The release of Fedora Linux 45 has been announced. The assemblies prepared for download include Fedora Workstation, Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop, Fedora Server, Fedora IoT, Fedora CoreOS, Fedora Cloud Base, Fedora IoT Edition, Fedora Silverblue, Fedora Kinoite, and Live versions provided as spins with custom environments Xfce, MATE, Cinnamon, LXDE, Phosh, Miracle, LXQt, Budgie, Sway, and Cosmic. The assemblies are built for x86_64, Power64, and ARM64 (AArch64) architectures.
The most significant changes in Fedora Linux 45 include:
- The GNOME desktop environment has been updated to branch 51, which offers optimizations for smoother output and eliminates stuttering during animations and heavy system loads. An option has been introduced for automatically switching between landscape and portrait screen orientation when rotating the device with an accelerometer.
The ability to pass smart cards during remote desktop connections has been added. Support for authentication through corporate web services has been included in the login screen. Vector images for cursors are supplied in SVG format. - In the installation ISO images of the atomically updated Fedora Atomic Desktop editions (Silverblue, Kinoite, etc.), a new installer, Anaconda WebUI, based on a web interface, has been implemented instead of the classic GTK-based Anaconda installer, already used in Fedora Workstation and live images. The new installer supports remote installation management — users can now load Fedora on the target system with the option 'inst.webui.remote' and manage the installation through a web browser on another computer with PIN code authentication and traffic encryption.
- All configuration files for RPM repositories, initially installed when connecting the repository, have been moved from the directory /etc/yum.repos.d to /usr/share/dnf5/repos.d. PGP keys have been moved to /usr/share/pki/rpm-gpg. This change simplifies the separation of initial repository settings from user-modified configuration files.
- In RPM, package signature verification is enabled by default. An error will now be displayed when attempting to install unsigned packages or those with an incorrect signature unless the user explicitly runs rpm with the flag '--nosignature'. Previously, only integrity checks based on hashes were performed at the RPM level, while the authenticity of packages from repositories was verified in YUM and DNF.
- The RPM package manager has been updated to version 6.1, which introduces a new modifier syntax for macros (macro_name) that alters macro behavior. The default behavior of the NSS (Name Service Switch) system for user and group lookup has been restored. The issue causing the processing of all requests to rpmdb to halt during transactions has been resolved. The ability to sign files with a digital signature using PKCS11 tokens has been added.
- For RPM packages, the `%openpgpverify` macro has been implemented, allowing the use of the Rust-based Sequoia toolkit instead of GnuPG for package verification.
- In the desktop editions, the management of keys has been switched from gnome-keyring and kwallet to the oo7 component (D-Bus Secret Service provider), which is written in Rust.
- The kernel-level console driver fbcon has been replaced with kmscon, which runs in user space and uses the KMS (Kernel Mode Setting) mechanism, providing higher-quality rendering and better support for fonts and Unicode.
- Atomic edition developers can now allow installation from the FlatHub directory of selected verified applications instead of installing flatpak packages with the same applications from the Fedora repository. Fedora supports its own flatpak repository, whose content is built from recompiled rpm packages, while most users would prefer to install packages from the FlatHub directory, compiled by the main application developers rather than the Fedora maintainers.
- The image-builder toolkit is now used for building ISO images of atomic editions of Fedora instead of lorax.
- Support for systemd-oomd and zram swap has been added to Fedora CoreOS.
- The installer now supports installation in logical partitions managed by the Stratis toolkit. During installation, it is possible to create pools from one or more storage devices, to which features such as dynamic storage allocation, snapshots, integrity assurance, and layer mounting for caching can be applied.
- By default, unprivileged users are prohibited from accessing debugging features that use the ptrace mechanism.
- A web frontend has been implemented to obtain more detailed information about emergency kernel crashes. When the kernel transitions to a "panic" state, a QR code is displayed. Scanning this code will visually present call trace data that aids in diagnosing the issue, provide recommendations for further actions, and offer the option to submit a bug report.
- In the NetworkManager network configurator, the "IPv6-mostly" mode is enabled by default, incorporating DHCPv4 option 108 (to use only IPv6 when possible) and supporting the CLAT (Customer-side Translator, 464XLAT) mechanism to enable applications that only support IPv4 to function on hosts with IPv6.
- The chpasswd and newusers utilities now support PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules), which takes into account system policies for authentication and passwords, such as enforcing password quality requirements, prohibiting the use of previously used passwords, account lockout, and centralized auditing of password changes.
- The grub-cc package has been added, featuring a stripped-down version of the bootloader intended for use on systems with UEFI Secure Boot. This minimal version includes only a basic set of embedded modules and supports the loading of UKI images (Unified Kernel Image). Removing support for jpeg/png image formats and additional filesystems helps reduce the attack surface amid periodic vulnerabilities discovered in GRUB (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7).
- Support has been added for the encapsule toolkit, allowing applications to run in an isolated environment where access to the user's real home directory is replaced with access to a temporary version.
- Package versions have been updated, including Linux kernel 7.3, GCC 16.2, LLVM 23, glibc 2.44, binutils 2.47, Perl 5.44, Python 3.15, Go 1.27, Lua 5.5, Ruby on Rails 8.1, Erlang 27, Fontconfig 2.18, IBus 1.5.35, Podman 6, OpenSSL 4.0, MySQL 9.7, and MariaDB 12.3.
- Packages with the integrated Lazarus development environment (for Free Pascal) have been offered, built with widgets based on GTK3, Qt5, and Qt6 (previously, the package was built only with GTK2).
- The first stage of the preparation for the removal of the API for accessing the Linux kernel cryptosystem from user space (CRYPTO_USER_API — Crypto Userspace API) has been implemented. This API has been declared deprecated in the kernel due to potential security issues and is planned for removal. The Crypto Userspace API is used in packages like iwd, cryptsetup (used in tcplay and VeraCrypt), and libkcapi (used in dracut), but the first stage will not affect their operation.
- Packages for the Deepin desktop environment have been removed from the repository due to maintenance issues (serious bugs and vulnerabilities have remained unresolved for a long time in the packages).
- Deprecated VPN- NetworkManager-vpnc and NetworkManager-fortisslvpn plugins, for which it is recommended to use the NetworkManager-libreswan and NetworkManager-openconnect plugins instead.
For Fedora 45, the "free" and "nonfree" repositories from the RPM Fusion project have been introduced, which provide packages with additional multimedia applications (MPlayer, VLC, Xine), audio/video codecs, DVD support, proprietary AMD and NVIDIA drivers, gaming programs, and emulators.
Source: opennet.ru
