>/dev/null &"

You can also add the application entry for the App Menu:

# create the entry
cd ~/.local/share/applications/
touch Typora.desktop

# change permission to file
chmod 744 Typora.desktop

Fill Typora.desktop file with:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Typora
Comment=Official Typora application
TryExec=/opt/typora/Typora
Exec=/opt/typora/Typora -- %u
Icon=/opt/typora/resources/assets/icon/icon_256x256.png
Terminal=false
StartupWMClass=Typora
Type=Application
Categories=Text;Qt;
MimeType=x-scheme-handler/tg;
Keywords=tdesktop;
Actions=quit;
SingleMainWindow=true
X-GNOME-UsesNotifications=true
X-GNOME-SingleWindow=true

Visual Studio Code

Download RMP package of VS Code at download page.

cd ~/Downloads

# use wget utility only for downloading a package at a specific version
# wget https://az764295.vo.msecnd.net/stable/6a995c4f4cc2ced6e3237749973982e751cb0bf9/code-1.78.1-1683194632.el7.x86_64.rpm

# install the package
sudo dnf install -y code*.rpm

# remove unnecessary file
rm code*.rpm

Conclusion

Documentation

Here is the list of guides and tutorials I used to write this article: