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dd3b1d86a2
- Update README setup distro list - Show battery percentage in GNOME - Fix `full-script` not exiting on failure - Add manual script for Zellij - Rename ab-av1 aliases - Fix fish setup - Change SSH port - Include JXL, date tools, tokei, f3 - Update setup guide to Fedora 42
191 lines
8.3 KiB
Markdown
191 lines
8.3 KiB
Markdown
# Fedora Installation
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Here is how I installed Fedora. I chose to migrate from ext4 to btrfs, the
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default file system for Fedora. I also bought a new disk, which means that I
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needed to create everything from scratch.
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_Note: This document details the installation only. For setup, see
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[Fedora System Setup](fedora-system-setup.md) or
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[Fedora User Setup](fedora-user-setup.md). This is originally written
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for Fedora 39 and updated to Fedora 41._
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By following these steps, you will be able to install Fedora with:
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- `/` as a btrfs subvolume using xxhash as the checksum function on LUKS2 (an
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encryption layer)
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- `/home` as another subvolume on the same btrfs (which means it's also
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encrypted)
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- `/boot` as ext4
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- `/boot/efi` as System EFI Partition
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A disk password will be required upon boot and a separate user password will be
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required. `/boot` is not encrypted because it contains only the kernel files
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and are public and the same for all Fedora installations -- there's nothing
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worth encrypting here. Benchmarking shows that there's a negligible performance
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overhead.
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After extensive benchmarking, I found SHA-256 to be too slow for practical use
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even with the sha_ni kernel module for acceleration. Without acceleration the
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speed was ~400 MB/s, and with acceleration the speed was ~1500 MB/s, but my disk
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is capable of ~6000 MB/s. crc32c gave me ~5000 MB/s, and xxhash gave me ~4500
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MB/s, which I found acceptable, so that's what I went with.
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## Making a Fedora Live USB
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Simply go to the Fedora project website and download Fedora Media Writer or the
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ISO. I sometimes opt not to use the Fedora Media Writer because I like
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collecting Linux ISOs. It shouldn't impact the result.
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### Fedora Media Writer
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Pick automatic download and select Fedora Workstation. Flash your USB stick.
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### ISO
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After the download you may find the GPG-signed SHA256 checksum file from the
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icon next to the ISO download. You may find the GPG key fingerprints and
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instructions to verify via the links there.
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Simply `dd` it to the disk and `sync` before pulling the USB out. _Make sure
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you have backups and are using the right disk! A friend of mine didn't and
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corrupted his disk._
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## Preparing the SSD
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Boot the USB. Open Disks by typing its name and pressing enter. Make a GPT
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partition table by using the three dots at the top right.
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(If you have plaintext data on the drive, you really should do a NVMe sanitize.
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You may find instructions on doing that by looking up the man page for the
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`nvme` command.)
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Make a large empty partition with no file system (choose "unformatted") leaving
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10240 MiB at the end of the drive. You can do this by typing 10240 into the
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bottom text box (free space at the end) and clicking into the top box to refresh
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its calculation.
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Make a 1024 MiB partition at the very end of the drive and format with ext4,
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then make another one right before it and also format with ext4.
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This is easier on gparted then GNOME Disks, but you can accomplish the same
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thing by making a 8192 MiB temporary partition then deleting it after making the
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two 1024 MiB partitions at the end.
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Formatting here really isn't necessary if not for the Fedora installer graying
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out all the fields when it doesn't detect a file system (bug?).
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I assume that you are using an UEFI system as almost all modern x86_64 systems
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have that, but you could verify that with `[ -d /sys/firmware/efi ] && echo UEFI
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|| echo BIOS`.
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Now, make the LUKS2 layer by opening a terminal and typing:
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`sudo cryptsetup luksFormat --use-random /dev/<root-partition>`
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...where `<root-partition>` is the big partition you made first and should look
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something like `/dev/nvme0n1p1`. There are some sane defaults that I didn't
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include in this command as all new systems should have them by default, but you
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could spell it out if you want to be extra certain: `--type luks2 --key-size 512
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--cipher aes-xts-plain64 --iter-time 2000 --verify-passphrase`
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Then, unlock this encrypted partition by typing: `sudo cryptsetup open /dev/
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<root-partition> <mapper>`, where `<mapper>` is the name for the mapper file and
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doesn't matter for our install. You could just use `luks`.
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Now, make the btrfs file system with xxhash as the checksum function: `sudo
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mkfs.btrfs --csum xxhash /etc/mapper/<mapper>`. I didn't use LVM here as btrfs
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snapshots are much better and support RAID0/1 well. btrfs snapshots doesn't
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have LVM snapshots' heavy performance penalty, doesn't require pre-allocation of
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space which is often wasted, and doesn't become invalid later when its space is
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used up.
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Then, close the LUKS layer as the installer requires the password to it for
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installation. If you skip this step, you would be forced to rescan in the
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installer which closes it after you've already selected your configuration.
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## Installing Fedora
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Now, start the installer. Choose your keyboard layout and timezone. Then click
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into storage configuration.
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I have some commands for unlocking the LUKS in my Ubuntu install guide, but here
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you can simply unlock the LUKS volume and the installer does all the work for
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you setting that up.
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- Format `<boot-partition>` (e.g. `/dev/nvme0n1p3`) as ext4 and mount to `/
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boot`. (Check the format checkbox.)
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- Format `<efi-partition>` (e.g. `/dev/nvme0n1p2`) as System EFI Partition and
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mount to `/boot/efi`.
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- Format `/dev/mapper/<machine name>-root` as ext4 and mount to `/`.
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- Format `/dev/mapper/<machine name>-home` as ext4 and mount to `/home`.
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- No need for swap as
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[Fedora uses zram by default](https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/SwapOnZRAM).
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Now click "Done" and start your install! It took only ten minutes for me.
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Now, reboot into your newly installed system and test it out. Make sure it
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works before migrating your data as that may take a long time, so you don't want
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to do it again.
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## Migrating all the data
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Open up your retired machine, pop up the SSD, put it in a NVME enclosure, and
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plug it in.
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Now, if you'd like, take a snapshot: `sudo mkdir /snapshots && sudo btrfs
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subvolume snapshot /home /snapshots/home-default`
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My install is quite old and is from Ubuntu so it contains lots of files past
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their shelf life. I hit `Ctrl`+`h` to unhide all hidden files and compared the
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two file trees side-by-side and removed all conflicting or obsolete files. Now,
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start the copy: `time sudo cp -a -T <old-path> ~` where `<old-path>` is path to
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your old home directory. This took 22 minutes for me.
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Now, reboot again to load these files.
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## After the install
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Congratulations! You've reached the end of this guide. After the install,
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check out my [configuration guide](fedora-setup.md) and see if you'd like to
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pull some bits from that.
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## Some interesting notes
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btrfs uses zstd level 1 compression by default. This saves substantially for
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`/`, and a little bit for `/home`:
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```
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$ sudo compsize -x /
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Processed 121050 files, 95144 regular extents (114629 refs), 60336 inline.
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Type Perc Disk Usage Uncompressed Referenced
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TOTAL 55% 3.6G 6.6G 8.4G
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none 100% 2.1G 2.1G 2.3G
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zstd 35% 1.5G 4.5G 6.0G
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prealloc 100% 1.2M 1.2M 11M
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$ sudo compsize /home
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Processed 1178463 files, 1863614 regular extents (1907988 refs), 519681 inline.
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Type Perc Disk Usage Uncompressed Referenced
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TOTAL 94% 1.2T 1.2T 1.2T
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none 100% 1.1T 1.1T 1.1T
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zstd 36% 40G 110G 113G
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prealloc 100% 1.2M 1.2M 1.1M
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```
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In my testing I managed to reach `91%` by forcing compression, but I didn't use
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it as I don't think `3%` is worth the performance hit. (The default options has
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negligible performance overhead.)
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After using it for a while:
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```
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$ sudo compsize -x /
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Processed 356866 files, 228300 regular extents (347966 refs), 187319 inline.
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Type Perc Disk Usage Uncompressed Referenced
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TOTAL 56% 11G 19G 30G
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none 100% 6.9G 6.9G 9.8G
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zstd 32% 4.1G 12G 20G
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prealloc 100% 1.2M 1.2M 22M
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$ sudo compsize /home
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Processed 1204163 files, 2035560 regular extents (2142558 refs), 501390 inline.
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Type Perc Disk Usage Uncompressed Referenced
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TOTAL 95% 1.3T 1.4T 1.4T
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none 100% 1.3T 1.3T 1.3T
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zstd 35% 38G 107G 111G
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prealloc 100% 215M 215M 115M
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