Fedora 45 Beta now available

Today, the Fedora Project is excited to announce that the beta version of Fedora Linux 45—the latest release of the free and open source operating system—is now available.

Fedora Linux continues to serve as an innovation engine across the open source ecosystem, bringing the newest kernel enhancements, security modernizations, desktop refinements, and developer tooling into the hands of our community. Learn more about the highlights landing in Fedora 45 Beta below, and remember to fully update your system before testing or upgrading.

What’s new in Fedora 45 Beta?

Every Fedora release cycle balances forward-looking features with foundational system refinement. Across installation workflows, security architecture, and developer runtimes, Fedora 45 Beta introduces key improvements aimed at modernizing everyday operation and strengthening system integrity.

Desktop, installer, and system modernizations

As desktop environments and system architectures continue to evolve, Fedora 45 Beta modernizes essential installation workflows and system-level user interfaces. These changes streamline storage configuration, bring smoother rendering to the virtual terminal, and adopt cleaner separation between distribution defaults and local customizations.

• Stratis Storage integration in Anaconda: Users can now install Fedora directly onto Stratis-managed storage volumes. This integration includes automated installation via Kickstart and manual storage configuration through the Anaconda WebUI powered by Cockpit Storage, making Stratis thin provisioning, pooling, and snapshot capabilities available from day one.
• Modernized virtual console with kmscon: Fedora 45 Beta replaces the legacy in-kernel fbcon console with kmscon, a modern userspace virtual terminal console. This transition provides better rendering, internationalization support, smoother visual integration, and improved console security.
• oo7 Secrets Service provider: Fedora desktop variants now leverage oo7 as the default Secrets Service implementation, modernizing secret and credential handling across GNOME, KDE, and other desktop environments.
• Unified Atomic Desktop image builds: Fedora Atomic Desktops (Silverblue, Kinoite, and related variants) now build disk images using image-builder rather than lorax, standardizing build pipelines and introducing out-of-the-box raw and qcow2 cloud/virtualization artifacts.
• Bash Color Prompt 1.0: The default terminal experience receives a clean rewrite with bash-color-prompt 1.0, leveraging PROMPT_COMMAND for lightweight, dynamic, and easily customizable command prompts.
• RPM repository configuration relocated to /usr: Packaged RPM repository configuration files have moved from /etc/yum.repos.d/ to /usr, separating vendor-provided defaults from local administrator customizations and adhering closer to standard stateless system layouts.

Security and package management hardening

Fortifying the software supply chain and protecting running workloads remain central priorities for Fedora. This beta release tightens kernel-level process boundaries and enforces strict package signature and vendor origin checks across the package management lifecycle.

• Restricted ptrace by default: To defend against malware inspecting or injecting code into running processes, unprivileged ptrace usage is now restricted system-wide by default via kernel sysctl settings. When development and debugging utilities are installed, full debugging capabilities are automatically enabled.
• Enforced RPM signature checking: Bringing Fedora in line with upstream RPM defaults, package installation and upgrades now strictly enforce package signature verification out of the box.
• Protected vendor repository packages in DNF5: DNF5 now disables automatic vendor changes by default (allow_vendor_change=False). This prevents automatic package switching across conflicting third-party repositories during dependency resolution or upgrades unless explicitly commanded by the user.
• Standardized PURL metadata: Package metadata in Fedora 45 introduces standardized Package URL (PURL) identifiers, streamlining software supply chain tracking and bridging upstream repositories with downstream package management.
• Reproducible package builds milestone: Building on several release cycles of infrastructure work, package builds in Fedora 45 are formally targeted to achieve 99% reproducibility, reinforcing software supply chain integrity.

Language runtimes and developer tools

Fedora remains dedicated to providing a cutting-edge workbench for developers building cloud-native microservices, systems software, and modern web applications. Fedora 45 Beta delivers refreshed major language releases, updated system toolchains, and modern container tooling:

• GNU Toolchain: GCC 16.2, Glibc 2.44, Binutils 2.47, and GDB 17.2.
• LLVM 23: Complete update across all LLVM compiler tooling and subprojects.
• Python 3.15: The latest upstream release of Python, bringing ongoing runtime optimizations and syntax refinements.
• Go 1.27: Upgraded to support modern cloud-native and systems engineering workloads.
• Perl 5.44: A full annual refresh including upstream language fixes and CPAN compatibility updates.
• Ruby on Rails 8.1: Delivering the newest web framework capabilities for Ruby developers.
• Podman 6: Next-generation container execution and rootless container management.
• Database stacks: MariaDB 12.3 and MySQL 9.7 are now available as distribution defaults.

What is a Fedora Beta release?

Fedora Beta releases are code-complete previews that closely represent what you will see in the final general availability release. While Fedora Project contributors have been testing these builds extensively throughout the development cycle, real-world community feedback is essential.

Testing the beta release on your hardware with your daily workflows and across your container environments helps identify corner cases before final launch. The bugs you find and report directly benefit millions of users worldwide and help improve upstream projects across the Linux ecosystem.

Let’s test Fedora 45 Beta together

Because this is a pre-release build, you may encounter edge-case bugs or incomplete migrations. If you discover an issue:

• Report bugs: Follow the Fedora bug reporting guide to file tickets in Bugzilla.
• Engage with QA: Connect directly with the Fedora Quality Assurance team on Matrix in the #quality:fedoraproject.org channel or via the Fedora test mailing list.
• Monitor known issues: Check the "Common Issues" category on Ask Fedora to see already identified quirks and workarounds.

Download Fedora 45 Beta today at getfedora.org and let us know what you think!