Get Started with Fedora Silverblue: Immutable OS Installation Made Easy

Get Started with Fedora Silverblue: Immutable OS Installation Made Easy

fedoralinux Linux

Abdullah Musa

December 14, 2025

Hi everyone, welcome to MusaBase! In this comprehensive guide, I’ll walk you through the installation of Fedora Silverblue, a modern, immutable, and rollback-ready Linux operating system designed for long-term stability.

If you’ve previously experimented with traditional or source-based Linux setups like Arch Linux or Gentoo Linux, Fedora Silverblue offers a very different approach by separating the base system from user applications. It also pairs exceptionally well with virtualization workflows using tools like QEMU/KVM.

In this guide, we will cover:

• Downloading the Fedora Silverblue ISO and creating a bootable USB
• Booting into the Live Fedora Silverblue environment
• Hard disk partitioning (automatic & manual)
• Installing the base Fedora Silverblue system
• Initial post-installation system configuration

By the end of this guide, you’ll have a consistent, immutable, and rollback-capable Linux system running on your machine, ideal for both development and experimentation.

---

Table of Content

• Prerequisites
• What is Fedora Silverblue?
• Step 1: Download Fedroa Silverblue & Create a Bootable USB
• Step 2: Boot into Fedora Silverblue Live Installation Environment
• Step 3: Hard-disk Partitioning
• Step 4: Install Fedora Silverblue
• Step 5: Launch Fedora Silverblue & Base System Settings
• Up-Next for Fedora Silverblue

---

Prerequisites & System Requirements for Fedora Silverblue

I’m installing Fedora Silverblue on a UEFI firmware PC, though Silverblue can also boot on older systems with BIOS/legacy support using hybrid ISO media. The installation process is very similar to a standard Fedora install. the official Fedora installer handles most steps like language, timezone, and locale selection automatically, so it’s straightforward to get started.

System Requirements

• Processor: Any x86-64 or ARM aarch64 compatible architecture.
• RAM: 8 GB+ recommended for a smooth desktop experience (more is better).
• Disk Space: 60 GB+ recommended to comfortably install the OS and apps.
• Network: Stable internet connection for downloading updates and Flatpaks.

---

What is Fedora Silverblue?

Fedora Silverblue is a modern take on Fedora Linux built around an immutable, atomic desktop operating system that keeps the core system read-only and updates it all at once, making upgrades very stable and safe. Instead of traditional package-by-package installs, Silverblue uses rpm-ostree to deliver a single OS image that you can easily roll back if something goes wrong, giving you reliability you don’t find in most other Linux distributions. For desktop applications, Silverblue depends on Flatpak, apps stay isolated from the base system, and for development tools it uses Toolbox containers, keeping your host clean while still letting you work with your other tools. This combination of immutable OS, atomic updates, rollback ability, and container-friendly workflows makes Fedora Silverblue a compelling choice if you want a stable, modern Linux desktop experience that “just works” without constant package-level maintenance.

---

Step 1: Download & Create a Bootable USB with Fedora Silverblue

You can get the Fedora Silverblue ISO from this official Fedora Project Atomic Desktop ISO site. The downloaded file will be in .ISO format. Once its downloaded you can easily create a bootable USB with NixOS iso image.

1.1: Create a Bootable USB with Fedora Silverblue

You can create a bootable USB with any of the following method:

1.1.1: Using Balena Etcher (GUI) on Windows/MAC/Linux

• Download and install Balena Etcher.
• Run Etcher.
• Select your FedoraSilverblue.iso file.
• Choose your USB stick from Etcher.
• Click Flash! and after a few minutes your USB will be booted with Fedora Silverblue ISO.

1.1.2: Using dd (CLI) if on Linux

Note: Be careful while using dd and selecting your USB drive as dd will overwrite it.

• Plug your USB stick into your PC.
• Open terminal and run the following command to identify your USB:

lsblk

• Look for your USB (e.g., /dev/sdb or /dev/nvme0n1). Note the name for your USB stick.
• Unmount the USB (if mounted) by running:

sudo umount /dev/sdX

Note: Replace X with your USB device (e.g., sdb1).

• Next, write the fedorasilverblue.iso to your USB by running the following command:

sudo dd if=/mnt/sdc1/Downloads/fedorasilverblue.iso of=/dev/sda bs=4m status=progress oflag=sync

Note: Replace the /mnt/sdc1/Downloads/fedorasilverblue.iso and /dev/sda with your actual path where your FedroaSilverblue.iso is located and also the path of your USB.

• if=: Input file path (ISO path).
• of=: Output device path (USB).
• bs=4M: Block size for faster writing.
• status=progress: Shows progress.
• oflag=sync: Ensures data is written properly.

• After dd finishes writing ISO to USB, eject your USB by running following command:

sudo eject /dev/sdX

⚠️ Warning: Using dd incorrectly can overwrite your hard disk. Double-check if= and of= before executing the dd command.

---

Step 2: Boot into Fedora Silverblue Live Installation Environment

• Reboot your PC.
• During the boot press ESC, DEL, F9, F10, F11 or F12 key, the boot menu key can vary according to your motherboard.
• Look for Fast Boot & Secura Boot options in your Firmware settings. Usually these options exists in Security or Advanced System Settings menu.
• After disabling these options, save & exit. (Your PC will restart again).
• Again during boot press F9, DEL, ESC key to boot from your USB stick.
• You should be seeing this screen if boot options were disabled correctly:

• Press ENTER on *Install Fedora 43
• The installer will load the Fedora Linux Installation environment and you will see this installer welcoming screen:

---

Step 3: Hard-disk Partitioning

Partitioning the hard drive during the Fedora Silverblue installation is straightforward. In the Fedora Silverblue installer, we get three options to create partitions on our hard disk:

• Automatic Partition
• Custom Partition
• Advanced Custom (Blivet-GUI)

The Automatic partition option will erase all data on our selected hard disk and automatically create partition layout required by Fedora Silverblue system, going with auto partition is really simple we can just select it and click Done. However, the Custom Partition option gives us more control over partition size, mount points, and filesystem types, which is useful if you know what you’re doing. For this guide, I’m going with the Advanced Custom (Blivet-GUI) option because it provides full manual control over the partitioning process and lets us customize every aspect of our Fedora Silverblue disk setup. To perform a advanced custom partitioning click on Installation Destination..

Advanced Custom Partition

• In the Installation Destination menu, select your hard disk from top and choose Advanced Custom (Blivet GUI), then click on Done on top left corner.

I have only one hard drive connected that's why on my setup only one hard disk is listed.

3.1: Creating /boot/efi Partition

• Select Free Space from the middle box then click on +.
• Fill in the fields exactly as:
  • Size: 512 MB.
  • Filesystem: EFI System Partition.
  • Mountpoint: /boot/efi.

EFI System Partition is a special small partition used on systems with UEFI firmware. It stores the bootloader files that the firmware needs to start the operating system. On UEFI systems, the firmware looks at this (/boot/efi) partition to find and launch the OS loader, without it the system won’t boot. It’s usually formatted with the FAT32 file system.

3.2: Creating Boot Partition

• Now to mount the /boot/efi partition, we need to create a separate Boot partition.
• Select Free Space then click on +.
• Fill the fields exactly as:
  • Size: 1.0 GiB.
  • Filesystem: ext4.
  • (Optional) Label: boot.
  • Mountpoint: /boot.

3.3: Creating Swap Partition

• Select Free Space then click on +.
• Fill the fields as:
  • Size: 8.0 GiB (Adjust the size as needed).
  • Filesystem: swap.
  • (Optional) Label: swap.

A swap partition works as a virtual memory for PC. When not enough RAM resuorce is available, the system uses swap space to hold temporary data that isn’t actively needed in RAM. This helps prevent crashes when memory gets tight and can also be used for features like hibernate on some systems. Swap doesn’t use a normal filesystem like ext4, it’s reserved space specifically for this memory-overflow purpose.

3.4: Creating Root Partition

• Select Free Space then click on +.
• Fill the fields as:
  • Size: 20.5 GiB (Adjust the size as needed).
  • Filesystem: ext4.
  • (Optional) Label: root.
  • Mountpoint: /.

An ext4 partition is a filesystem. Usually this is the default Linux file systems, used for storing OS files, programs, and user data.

You can also create other partitions here as well. Just remember to mount each partition to their respective mountpoint (e.g., /var, /home, /data, etc). After done creating the partitions your final disk partitioning may look like this:

• If partition layout is according to your settings, then click on Done at the top left corner.
• After clicking on Done, the installer will prompt you for confirming writing changes to the disk.
• Click on Accept Changes and you will be back on the installer's main menu screen.

---

Step 4: Install the Base Fedora Silverblue System

• After completing the disk partitioning, the button for Begin Installation will be active at the bottom right corner.
• Clik on Begin Insallation.

• The installation can take upto (5-10 minutes).

• After the Fedora Silverblue OS installation is complete, the reboot system button will be active the bottom right corner.

• Click on Reboot System, your PC will restart and you will be ready to be jumped into freshly installed Fedora Silverblue system.

---

Step 5: Launch Fedora Silverblue & Base System Settings

If everything goes right, then after restart you should see the following GRUB menu screen:

• Press ENTER on *Fedora Linux 43.1.6 (Silverblue) (ostree:0).
• GRUB will load the Fedora Silveblue OS launch files and after a few seconds you will be greeted by Fedora welcoming screen, prompting you to setting up your base system.

5.1: Base System Settings

Now, we can set the language, keyboard layout, timezone, user and password.

5.1.1: Choose System Language

• By default Fedora has English language set, I'm going with the default one.
• You can always choose your preferred language here. After choosing language click on Next

5.1.2: Choose Typing Language

• I'm going with the default typing language (English (US)), you can change it if you want by searching it in the search box.
• After selecting your typing language, click Next.

The default system language and encoding on Fedora Silverblue is usually English (US), shown as en_US.UTF-8, which means the system uses US English language and UTF-8 character encoding for text and messages. This locale setting is separate from the actual keyboard layout, which controls how your physical keys map to characters when you type. You can change both locale and keyboard layout during installation or later in system settings so your system behaves the way you expect when typing and displaying text.

5.1.3: Set Timezone

• To set timezone, fill in the fields with your city/state, and Country.
• For me this is: Karachi, Pakistan.
• After setting your timezone click Next.

5.1.4: Create User

• On the next prompt, set the Fullname nad Username for your system. (e.g., musabase)
• After setting the full name and username, you will be prompted for password for your system.
• Enter a strong password and click on Next

5.1.5: All Done!

• After setting up the base system, if no error occur the system will prompt you with a success message All Done!.
• Click on Start Using Fedora Linux and you will be inside your Fedora Silverblue system.

And you are in!

---

What’s Next with Fedora Silverblue

In upcoming articles, I’ll break down what Fedora Silverblue really is and why it takes a fundamentally different approach compared to traditional Linux distributions. You’ll learn how Silverblue’s immutable, image-based design works, how rpm-ostree manages system updates, and why atomic upgrades and rollbacks make the operating system safer, more predictable, and easier to recover.

We’ll also explore how Fedora Silverblue uses Flatpak for desktop applications and Toolbox containers for development environments, allowing you to keep the base system clean while still supporting advanced workflows. This setup makes Silverblue especially powerful for developers, testers, and virtualization-heavy use cases.

If virtualization is part of your workflow, you may find it helpful to explore advanced setups such as single-GPU passthrough on QEMU/KVM virtual machines , or running lightweight desktop operating systems inside virtual environments using ChromeOS Flex on QEMU .

I’ll also be covering highly customized Linux desktop environments and real-world personalization workflows. This includes hands-on guides such as installing and configuring the End-4 Hyprland dotfiles on Arch Linux , along with deeper dives into advanced window managers and tiling-based setups.

If you encounter any issues while installing Fedora Silverblue, or if something doesn’t work as expected, feel free to leave a comment. I’m always happy to help troubleshoot real-world Linux problems.

This is it for this guide. 101 out — I’ll see you in the next one.

Abdullah Musa December 14, 2025