How to upgrade to Fedora 31

A new version of Fedora has been released into the world. It is dubbed “Fedora 31,” and offers some fantastic new features, a newer Linux kernel, new Gnome Shell, new KDE Plasma, better hardware support, and so much more. In this guide, we’ll go over how to upgrade your existing Fedora system to the latest release!

Things to keep in mind before upgrading

Fedora 31 introduces a lot of changes from version 30. Some of these changes, such as getting rid of Python 2.7 (which will break a lot of Linux apps that haven’t switched to Python 3), and many other experimental new features can break your system if you’re not careful. Please keep in mind that Fedora Linux is an advanced operating system, and you should only use it if you know a little bit about the Linux ecosystem.

Upgrade to Fedora 31 – graphical interface

If you use the Gnome Shell version of Fedora, upgrading to the new 31 release is easier than ever, and can be done right in the Gnome Software application. To start the upgrade process, open up the Gnome Software application.

Once the Gnome Software app is open on your Fedora Linux desktop, locate the “Updates” button, and click it to access the software updates section.

Note: Please backup any important data (pictures, videos, project data, etc.) on your Fedora Linux PC to an external hard drive, USB flash drive, or cloud providers like Dropbox, Google Drive, or another similar service. In rare cases, operating system upgrades can go wrong, and data loss can occur.

Inside of the “Updates” area, allow Gnome Software to check for software updates. Then, find the blue “Download” button and install any pending software updates. Installing software updates is critical! You must do this before upgrading the system to Fedora 31!

When all software patches are installed, go back to the “Updates” section of Gnome Software, and look for the “Fedora 31 Now Available” banner. Then, select the “Download” button to start the upgrade process for your Fedora PC. Be sure also to select the “Learn More” button to find out about the upgrade.

Upon clicking the “Download” button, Gnome Software will start to download Fedora 31 and grab all of the packages required to upgrade. This download will take a long time, so please be patient!

When Gnome Software finishes downloading Fedora 31 to your PC, it’s time to upgrade. Find the “Restart & Install Upgrade” button, and click it to reboot Fedora into upgrade mode.

In upgrade mode, your PC will install Fedora 31. Once again, be patient, as this can take a bit of time.

When the process is complete, your PC will restart a second time. Upon logging back in, you will be using Fedora 31!

Upgrade to Fedora 31 – command-line

Fedora Linux is a developer and power-user centric operating system, and many users find themselves living in the command-line. Since the command-line is so well-loved in the Fedora community, we are going to go over the command-line way of upgrading Fedora to version 31.

Note: Before starting the upgrade process for your Fedora installation, please make a complete backup of any critical files (documents, pictures, projects, etc.). For the best results, be sure to save your backups to an external hard drive, a USB flash drive, or cloud storage provider like Dropbox, Google Drive, or something similar.

To start the upgrade process, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. From there, use the dnf refresh command to check for any pending software updates on the system.

sudo dnf refresh

After checking for pending software updates, install them with the dnf upgrade command.

sudo dnf upgrade -y

Following the upgrade process, you must install the official Fedora system upgrade tool, by running the dnf install command below.

sudo dnf install dnf-plugin-system-upgrade -y

Let the plugin system upgrader tool download from the Fedora repos and install. Once the installation is complete, you can use the app to download Fedora 31 with the command below.

sudo dnf system-upgrade download --releasever=31

When you enter the above command, you will see a message pop-up in the terminal prompt. This message states, “Before you continue, ensure that your system is fully upgraded.” Select the “Y” button to confirm it is up to date.

Once “Y” is selected in the prompt, the system-upgrade application will convert all of the internal Fedora Linux repositories to “31,” and begin the long, time-consuming process of downloading upgrade packages. Sit back, and be patient. It may take a bit of time to complete the download.

When the packages finish downloading, the Dnf package management tool will install everything into your Linux PC. Then, when all of the packages finish installing, complete the upgrade with the reboot command below.

sudo dnf system-upgrade reboot

Upon logging back in, you will be using Fedora 31!