This is a step by step beginner’s guide shows how to install Fedora Workstation using an USB stick.
Fedora is a Linux distribution developed by the community-supported Fedora Project which is sponsored primarily by Red Hat. It features Workstation, Server, and loT editions. And here’s I’m going to show how to install the Workstation (Desktop) edition.
Preparation:
Fedora Linux has an official USB writer called Fedora Media Writer. You can use it to create bootable installer from Windows or Mac OS.
As an alternative, download the ISO image and create live-USB via:
- Download Fedora Workstation ISO.
- Create bootable USB installer from Linux, Windows, or Mac OS. It does work for Fedora though written for Linux Mint.
1. Boot Fedora Workstation Live-USB:
Once you created the USB installer, boot it in your machine. Depends on your device, you may press ESC, F2, Del, etc on startup to get into BIOS and set up boot order.
When it starts into menu, hit Enter to boot with first entry “Start Fedora Workstation-Live”.
2. Launch the Installer Wizard:
Once you boots into the live system, click “Install to Hard Drive” in the welcome screen.
When the wizard opens, select your language to use while the installing process:
3. Configure Keyboard, Time & Data:
Little different to other Linux, e.g., Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and Manjaro, after choosing the wizard language, it goes directly to “Installation Summary”:
Click on “Keyboard” in the previous screen, and setup your keyboard layout. The default one is OK for normal keyboard devices. You can type anything in the right-box to test out. And click on “+” to add keyboard layout if the default one does not meet your need.
After setup keyboard layout, click “Done” to go back to “Installation Summary” screen.
Next click on “Time & Date”, and then choose your location on the world map. Enable network time if you want and click “Done”.
4. Create disk partition for Fedora file system:
Before installing Fedora, you need to create disk partitions where the Linux system will be installed to. They are:
- (Optional) BIOS-boot partition for GPT only hard disk. It’s optional if grub bootloader handle by another Linux on the hard disk.
- (Required) EXT4 partition for Fedora Linux file system.
- (Optional) swap partition for small RAM or hibernation to disk.
a.) Firstly click on “Installation Destination” in the “Installation Summary” screen.
Then choose your hard disk. NOT highlight, BUT an emblem (black circle with white tick) on the hard disk icon. Under Storage Configuration choose “Advanced custom” and click “Done”.
b.) Create BIOS-boot partition for GPT disk.
- Click on top-left “Activities“, then search for and open terminal.
When terminal opens, run command to tell GPT or not:
sudo parted -l
NOTE you have more than one drive: Hard Disk and USB stick. Remember to check the hard disk in terminal output.
- If NOT GPT, skip this step and go to step c.) to create EXT4 partition.
If it is GPT, go to partition table after step a.). Check if the first partition (usually sda1) is a small partition with 1MB ~ 250 MB size with type: none.
- If not exist, select free space and create a BIOS-boot partition with 8 MB or few. It MUST be at start of the partition table. Which means, you may need to delete sda1 if no free space before it.
Fedora Installer does not show what it is in partition table! Make sure you know what's in sda1 as deleting it may cause boot issue of the existing system. Do it at your own risk!
c.) Create the EXT4 partition.
Now select any free space and click on “+” icon to create a new partition:
- Size: 20 GB at least, but 50 GB+ will be better for long time using.
- Filesystem: Ext4
- Mount point: /
It’s OK to enable “encrypt”, but it throw me an error that prompts “/boot” partition have to be non-encrypt. So it seems you need to create /boot partition if you need encrypt feature.
d.) Create swap area.
If you have a small RAM, e.g., 4GB or less, or you need to use hibernation feature, swap partition is also recommended.
Check if swap is already exit, if not, create one via:
- size: as large as RAM.
- Filesystem: swap.
e.) After creating the disk partitions, click “Done” button. It will pop up a dialog with “SUMMARY OF CHANGES”. Accept it, and click “Done” again.
5. Start Installing Fedora:
Finally in the “INSTALLATION SUMMARY” screen, click on bottom-right “Begin Installation” button to start installing Fedora:
If any configuration error exist, you won’t able to click the button as it’s grayed out.
Then wait until the process done. And restart or continue testing the live system.
Conclusion:
Compare to Linux Mint and Manjaro, the installer wizard of Fedora Linux is not user-friendly for beginners. The partition table even don’t tell you what it is in sda1, sda2, etc. It’s troublesome if any other operating system exists in the hard disk.
