Here’s how you can install COSMIC desktop (alpha) in Fedora Workstation edition.
System76’s highly anticipated COSMIC desktop environment is now available for installation on Fedora Linux. This gives Linux fans another option of desktop environment which is modern, efficient and customizable to the core.
The new COSMIC desktop is a departure from its predecessor, which was based on GNOME Shell. This ground-up redesign aims to provide users with a more streamlined and responsive interface. Fedora users can now experience this cutting-edge desktop environment first-hand, thanks to ready-made packages available for easy installation.
To learn about its features, you can have a look at my earlier article: COSMIC Desktop Alpha (review)
If you are already running Fedora Workstation with GNOME or any other desktop flavour, you can easily install COSMIC with just a few commands.
Remember: COSMIC desktop is currently at the ALPHA stage. It is not recommended to use it for production installations. However, you can go ahead and try it on your personal device or virtual machines.
Open a terminal in Fedora Linux and run the below command to enable the copr repo and then install it.
dnf copr enable ryanabx/cosmic-epoch
dnf install cosmic-desktop
The installation is about downloading ~400 MB of packages. It will take a few minutes.
After installation, restart your system.
And you should see the COSMIC option on the login screen. Select COSMIC and use your Fedora credentials to login.
That’s it.
If you are using Fedora Atomic desktops (Silverblue, Kinoite, etc), use the following commands to install:
wget https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/ryanabx/cosmic-epoch/repo/fedora-$(rpm -E %fedora)/ryanabx-cosmic-epoch-fedora-$(rpm -E %fedora).repo -O /etc/yum.repos.d/_copr_ryanabx-cosmic.repo rpm-ostree install cosmic-desktopTroubleshooting
There are a few known issues with running COSMIC Alpha in Fedora in virtual machines. If you are seeing a grey screen after login, then try to enable 3D acceleration (See below). And ensure your graphics memory at max.
There are some issues with GNOME Boxes, try to avoid that. Use VirtualBox or virt-manager.
If you discover any other issues, require help running COSMIC in Fedora, create a post here:
- https://pagure.io/fedora-cosmic/cosmic-packaging/issues
- https://github.com/pop-os/cosmic-epoch/issues
Wrapping Up
While COSMIC is still in its early stages on Fedora, It’s easy to install option and feedback may open up a future Fedora Spin with native COSMIC.
Enjoy COSMIC!