This section provides guidance on how to select the appropriate installation media for the download.
As previously discussed, the official distribution website serves as the primary gateway for all available downloads. The central landing page provides a comprehensive breakdown of Editions, Spins, and Labs, allowing you to filter by use case before navigating to the specific variant's technical details.
To ensure a successful deployment, you must finalize your selection based on two critical system requirements:
You have to determine: Which architecture is my computer?
The system architecture is essentially determined by the processor. Fedora officially supports Intel/AMD x86_64 and ARM aarch64 architecture. Additionally installation media and Fedora support for PowerPC ppc64le and 'big iron' s390x are available - just in case.
Installing Fedora using a wrong architecture medium is not possible. Consult your manufacturer's documentation for details on your processor.
If you already use a Linux distribution on the respective computer, you can enter uname -m within a terminal to identify your architecture. If you use another operating system, use your preferred search engine to find out how to identify the architecture on the respective computer. Alternatively, you can search for your hardware (e.g., processor/cpu model, vendor product number of the computer): the processor/cpu determines the architecture.
uname -m
If you are not sure about your architecture, you should have a look on the table below: this could help you to indicate what you have.
x86_64
ARM® aarch64
Regarding ARM architecture, Fedora supports only 64-bit architecture, aarch64 or arm8, as of release 37 and newer. The older 32-bit architecture, armhfp or arm7, is dropped.
Fedora provides 4 different types of installation media that meet different requirements.
Live images ("Live ISO") are designed to boot the computer and to allow you to preview Fedora before installing it. Instead of booting directly into the installer, a live image loads the same environment you will get after installation.
The file type is '.iso'. You have to transfer the file to a boot medium, usually an USB stick, or still a CD or DVD.
Use a live image to install your favorite system, test Fedora on new hardware, troubleshoot, or share with friends.
Fedora Workstation, the Fedora Spins and some Fedora Labs are the only ones provided as live images.
Standard images ("Standard ISO") are designed to boot the computer, as well, but boot directly into the installation environment. They include all files needed for the installation and some offer further choices and configuration options.
Use a standard image to perform an offline installation without any internet connection or the available connection is slow or unstable.
Fedora Server, Fedora IoT, Fedora CoreOS, Fedora Silverblue, and Fedora Kinoite are available as standard images.
Netinstall images ("Netinstall ISO") are designed to boot the computer, as well, and boot directly into the installation environment. But they provide just the minimum system files to boot and to connect to the internet. Subsequently the system has to download all files needed for installation from the online Fedora package repositories.
Use a netinstall image if the system has a stable and fairly fast Internet connection. The installation already accesses the latest updates.
Netinstall images are currently available only for Fedora Server installations.
Disk images provide a preinstalled and preconfigured ready to run file system for a specific runtime environment like a virtual machine, e.g. cloud system, or specific hardware like single board computers (SBC), e.g. Raspberry Pi or its alternatives.
The file type is mostly either '.raw' or '.qcow2'. You have to use a runtime specific installation program, provided either by Fedora (e.g. in case of SBCs) or the runtime provider (e.g. one of the cloud systems like Amazon AWS).
Use a filesystem disk image if you want to use one of the intended runtime environments.
For Intel/AMD processors, Mac computers before Apple M1, and most desktop/laptop computers
For Apple M1/M2/M3, Raspberry Pi, and other ARM-based devices
RELEASE DATE: Tuesday, April 23, 2024Tuesday, March 26, 2024
For Intel and AMD x86_64 systems
Absolute Linux BETALive ISOiso4.3 GiB
Once you have downloaded an image, be sure to verify it for both security and integrity.
By calculating the image’s checksum on your own computer and comparing it to the original checksum, you can verify the image has not been tampered with or corrupted. Images are also gpg signed with Fedora keys to demonstrate their integrity.
Click the verify button to download the checksum file for your downloaded image.
Import Linuxrpms's GPG key(s)
curl -O https://linuxrpms.com/linuxrpms-gpg.pub
You can verify the details of the GPG key(s) here.
Verify the checksum file is valid
gpgv --keyring ./linuxrpms-gpg.pub absolutelinux-*-CHECKSUM
Verify the checksum matches
sha256sum -c absolutelinux-*-CHECKSUM
If the output states that the file is valid, then it's ready to use!
By clicking on and downloading Rocky Linux, you agree to comply with the US Export Control Policy.
