Once a year, we upgrade all the desktop systems to the latest version of Fedora, our Linux desktop operating system.

• Fedora 37 release notes
• Common Known Issues and workarounds

Local links:

• Linux desktop environments
• Fedora compatibility settings
• Fedora tips

• Gnome 43 (see below for details)
  • Note: Gnome versions used to be 3.38 etc, now the 3. is dropped, so Gnome 43.
  • Various Gnome shell extensions that you can load for yourself from https://extensions.gnome.org/
• Cloud integration: you can link your Google Drive, OwnCloud/SurfDrive and some other cloud storage services the file manager (in addition to Dropbox, which has been there for a couple of years).
  Various online calendars can be integrated in the desktop calendar utility.
• Due to a change in the inner workings of the nautilus file manager, many of its plugins are no longer available. These will be added back when they are updated to match the new version
  • This includes Dropbox integration, which is not fully working at the moment. You can still run the dropbox tool to have synchronization, but you will not be able to see from within the file manager if files have been synchronized, or use any of the specific functions from the file manager interface.
• Python is now by default 3.11. You can still call python2 to get a python 2.7 interpreter, but NO PACKAGES are installed for it any more; so you can just use this to build your own python2 environment if needed.
  • Command python will now invoke python 3.11 so check your own scripts.
  • If you still need python2, a private install or virtualenv will still be possible, but for many packages, you may have to explicitly install an older version (e.g. pip2 install –user astropy==2.0.12)
  • To install a python2 kernel in jupyter,a personal setup can be made using python2 -m ipykernel install –user
  • We also have the interpreters of python 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9 and 3.10 installed, for compatibility and in case you need them for your own projects or virtualenvs. As with python 2, these are the bare interpreters, we do not provide a complete stack of modules for these older versions.
  • To move your personally installed modules from python 3.10 (Fedora 35) to python 3.11:
    • Setup pip for the old python version: python3.10 -m ensurepip –user
    • Make list of installed packages with versions: python3.10 -m pip freeze > installed.txt
    • Install the same packages into the current python: python3 -m pip install –user -r installed.txt
  • Some 3rd party build and install scripts still don't seem to understand that 3.11 > 3.9, so if something complains our python is too old, the program just doesn't compute.
  • Missing: pyregion (not yet made compatible with python 3.11)
• GCC (C, C++, Fortran) is at version 12.2 now. Some older versions are available through environment modules.
• CLANG /LLVM compilers are now at version 15. If necessary, compatibility packages of older versions can be added.
• LibreOffice has been upgraded to version 7.4 with lots of improvements and new features. See Release notes
• Removed software:
  • Several compatibility libraries were dropped. These were libraries to run programs built with very old versions of the GNU compilers (gcc 3.3, 3.4 and 4.1). If you still have binaries from > 10 years ago, recompiling might be advisable.
  • Also, all compatibility with 32-bit executables was dropped. Not surprising, since the last 32-bit machines were bought by our institute in 2006. Known fatalities: acroread, supermongo
    • Please use a native Linux pdf viewer, such as atril or evince as a replacement for acroread.
    • A workaround for (ancient) supermongo exists but is not installed by default. If you use this software, please contact us and we can make the workaround available on your desktop.
  • TeX package psfig, which has been obsolete for a long time, has recently been removed. Converting documents to newer packages such as graphics or graphicx is recommended, and is usually easy.
• Java is now available in several versions: The last freely obtainable Oracle Java 8.x release; OpenJDK 8, OpenJDK 11, OpenJDK 17 and OpenJDK latest (currently 19).

• VNC issues: Desktop environments that require hardware accelleration (3D desktop effects) are often too heavy to be used inside a virtual desktop (VNC, X2GO). See VNC desktop issues for details and workarounds.
• X2GO has problems with some desktop environments that try to use “modern” features that are not there on the virtual desktop. For the moment, please use the XFCE or LXDE desktops that are known to work.
• An alternative to VNC and X2GO is XPRA, a tool that can forward a single window or an entire desktop to a remote display.
• Gnome doesn't display notification area aka system tray icons any more by default. The fix is, to enable the appindicator extension: open gnome-extentions-app (Applications - Extensions in the menu) to do that. After that, the icons such as status icons of dropbox, zoom etc, will be in your top panel.
  • Note: in the previous OS versions, there was an extension named topicons plus. If you had that enabled, you will have to enable the new extension now, and possibly remove references to the no longer existing extension.
• The clipit clipboard app that is a default part of Gnome, Cinnamon and MATE desktops, sometimes hangs, which blocks all cut, copy and paste actions. Exit the app by right-clicking on the icon (which looks like a clipboard), and choose the quit action. If this happens a lot to you, you might want to disable the app in your startup applications preferences. The app is only needed to maintain a clipboard history; without it, a single cut/copy and paste is still possible.
• Workarounds are in place for some software that was built with older versions of CFITSIO (GILDAS) and/or older GFortran (StarLink). When using these programs from within other programs, this workaround may be bypassed (eg, GILDAS software linked from within CASA). If you run into that issue, let us know so we can provide you with the necessary workaround. Eventually these issues are expected to be solved when new versions of these software packages are released or recompiled using current libraries. GILDAS also has a workaround to use python 3.10 in stead of the system default 3.11, with which it fails to compile.
• Some theme libraries from earlier releases are no longer present. If you get errors when starting graphical applications such as:

     Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "colorreload-gtk-module"

  then go to the settings controlling your desktop look & feel and select another theme instead of the one that uses theme libraries that are no longer present.

• Gnome 3. Gnome 3 is a completely different desktop design, which makes the desktop look and behave a bit like a Tablet PC. Some people may like it, but if you don't, “Mate” is available as an alternative, to give you the experience of good old Gnome 2, or “Cinnamon”, for a more desktop-like version of the new Gnome, or try “Gnome Classic”.
  More on Gnome 3
• Gnome applications: in every new release, more Gnome applications are rewritten in the style of the Gnome 3 desktop. This means: a separate application menu, displayed Mac-style in the top bar on the Gnome desktop, or under the application icon in other desktops, the most important actions displayed as buttons, and everything else in a menu at the top right in the application window.
  See desktop applications for a table listing alternatives, in case you cannot get used to the new look.
• Cinnamon desktop tweaks: While Cinnamon is based on (and compatible with) Gnome 3, there are separate tools for its customization, eg, if you want to modify the programs that start in each session, use cinnamon-session-properties for that (also available from the settings overview).
  More on Cinnamon or see the list of available desktop applications
• Programs that start with each session: A lot of programs are started by default in each desktop session. many of them are unnecessary; some of them are annoying or can cause problems. users can disable everything they don't need.
  More on session tweaking
• The command pmount can be used to mount removable media (cdrom,dvd,usb-disks) from the commandline. E.g.: pmount /dev/cdrom mounts the cd/dvd as /media/cdrom.