How to rebase to Fedora Linux 36 on Silverblue

Fedora Silverblue is an operating system for your desktop built on Fedora Linux. It’s excellent for daily use, development, and container-based workflows. It offers numerous advantages such as being able to roll back in case of any problems. If you want to update or rebase to Fedora Linux 36 on your Fedora Silverblue system (these instructions are similar for Fedora Kinoite), this article tells you how. It not only shows you what to do, but also how to revert things if something unforeseen happens.

Prior to actually doing the rebase to Fedora Linux 36, you should apply any pending updates. Enter the following in the terminal:

$ rpm-ostree update

or install updates through GNOME Software and reboot.

Rebasing using GNOME Software

GNOME Software shows you that there is new version of Fedora Linux available on the Updates screen.

Fedora 36 update available

First thing you need to do is download the new image, so click on the Download button. This will take some time. When it’s done you will see that the update is ready to install.

Fedora 36 update ready to install

Click on the Restart & Upgrade button. This step will take only a few moments and the computer will be restarted at the end. After restart you will end up in new and shiny release of Fedora Linux 36. Easy, isn’t it?

Rebasing using terminal

If you prefer to do everything in a terminal, then this part of the guide is for you.

Rebasing to Fedora Linux 36 using the terminal is easy. First, check if the 36 branch is available:

$ ostree remote refs fedora

You should see the following in the output:

fedora:fedora/36/x86_64/silverblue

If you want to pin the current deployment (this deployment will stay as option in GRUB until you remove it), you can do it by running:

$ sudo ostree admin pin 0

To remove the pinned deployment use the following command:

$ sudo ostree admin pin --unpin 2

where 2 is the position in the $rpm-ostree status

Next, rebase your system to the Fedora Linux 36 branch.

$ rpm-ostree rebase fedora:fedora/36/x86_64/silverblue

Finally, the last thing to do is restart your computer and boot to Fedora Linux 36.

How to roll back

If anything bad happens—for instance, if you can’t boot to Fedora Linux 36 at all—it’s easy to go back. Pick the previous entry in the GRUB menu at boot (if you don’t see it, try to press ESC during boot), and your system will start in its previous state before switching to Fedora Linux 36. To make this change permanent, use the following command:

$ rpm-ostree rollback

That’s it. Now you know how to rebase Fedora Silverblue to Fedora Linux 36 and roll back. So why not do it today?

New in Fedora Using Software

20 Comments

  1. Anon Ymous

    SilverBlue IS the best for a number of security and stability reasons. I do not even feel at home with fedora workstation any more!!! .SilverBlue seems right and feels at home. They said long ago that Silverblue and workstation will eventually merge because SilverBlue is the future. I made the future now by switching to SilverBlue. For any new people who wonder if you would like SilverBlue…trust me, run it for a while and you will find a new os home!!!! Learn how to do an ostree update and rollback- and realize that having to reboot your system for changes is a GOOD thing. You either get security or convenience- it is the trade off. It takes a while to get used to it… but you will never look back. If you never tried SB yet, do it!!!

    • Taylor

      I will use it until it becomes a Workstation.
      I have tested it, but it is still lacking. Don’t get carried away.
      Workstation and Silverblue are still separate for a reason, but it’s good to see the great future of Linux.

      Workstation is phenomenal.

  2. Bill Chatfield

    My experience is that containerized applications fail to function because they’re restricted from accessing the parts of the system that they need. For example, Intellij can’t access /usr/lib/jvm where the Java virtual machines are. It is possible to take a good idea like containerization too far, like containerizing the whole operating system. I want the parts of my operating system to be able to work together, not be restricted from working together. Can you imagine if bash was not allowed to access grep, cut, sed, or less? It is also increasing complexity without a sufficient benefit.

    • I use IntelliJ in Silverblue — the IDE downloads its own JDK.

      However I agree that one of the missing pieces in Silverblue is some kind of bridge between Flatpak applications and Toolbox containers so apps like IDEs can access containerized compilers and interpreters.

      I’m trying to work this out with Distrobox instead of Toolbox. I think it’s doable.

      • Jonatas Esteves

        I do this currently by installing all compilers/VMs in the home directory with asdf (https://asdf-vm.com/). Then, I add overrides to the Flatpak app to have access to the ~/.asdf directory. It can be done in a single step with the following command:

        flatpak --user override --filesystem=~/.asdf --filesystem=~/.tool-versions --env="PATH=$HOME/.asdf/shims:$HOME/.asdf/bin:$(flatpak run --command=bash {APP_ID} -c 'echo $PATH')" {APP_ID}

        Where {APP_ID} should be substituted by the app ID of the Flatpak for your IDE (note that it appears twice in the command).

        I know this is not the final answer to the problem, but it’s been a very good interim solution for me. I use this mainly with VSCodium, which also needs an extra override environment variable “FLATPAK_ISOLATE_PACKAGES=0” for this to work.

  3. Chris McCallum

    Good system. Good for dumb people like me, however, needs more automation in the gui, less term… linux for the elderly and the mentally challenged.

    Point the clicky thing here to make sure you don’t break anything.

    Well writen, thanks.

  4. Chris

    Still wondering the target user base for silverblue is.

    • I always saw Silverblue as the OS for people who just want to have working computer without digging too much deeper in it. The atomic updates and rollbacks allows you to stay with system that doesn’t break that easy as others. I’m using it on my gaming machine, where I don’t use almost none terminal and I use it for my HTPC, where it just works with Kodi flatpak on top of it. And as Valve shown off with SteamOS 3, the ostree based OS is a good base for any device like Steam Deck (you don’t need to worry that you will end up in inconsistent state).

      I agree with others here that flatpaks needs to have better integration and possibly have similar model of permissions as Android apps in future (main issue here is that the apps aren’t really prepared for any kind of sandboxing 🙁 ), but being able to restrict the app from poking in my home directory or not being able to connect to network by one click in FlatSeal is a great option to have.

      • Anon Ymous

        The UN-believers and neigh-sayers would like to complain because fedora silverblue is not exactly like the arch distro that they used 17 years ago. Regardless of how many negative comments are put forward about how silverblue is not this or is not that, silverblue definately has advantages that regular run of the mill distros do not. Silverblue is smart and simple in lots of ways, and I hope it one day dominates all distros and windows 🙂

      • Joe

        Thanks for the tip about FlatSeal, very cool.

        I agree it will take some time to evolve all of this containerization and find the right balance of simplicity and functionality, but I am absolutely loving the overall direction.

        It’s a far cry from years ago of spending multiple days upgrading and breaking core libraries while trying to install some new program. That was all great fun and educational… when you had the time and didn’t need your computer for anything else!

    • Hanku Lee

      For me it was purely coincidental. None of headlines such as immutable or container-optimized OS grab my attention.

      It is natural progression for ChromeOS users (+me) who experienced stable and low-to-zero maintenance system for over 10 years. The different package installation process (Package layering, Toolbx) was hard to grasp for casual users like me, initially. Now, it is sort of sandbox experience for small scale use cases such as logging & home lab monitoring workflow. I’m still testing.

      For those who learn container technology and microservices, it is a definite choice.
      Getting used to container workflow using Silverblue works quite well.

      The following articles published previously helped me greatly.
      https://fedoramagazine.org/pieces-of-fedora-silverblue/
      https://fedoramagazine.org/fedora-silverblue-brings-future-tech-to-the-desktop/

  5. james

    I hope that someday we will be able to update without having to reboot, which is a downside, and means bringing down my webserver for some period of time.
    I use silverblue with an admin account and a standard user account, in which I dev. I installed 36 from scratch, and in the user account I am getting prompted to enter my admin password to update software, 6 or 7 times in succession, more than once, so it happens after I login, and then a few hours later.
    I have tried adjusting /etc/rpm-ostreed.conf to ‘stage’, which hasn’t worked, but really just want to bring the amount of prompts to 1.
    Is anyone else experiencing this or is it just me?

  6. I wanted to try Silverblue because it is something new that might make for a better experience.

    Despite the need to reboot, I find the updates for Silverblue to be a lot more “sane” than in a regular distro. The Flatpaks are separate, and they update on their own schedule — and without a reboot.

    The 35-to-36 upgrade was much faster than a normal Fedora upgrade, and that is a huge benefit.

  7. Dan

    I needed to workaround rpmfusion to upgrade to Fedora 36:

    sudo rpm-ostree rebase fedora:fedora/36/x86_64/kinoite  \
       --uninstall rpmfusion-free-release-35-1.noarch \
       --uninstall rpmfusion-nonfree-release-35-1.noarch \
       --install rpmfusion-free-release \
       --install rpmfusion-nonfree-release
  8. Paul Dufresne

    I first pinned my 36 installation, then
    based on Dan message, I switched from 36 to rawhide with:
    rpm-ostree rebase fedora:fedora/rawhide/x86_64/silverblue –uninstall rpmfusion-free-release-36-1.noarch –uninstall rpmfusion-nonfree-release-36-1.noarch –install rpmfusion-free-release-rawhide –install rpmfusion-nonfree-release-rawhide

    Now, if I have 2 or 3 pinned versions, how do I switch among them?

    • The best option is to choose the pinned version in GRUB menu and then you can switch to it permanently by using

      rpm-ostree rollback.
  9. Paul Dufresne

    The best way to fastly switch among versions shown by rpm-ostree status seems to be to reboot while holding shift key. It then shows a menu allowing to choose which versions to use. I have tried rpm-ostree deploy

    version shown in rpm-ostree status

    but that is so slow that after 5 or 10 mins I “rpm-ostree cancel” it.

  10. Lucas Carlota

    Silverblue is very interesting, solid and secure distro, I love it!

  11. Charles

    When Silverblue comes to mobile devices (phones, tablets), and when software becomes touch friendly, then will Linux-mobile be good enough to ditch Android. It may have to wait until GNOME 43+, or KDE-mobile solves its execution-speed problems, before it has the same polished feel. Then again, Android is pretty sluggish on similar low-end hardware that’s currently available for linux-mobile. Maybe we’ll just need to wait for China to ban foreign phones+software like they recently did with lap/desktop PCs.

  12. ivanhoe

    For terminal centrics it is quite horrorful. Typing this after my first SB installation, after half an hour waiting for software-center to finish downloading the first update after ISO installation… and the wait continues… and continues…

    Nah, not for me.

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