This release introduces the Fedora COSMIC Spin, which offers many unique features

Release Notes for Fedora Linux 42

Changes in Fedora 42 For System Administrators

Anaconda Installer
New WebUI (Wizard-style): Replaces the old Hub & Spoke layout on Workstation with a simpler, step-by-step interface.
Wayland Native: No longer uses X11; TigerVNC support removed, replaced with RDP (inst.rdp options added).
GPT Default: Uses GUID Partition Table on all architectures instead of MBR.

Filesystem Layout Changes
Unified Binaries: /usr/sbin is now a symlink to /usr/bin. Also affects /usr/local/sbin, streamlining system paths.
%_sbindir replaced with %_bindir in RPM packaging.

Boot & Display
Plymouth now uses simpledrm: Enables earlier boot splash display via EFI framebuffer.
HiDPI scaling is guessed based on screen resolution. Customization possible via GRUB or config file.

FIPS Mode
fips-mode-setup removed. New options:
Add fips=1 during installation.
Use Image Builder or bootc with FIPS config.
Post-install FIPS switching is discouraged but still possible via grubby.

User Management
Sysusers.d replaces RPM scripts for creating system users.

Fedora Atomic & CoreOS
ComposeFS used by default in Atomic Desktops (read-only root filesystem).
No PPC64LE support for Atomic Desktops.
Zezere replaced with systemd-firstboot in IoT.
CoreOS updates via OCI images (quay.io), moving away from OSTree.
Kickstart files now available as OCI artifacts.

WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)
Fedora WSL images are now officially available.

Software Updates
Ansible 11 + ansible-core 2.18:
Adds Python 3.13 support.
New task loop features, better mount facts.
Intel SGX support: SGX software stack now included for future enclave-based applications.

DNF5 Key Handling
Expired PGP keys now automatically detected and handled with user prompts (interactive mode only).

Copy-on-Write Support
Speeds up installs and upgrades using reflinking and local optimization.
Currently opt-in, not enabled by default.

Stratis 3.8
New storage stack.
Supports multiple encryption bindings (keyring and Clevis).
Improved unlocking methods and flexibility.

ZlibNG 2.2
Updated compression library with optimizations, better memory management, and build improvements.

Changes in Fedora 42 For Desktop Users
Fedora COSMIC Spin
This release introduces the Fedora COSMIC Spin, which offers many unique features, for example:

• Hybrid per-workspace tiling management.
• Window stacks with tabs to switch between windows.
• Customization features that integrate with the GTK toolkit.

XFCE 4.20
Fedora 42 ships with version 4.20 of the XFCE desktop environment. A notable change is experimental Wayland support.

LXQt 2.1
The LXQt desktop environment has been updated to version 2.1 in Fedora 42, and now uses Wayland by default through miriway.

KDE Plasma is now a full Edition
Fedora Linux 42 promotes the Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop variant to full Edition status.

FEX emulator on Fedora
Fedora now provides FEX, a fast emulator that allows one to run x86 and x86-64 binaries on an AArch64 Linux host. FEX requires a number of supporting components, including a RootFS image, and integration with muvm to support 16k page-size hosts. The purpose of this Change is to integrate FEX itself and its supporting components into Fedora Linux, to provide a delightful out-of-box experience for users that want to run x86 and x86-64 binaries on their aarch64 systems. This also includes integration into the AArch64 Fedora KDE spin as a non-blocking component of the spin.
To start using FEX, run dnf install @fex-x86-emulation.
There is a detailed Q&A section on the Change page which provides additional information about FEX.

Replace SDL 2 with sdl2-compat using SDL 3
Applications that use SDL 2 (typically games) will now transparently use SDL 3 through the sdl2-compat package. This makes it so applications that historically used SDL 2 now use SDL 3. The change is completely automatic and users should not notice any difference other than potentially slightly smoother performance.

IBus 1.5.32
Fedora 42 provides version 1.5.32 of the IBus internationalization library. Notable improvements include:

• Support for the Wayland input-method protocol version 2 which is allowed by some Wayland desktop sessions likes Sway, Hyprland, COSMIC desktop sessions
• IBus now can show candidate popups for non-Wayland applications of XIM and GTK2 in Wayland desktop sessions
• The ibus start command is now enhanced to work for the Wayland input-method protocol version 2

ibus-speech-to-text feature
The new ibus-speech-to-text package introduces voice dictation capabilities for any application that supports IBus input methods. The feature uses the VOSK speech recognition toolkit that does not require Internet connectivity.

Benefits to users:

• Accessibility and user productivity improvements through voice input
• Offline voice recognition to preserve user privacy
• Seamless integration with existing IBus infrastructure
• Support for multiple languages through downloadable models

ibus-libpinyin 1.16
The ibus-libpinyin 1.16 library has been updated to version 1.16 in Fedora 42. Notable new features include:

• Support for punctuation candidates
• Support for custom keyboard layouts
• The [ ] keys now scroll the candidate page up/down
• Displaying Lua converters in the input method menu
• Notifying the user when import of a pinyin or table file is finished

X86 MIPI camera hardware enablement
Ferdora 42 expands out of the box support for additional integrated cameras found on x86 laptops and tablets. This change is part of an ongoing effort in camera enablement on Fedora, and follows a similar change in Fedora 41.