This section contains release notes for Anaconda, organized by Fedora release.
Release notes
This document describes major installer-related changes in Fedora releases.
A guide on adding new entries is in the release documentation.
Fedora 44
Changes in kickstart support
Add bootc kickstart command support
Anaconda now supports the new bootc kickstart command to install bootc-based
bootable containers. This command is similar to the existing ostreecontainer
command, but uses the bootc tool to handle both filesystem population and
bootloader configuration.
Usage example:
bootc --source-imgref=registry:quay.io/fedora/fedora-bootc:rawhide
Note that there are some current limitations, such as lack of support for partitioning setups spanning multiple disks, arbitrary mount points, or installation from authenticated registries.
General changes
Stop creating default network profiles for unconfigured devices
Traditionally Anaconda created default persistent network profiles (ifcfg files or keyfiles) for every supported wired network device. With this change only devices configured during installation (via boot options, kickstart, or in the UI) will have a persistent profile created on the installed system.
Fedora 43
Changes in the graphical interface
Support Reinstall scenario on MBR partitioned disks
Reinstall Fedora installation option is now supported also for disks with MBR partition table.
Changes in kickstart support
Kickstart support for starting RDP installation
This change adds Kickstart-level support to start a remote graphical installation via RDP. Anaconda now parses the new rdp Kickstart command (implemented in pykickstart) and configures the installer to accept an incoming RDP connection.
In addition, Anaconda’s Runtime D-Bus module exposes a small API to carry the parsed
RDP configuration (enabled, username, password) to the UI layer so that both
TUI prompts and GUI startup honor Kickstart-provided values.
Usage in Kickstart:
rdp [--username USERNAME] [--password PASSWORD]
If credentials are omitted, the installer will prompt early in startup.
This complements the existing boot options (inst.rdp, inst.rdp.username,
inst.rdp.password) by allowing fully automated, headless setups using Kickstart alone.
General changes
Initial support for Flatpak preinstall
This is initial support for Flatpak preinstall feature. This feature allows marking flatpaks for the installation from the target system payload. The benefit of this functionality is that it is attached to the original payload (DNF packages, bootc container images…).
The current implementation is not used in Fedora but the plan is to use this in future Fedora Atomic desktops and maybe even Workstation to deliver some of the applications as Flatpaks seamlessly.
To mark Flatpaks for installation in the current implementation you need to have a package
based installation and install a package with Provides similar to
flatpak-preinstall(app/org.mozilla.firefox//stable) and correctly installing
/etc/flatpak/preinstall.d configuration. With such a package installed to
the system Anaconda will also install the org.mozilla.firefox Flatpak.
Fedora 42
Changes in the graphical interface
Replace VNC with RDP
As part of the X11 dependencies removals, Anaconda also drops VNC. As a replacement RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) is implemented.
What has changed:
- Adding new kernel boot arguments: inst.rdp, inst.rdp.username, inst.rdp.password.
- Drop existing kernel boot argument: inst.vnc, inst.vncpassword, inst.vncconnect.
- Drop the existing vnc kickstart command.
Migrate Anaconda to Wayland application
This change enables Anaconda to run natively on Wayland. Previously, Anaconda operated as an Xorg application or relied on XWayland for support.
By implementing this update, we can eliminate dependencies on X11 and embrace newer, more secure technologies.
By this change some kernel boot options can’t be used:
inst.usefbx
inst.xdriver
Changes in the text interface
Pass of the TERM environment variable to tmux
Anaconda is now able to pass the TERM environment variable from kernel parameters to
the Anaconda tmux session.
This could be used for example to pass TERM=xterm-256color from kernel parameters to
make Anaconda tmux use colors in the host’s terminal. Useful especially for VMs, as
serial terminal type can’t properly be detected there.
Changes in kickstart support
Support certificates import via kickstart file
New kickstart section %certificate is supported. It allows users to securely embed certificates directly within the kickstart file. The certificates are imported both into the installer environment and the installed system.
Changes in Anaconda configuration files
Support for Hiding Specific Pages in the Web UI
The Web UI now supports hiding specific pages by adding their page IDs to the hidden-webui-pages option in the anaconda.conf file.
For example, in the Workstation ISO, the ‘Account Creation’ page should not be displayed, as this step is handled by GNOME Initial Setup during first boot. To hide this page, the following configuration should be added:
hidden-webui-pages = anaconda-screen-accounts
This feature allows tailoring the Web UI experience to meet the specific needs of different ISOs or spins.
Architecture and hardware support changes
Remove i686 builds
Anaconda is still (not explicitly) supporting i686 builds even though that Fedora dropped the support a long time ago.
Anaconda now excludes the i686 builds explicitly in Anaconda to allow our dependent packages drop of the i686 build.
Fedora 41
Changes in the graphical interface
Disable keyboard shortcuts to switch keyboard layouts
As part of the system-wide change in Fedora to migrate Anaconda to Wayland we also had to remove libXklavier from our codebase. That resulted in a new solution built on localed.
The original idea was to have bidirectional communication between Anaconda and the running system using localed as middle layer to control keyboard layouts in the system but also to give a system a possibility to reflect changes from system to Anaconda. Unfortunately, we are facing issues that the system has a hard time reacting to keyboard layout changes. The selected layout is especially problematic as it is not a term to be easily defined and is tricky to resolve. One of the reasons is that the layout could be specific to a window and Anaconda is not the same process as the localed daemon.
To simplify this issue, we have decided to disable keyboard layout switching by keyboard shortcuts. This will allow us to change the bidirectional solution in Anaconda to one direction which is only:
Anaconda > localed > system
That should make Anaconda solution more robust and also will remove burden from the Desktop
maintainers that they don't need to add implementation to be able to detect changes and set
them correctly to the localed.
That should make Anaconda solution more robust and also will remove burden from the Desktop maintainers that they don’t need to add implementation to be able to detect changes and set them correctly to the localed.
Changes in kickstart support
Deprecate RPM modularity module
Based on the discontinuation of RPM modularity in Fedora 39, we have decided to remove the RPM modularity feature in Anaconda. The ‘module’ kickstart command is no longer functional but can still be included in the kickstart file. However, its presence will now generate a warning. In a future release, this command will be completely removed, and its usage will result in an error.
Changes in Anaconda configuration files
Remote repository for Flatpaks after deployment are now configurable
Currently when OSTree installation detects Flatpak repository in the installation media these Flatpaks are deployed and the remote was hardcoded to remote Fedora. This remote is then used for updating the Flatpaks after installation.
After this change Flatpak remote can be set by flatpak_remote key in the configuration
file.
Architecture and hardware support changes
NVMe Fabrics support
Anaconda now recognizes NVMe Fabrics drives. These drives are now shown in the Advanced Storage screen, together with further details.
Add RISC-V 64 support
Added extlinux support for RISC-V 64 and grub support for RISC-V 64 UEFI.
General changes
Use the standalone crypt_r package for crypting passwords
The Python standard library crypt module was removed from Python 3.13+. Use the
standalone crypt_r package maintained by the Fedora Python SIG instead. Support for
crypt still exists as a fallback, as crypt_r is not available in old RHELs and
Fedoras.
Do not create default network profiles for network port devices
Traditionally Anaconda creates default persistent network profiles (ifcfg files or keyfiles) for every supported wired network device. We would like to move towards creating profiles only for devices explicitly configured by installer. As a step in this direction do not create such files for devices used as ports of a virtual device (for example bond device) configured by installer, unless they were explicitly configured separately (for example in early stage from boot options).
Remove deprecation warnings for kernel boot options without prefix
Removing the deprecation warnings for kernel boot options without inst. prefix. This
was left for a couple of releases to advise users to switch their options to use
inst.* instead. We are now removing them to not warn as it should be always used
inst. as prefix.
Add ping command line tool to Anaconda Dracut image
Sometimes boot of the installer ISO will fail because remote source can’t be reached, if this happens, it can be hard to debug because of the limited toolset inside the Dracut shell. For these reasons, we are adding a ping command line tool which can help with debugging.
Fedora 40
Changes in the graphical interface
Dir and image installations run only in the non-interactive text mode now
Anaconda now requires a fully defined kickstart file for installations into a local image
(via the --image cmdline option) or a local directory (via the --dirinstall cmdline
option) and these installations can run only in a non-interactive text-based user interface.
The anaconda and livemedia-creator tools can be used for these types of installations
with the following changes:
If a user requests a dir or image installation, Anaconda runs in the text mode.
If the user doesn’t specify a kickstart file, Anaconda reports an error and aborts.
If the specified kickstart file is incomplete, Anaconda reports an error and aborts.
All options for specifying the user interface are ignored.
Remove support for additional repositories from GUI
The widget that allowed users to specify and edit additional repositories for the package
installation was removed from the “Installation Source” screen of the GTK-based graphical
user interface. Use the kickstart support or the inst.addrepo boot option to specify
additional repositories.
Redesign the Time & Date spoke in GUI
The timezone map was removed from the Time & Date spoke in the GTK-based user interface
and the spoke was redesigned to accommodate the changes. The installer no longer depends
on the the libtimezonemap package.
Remove support for the LUKS version selection from GUI
All widgets for the LUKS version selection were removed from the “Manual Partitioning”
screen of the GTK-based graphical user interface. The installer will use the luks2
version by default for all new devices and keep the LUKS version of existing ones. Use
the kickstart support or Blivet GUI to select the LUKS version.
Remove libgnomekbd
The library used by Anaconda to display the keyboard preview widget, was switched from libgnomekdb to Tecla. libgnomekdb is stuck in GTK 3 and X11 (libxklavier).
Remove screenshot support
It was previously possible to take a screenshot of the Anaconda GUI by pressing a global hotkey. This was never widely advertised & rather hard to use for anything useful, as it was also necessary to manually extract the resulting screenshots from the installation environment.
Furthermore, with many installations happening in VMs, it is usually more convenient to take a screenshot using the VM software anyway.
By dropping screenshot support, we can remove dependency
on the keybinder3 library as well as the necessary
screenshot code in the GUI.
Changes in kickstart support
Remove support for NVDIMM namespaces
All additional support for NVDIMM is being deprecated and removed, especially the support for the namespace reconfiguration. However, namespaces configured in the block/storage mode can be still used for the installation.
The nvdimm kickstart command is deprecated and will be removed in future releases.
The installation program now correctly processes the proxy configuration (#2177219)
Previously, the installation program did not correctly process the --proxy option of the
url Kickstart command or inst.proxy kernel boot parameter. As a consequence, you could
not use the specified proxy to fetch the installation image. With this update, the issue
is fixed and proxy works as expected.
Remove and deprecate selected kickstart commands and options
The following deprecated kickstart commands and options are removed:
autostepmethodlogging --levelrepo --ignoregroups
The following kickstart options are deprecated:
timezone --isUtctimezone --ntpserverstimezone --nontp%packages --instLangs%packages --excludeWeakdeps
Changes in Anaconda configuration files
Architecture and hardware support changes
General changes
Remove the inst.nompath boot option
The inst.nompath boot option was deprecated in Fedora 36. It is now marked as removed.
Preliminary support for bootable ostree containers
Anaconda can now correctly detect and use the bootupd bootloader used in
bootable ostree containers. When the installed container includes the bootupctl tool, it
is used instead of installing the grub2 bootloader by Anaconda.
Discoverable GPT partitions
Anaconda now creates discoverable GPT partitions. This means that the partitions use correct type UUIDs according to the Discoverable Partitions Specification.
This behavior can be controlled using the new gpt_discoverable_partitions configuration
option in the Storage section, which defaults to True.
Remove all support of the built-in help system
The support of the built-in help accessible from spokes and hubs of all user interfaces
is removed. The help_directory Anaconda configuration option is deprecated and removed.
The anaconda-user-help package will be deprecated and removed.
Anaconda will aim to make user interfaces self-descriptive and encourage users to use the official documentation of specific Linux distributions available on-line.
Fedora 39
Changes in the graphical interface
Use keyboard layout configuration from the Live system
Until now, users had to specify keyboard layout for the Live environment manually in Anaconda. With this change, live system itself is responsible for the keyboard configuration and Anaconda just reads the configuration from the live system for the installed system.
The live keyboard layout is used automatically only if the user does not specify it manually. At this moment, only Gnome Shell environment is supported.
This is proper fix for https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2016613 which was resolved by a workaround in the past. It is also a step forward to resolve https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1955025.
Changes in kickstart support
New kickstart options to control DNS handling
There are several new options for the network kickstart command to control handling of DNS:
The
--ipv4-dns-searchand--ipv6-dns-searchallow manual setting of DNS search domains. These options mirror their respective NetworkManager properties, for example:network --device ens3 --ipv4-dns-search example.com,custom-intranet-domain.biz (...)
--ipv4-ignore-auto-dnsand--ipv6-ignore-auto-dnsallow ignoring DNS settings from DHCP. These options do not take any arguments.
All of these network command options must be used together with the --device option.
Changes in Anaconda configuration files
Deprecated configuration options are now removed
The following deprecated configuration file options are now removed:
kickstart_modulesaddons_enabled
Allow to turn off geolocation for language selection
New Localization section with use_geolocation option is added to Anaconda
configuration. The option allows to turn off geolocation for language selection.
Architecture and hardware support changes
Add support for compressed kernel modules
Support for Driver Discs containing compressed kernel modules has been added. Support for compressed kernel modules is limited to file extensions .ko.bz2, .ko.gz, .ko.xz and .ko.zst.
Wait 5 secs during boot for OEMDRV devices (#2171811)
Because disks can take some time to appear, an additional delay of 5 seconds
has been added. This can be overridden by boot argument
inst.wait_for_disks=<value> to let dracut wait up to <value> additional
seconds (0 turns the feature off, causing dracut to only wait up to 500ms).
Alternatively, if the OEMDRV device is known to be present but too slow to be
autodetected, the user can boot with an argument like inst.dd=hd:LABEL=OEMDRV
to indicate that dracut should expect an OEMDRV device and not start the
installer until it appears.
General changes
New Runtime module
Anaconda now has a new D-Bus module called Runtime. This module stores run-time
configuration of the installer and provides methods for the overall installer flow control.
Warning: This module must always run, or anaconda crashes. Users of the following configuration file entries must adapt to this change:
kickstart_modulesactivatable_modulesforbidden_modulesoptional_modules
Make the EFI System Partition at least 500MiB in size
The minimum size of the EFI System Partition (ESP) created by Anaconda has changed from 200 MiB to 500 MiB. The maximum size, which is used in most cases, remains at 600 MiB.
- The reasons for this change include:
This partition is used to deploy firmware updates. These updates need free space of twice the SPI flash size, which will grow from 64 to 128 MiB in near future and make the current partition size too small.
The new minimum is identical with what Microsoft mandates OEMs allocate for the partition.
- See also:
Respect preferred disk label type provided by blivet (#2092091, #2209760)
In Fedora 37, anaconda was changed to always format disks with GPT disk labels, so long as blivet reported that the platform supports them at all (even if blivet indicated that MBR labels should be preferred). This was intended to implement a plan to prefer GPT disk labels on x86_64 BIOS installs, but in fact resulted in GPT disk labels also being used in other cases. Now, we go back to respecting the preferred disk label type indicated by blivet, by default (a corresponding change has been made to blivet to make it prefer GPT labels on x86_64 BIOS systems). The inst.disklabel option can still be used to force a preference for gpt or mbr if desired.
Install an image using systemd-boot rather than grub (#2135531)
With this release, systemd-boot can be selected as an alternative boot loader for testing and development purposes.
This can be done with inst.sdboot from the grub/kernel command
line or with --sdboot in a kickstart file as part of the
bootloader command. The resulting machine should be free of grub,
shim, and grubby packages, with all the boot files on the EFI
System Partition (ESP). This may mean that it is wise to dedicate
the space previously allocated for /boot to the ESP in order to
assure that future kernel upgrades will have sufficient space.
For more information, refer to the anaconda and systemd-boot documentation.
Fedora 38
Changes in the graphical interface
Modernized welcome screen on Live CD
The welcome screen on Live CD has been changed to follow the current design patterns, as well as fit better into the surrounding GTK4-based interface. See the pull request #4616 for more information.
Improved configuration of additional repositories in GUI
Configuration of additional repositories in the graphical user interface has been improved. The protocol selection is now replaced with a drop-down menu of source actions. The screen also shows only configuration options relevant to the selected source action. See the pull request #4498 for more details.
Installation source errors are visible again
Previously, errors related to contents of the Installation Source screen did not cause the error message bar to appear at the bottom of the screen. As a consequence, users could not review the error messages and immediately correct the errors on the screen. The error message bar now appears correctly when errors occur. As a result, users can immediately notice errors in the Installation Source screen and correct them. See the pull request #4501.
Japanese translation fits the whole screen
Previously, using Anaconda in Japanese caused the main screen elements to use larger font than in other languages. As a consequence, the user settings were hidden outside the visible screen area and required scrolling. The sizing has been corrected, and Japanese users can now see the user settings icon and description even on the smallest supported screen sizes again. See the pull request #4325.
Architecture and hardware support changes
Do not pass the rd.znet boot argument on to the installed system unconditionally
With this change, the rd.znet boot argument is no longer passed on to the installed system unconditionally on IBM Z systems and the network device is configured and activated after switchroot by udev/NetworkManager. When networking is needed early in initramfs (like in a case of the root file system on iSCSI), rd.znet is automatically added to the kernel command line of the installed via a different mechanism. See the pull request #4303.
The dmraid and nodmraid boot options are removed
The inst.dmraid and inst.nodmraid boot options have been removed. These options no longer
controlled any functionality, after Anaconda started using mdadm instead of dmraid.
See the pull request #4517 and the related
Fedora Change.
Biosboot partition verification
The biosboot partition is now verified on all installation target disks. This improves support for booting from an array. See the pull request #4277.
Multiple bootloader devices on the Manual Partitioning screen
With this change, the graphical interface displays correctly all bootloader devices on the Manual Partitioning screen. See the pull request #4271.
Payload changes
Add support for OSTree native containers
Fedora is adding a new enhanced container support for the (rpm-)ostree stack to natively support OCI/Docker containers as a transport and delivery mechanism for operating system content. Anaconda now supports these containers by a new kickstart command ostreecontainer. See the pull request #4617, Fedora Change and Pykickstart.
rpm-ostree now validates checksums for local repositories
Previously, rpm-ostree installations verified checksums only for installations from a remote repository, while installations from local repositories did not verify the checksums. As a consequence, rpm-ostree installations from local repositories could install corrupted data without any indication. This behavior is now unified, and Anaconda verifies checksums for all rpm-ostree repositories. As a result, all rpm-ostree installations are now protected against installing corrupted data. See the pull request #4357 for more information.
Kickstart support
Creating hibernation swap from kickstart
The new autopart (...) --hibernation kickstart option creates a swap partition with an
automatically determined size that is big enough for hibernation.
See the pull request #4275.
General changes
Faster core dumps
Previously, Anaconda used a custom setup for handling tracebacks and saving core dumps. This is
now realized by using the faulthandler Python module and the systemd-coredump service.
As a result, the same debugging data is still available, while the installation environment
becomes responsive significantly sooner after tracebacks. As a side effect, the logs from Anaconda
and the installation environment now contain different error messages.
See the pull request #4350 for more information.
The Web UI of Anaconda is now packaged in Fedora
Anaconda team is working for some time on the new Web UI frontend for the installer and to make this in development Web UI more accessible to people we decided to add this as a new package to Fedora repositories. To be able to consume this Web UI, you need to build ISO with the Web UI package and add kernel boot arguments inst.webui. This package is not included in the existing Fedora images by default. See the pull request #4269.
Fedora 37
General changes
GPT is the default disk label type
Fedora Linux systems installed on legacy x86 BIOS systems will get GPT partitioning by default instead of legacy MBR partitioning. This should be a new default for all products. See the Fedora Change for more info.
Read-only /sysroot on RPM OSTree systems
The RPM OSTree installations set the /sysroot mount point as read-only instead of read-write
to make the newly installed systems more robust. Users and administrators are not expected to
directly interact with the content available there and should use the available interfaces to
manage their system. See the pull request
and the Fedora Change.
Anaconda doesn’t copy /etc/resolv.conf to systems
Anaconda does not copy the /etc/resolv.conf file from the installation environment to
the installed system anymore. Creating the file is a business of systemd-resolved or
the Network Manager. Anaconda is not going to interfere into this process anymore.
Currently the file is created by systemd-resolved package during the installation.
See the pull requests #3814 and
#3818.
Correct SELinux contexts on existing home directories
Previously, the installer set incorrect SELinux contexts on home directory contents when reusing home directory from previous installation. The contexts are now set correctly. See the pull request.
Enabled hibernation on arm64 with swap
Previously, the installer enabled resume from hibernation by adding kernel command line option
resume=swap_device only on the x86 architecture family. With this change, the same is done
also for the arm64 architecture. As a result, devices of the arm64 architecture are now able to
correctly resume from hibernation.
See the pull request.
Changed default swap size for large-memory systems
The default swap size on systems with 64 GiB or more RAM is 32 GiB now. Previously, it was 4 GiB. See the pull request.
Removed some scripts provided by Anaconda
The following undocumented installed scripts were removed from anaconda packages:
/usr/bin/analog/usr/bin/restart-anaconda
The following unused development scripts were removed from the Anaconda repository:
run_boss_locally.pyanaconda-read-journallist-screensmake-sphinx-docs
Changes in the graphical interface
The media verification dialog is improved
Previously, the media verification dialog indicated a good or bad media check result using the same sentence, differing only in presence of a single “not”. Additionally, the dialog did not visually change much upon completion of the check. Consequently, it was not easy to interpret the result of the media check, or even see if it was finished.
The dialog now uses a large icon to signal whether the media is good or not, and while the check is running, this icon is absent. As a result, it is now possible to easily tell the state of the media check. See the pull request and the screenshot.
Improved calculation of the space estimation
During automatic partitioning the disk spoke estimates the space required for the installation and if there isn’t enough free space it display a warning dialog suggesting more space should be reclaimed. This estimate included the recommended swap size even when swap wasn’t configured to be created. See the bug 2068290.
The zFCP dialog supports NPIV-enabled devices
The “Add zFCP” dialog supports NPIV-enabled zFCP devices. NPIV-enabled devices are activated just by using the device ID. The kernel module will detect the WWPNs and LUNs and bring all the devices up automatically. This means the user doesn’t have to provide the WWPN and LUN IDs. See the pull request.
The timezone map doesn’t show borders
Anaconda is not showing timezone borders in the Time & Date spoke. The map is white now. See the bug 2103657
Changes in the kickstart support
Prompt for a missing passphrase in GUI
If the kickstart file defines a partitioning that requires a passphrase, the graphical user interface shows a dialog that allows users to provide the missing passphrase. The installation automatically continues after the passphrase is provided. It works the same way in the text user interface. See the pull request.
rootpw --allow-ssh is supported
Use the --allow-ssh option of rootpw kickstart command to allow remote logins of the
root user via SSH using only the password. This is disabled by default for the security reasons,
so be aware of risks. See the pull request
and the Fedora Change
for the default behaviour.
zfcp --devnum= is supported
The zfcp kickstart command supports NPIV-enabled zFCP devices. NPIV-enabled devices are
activated just by using the device ID. The kernel module will detect the WWPNs and LUNs and
bring all the devices up automatically. This means the user doesn’t have to provide the WWPN
and LUN IDs:
zfcp --devnum=<device_number>
See the pull request for more info.
Changes in Anaconda options
inst.gpt is deprecated
Use the inst.disklabel boot option to specify a preferred disk label type. Specify gpt
to prefer creation of GPT disk labels. Specify mbr to prefer creation of MBR disk labels if
supported. The inst.gpt boot option is deprecated and will be removed in future releases.
See the pull request.
Changes in Anaconda configuration files
The gpt option is replaced
The default value of the preferred disk label type is specified by the disk_label_type
option in the Anaconda configuration files. The gpt configuration option is no longer
supported. See the pull request.
The decorated_window option is removed
The decorated_windows option is removed from Anaconda’s configuration files.
It was never requested and we have no evidence that it was used.
See the pull request.
The enable_ignore_broken_packages option is removed
The enable_ignore_broken_packages option in Anaconda’s configuration files is removed.
The pykickstart decides whether the %packages --ignorebroken feature is supported or not.
See the pull request.
The blivet_gui_supported option is removed
The support for Blivet-GUI will be disabled automatically if it is not installed.
Use the hidden_spokes option of the User Interface section to disable it explicitly.
See the pull request.
The can_detect_unsupported_hardware and can_detect_support_removed options were removed
The support for detection of unsupported hardware is no longer available. See the pull request for more info.
Fedora 36
General changes
The help support is unified
The help support on RHEL and Fedora uses new mapping files with a unified format. The mappings files are located in the root of the help directory. For example for RHEL, they are expected to be at:
/usr/share/anaconda/help/rhel/anaconda-gui.json
/usr/share/anaconda/help/rhel/anaconda-tui.json
The mapping files contain data about the available help content.
The UI screens are identified by a unique screen id returned by
the get_screen_id method, for example installation-summary.
The help content is defined by a relative path to a help file and
(optionally) a name of an anchor in the help file.
For example:
{
"_comment_": [
"This is a comment",
"with multiple lines."
],
"_default_": {
"file": "default-help.xml",
"anchor": "",
},
"installation-summary": {
"file": "anaconda-help.xml",
"anchor": "",
},
"user-configuration": {
"file": "anaconda-help.xml",
"anchor": "creating-a-user-account"
}
}
The default_help_pages configuration option is removed. The helpFile attribute is removed
from the UI classes. See the pull request for more info.
Changes in the graphical interface
Users are administrators by default
In the User spoke, the “Make this user administrator” checkbox is now checked by default. This improves installation experience for users who do not know and need to rely on the default values to guide them. See the Users are admins by default change.
Keyboard configuration is disabled on Live media with Wayland
The keyboard switching in the Anaconda installer on the Live media did not behave as expected on Wayland based environments (#2016613). When users changed the keyboard layout configuration that configuration was reflected in the Live environment. However, if users pressed modifier keys (CTRL or SHIFT) the keyboard specified by the Anaconda installer was changed back for the Live environment. That is the result of how the Wayland protocol handles keyboard layout.
To avoid this unexpected behavior Anaconda will no longer control keyboard layout configuration of the Live systems on Wayland Live environment. The keyboard configuration set by Anaconda on the Live environment will be reflected only to the installed system. This means that users have to pay attention that their passwords are written by the correct layout in the installer running inside the Live environment to be able to use the password in the system after installation.
Changes in the kickstart support
The %anaconda section is removed
The support for the deprecated %anaconda section is removed. Use Anaconda configuration files instead.
ANA_INSTALL_PATH is deprecated
The ANA_INSTALL_PATH environment variable is deprecated. The support for this variable will be removed in future releases. Use the /mnt/sysroot path in your kickstart scripts instead. See the Installation mount points documentation.
Changes in Anaconda options
inst.nompath is deprecated
The inst.nompath boot option is deprecated. It has not been doing anything useful for some time already.
Changes in Anaconda configuration files
Saving Anaconda’s data to target system
Anaconda configuration file format now includes additional options to control what is saved to the target system.
The options are:
# Should we copy input kickstart to target system?
can_copy_input_kickstart = True
# Should we save kickstart equivalent to installation settings to the new system?
can_save_output_kickstart = True
# Should we save logs from the installation to the new system?
can_save_installation_logs = True
The default values above cause no change in behavior, the new options are only another way to configure the behavior.
Fedora 35
General changes
Limited support for braille devices
The Server image (boot.iso) now contains the brltty accessibility software. This means that some braille output devices can be automatically detected and used. This feature works only in text mode, started with the inst.text boot option. See the bug.
Visible warnings in initrd
Installation shows critical warnings raised in Dracut/initrd again when Anaconda is starting or when Dracut starts to timeout. This should help users to resolve installation issues by avoiding that the important message was scrolled out too fast. See the bug.
Changes in the graphical interface
New look of the NTP server dialog
The NTP server dialog has been redesigned. The new look uses more traditional approach to management of lists (such as in hexchat). See the pull request.
The set of controls to add a new server is no longer present. Instead, a “blank” new server is added by clicking an “add” button. The details can be filled in by editing the server in the list, as was already possible.
The method to remove a server is now more intuitive. Users can simply click the “remove” button and the server is instantly removed from the list. Previously, users had to uncheck the “Use” checkbox for the server in the list and confirm the dialog.
New look of the root configuration screen
The root configuration screen has been redesigned and is no longer ambiguous. All root account options are visible only if root account is enabled. The new layout also contains text to let users understand their choices. See the pull request.
Changes in the text interface
The packaging log in tmux tabs
Add a new tab to the tmux session starting the Anaconda installer. This new tab will follows
the /tmp/packaging.log log file. This change should make it easier for users to spot software
installation errors. See the pull request.
Changes in Anaconda configuration files
Replacement of product configuration files
The support for the product configuration files was removed and replaced with profiles. See the Fedora change and the documentation.
Each profile can be identified by a unique id and it can define additional options for
the automated profile detection. The profile will be chosen based on the inst.profile
boot option, or based on the ID and VARIANT_ID options of the os-release files.
The profile configuration files are located in the /etc/anaconda/profile.d/ directory.
The inst.product and inst.variant boot options are deprecated.
Options for Anaconda DBus module activation
We have introduced new configuration options that affect the detection and activation of
the Anaconda DBus modules. Use the activatable_modules option to specify Anaconda DBus
modules that can be activated. Use the forbidden_modules option to specify modules that
are not allowed to run. Use the optional_modules to specify modules that can fail to run
without aborting the installation.
The DBus modules can be specified by a DBus name or by a prefix of the name that ends with an asterisk. For example:
org.fedoraproject.Anaconda.Modules.Timezone
org.fedoraproject.Anaconda.Addons.*
The addons_enabled and kickstart_modules options are deprecated and will be removed
in the future.
See the pull request.
Release notes Web UI
This document describes major Anaconda Web UI changes in Fedora releases.
Fedora 44
Keyboard and localization
Multiple keyboard layouts on Workstation
Multiple keyboard layouts can be selected on Workstation, similar to non-GNOME variants. This is needed for many languages (for example, Russian with the Cyrillic alphabet).
Sensible keyboard defaults with language selection
When you choose a language, the installer suggests matching keyboard defaults on non-GNOME systems. On Workstation ISO, keyboard layout is not set automatically according to language selection; use GNOME’s keyboard settings to add or switch layouts if needed.
Storage
Validation warnings for automatic partitioning
When automatic partitioning is selected, the Web UI can show validation warnings when the chosen setup may need attention. These are warnings, not errors: the user can ignore them and continue if they want. For example, when choosing to share the disk with another OS, if the existing EFI partition is smaller than the recommended size of 1 GiB, a warning is shown so the user is aware before proceeding.
Other
Improvements in error reporting
The error reporting dialog now supports a flow that uses a Bugzilla API key to register and automatically upload the needed logs. Stack traces are automatically included in reports with readable source-mapped output. Users can also restrict the report to a limited group.