Upgrade to Fedora 40 from Fedora 39 using DNF

This is guide, howto upgrade Fedora 39 to Fedora 40 using DNF. This method works on desktop and server machines. You can also upgrade older Fedora installations (example Fedora 38/37/36) directly to Fedora 40.

I have tested this method on several machines, but if you have problems, please let me know. Always remember backup, before upgrade!

Check video version of guide, howto upgrade to Fedora 40:
This video shows howto upgrade NVIDIA drivers and upgrade whole system. If you are not using manually installed NVIDIA drivers, then you can skip all “NVIDIA USERS:” part on video.

1. Before Upgrade⌗

1.1 Backup Your Data⌗

Before doing anything, do full system backup or backup at least your important data: documents, pictures, videos, config files, log files, databases etc. This is very important step, because if something goes wrong and you have to do fresh install, then you can easily restore your data.

1.2 Update NVIDIA Drivers⌗

Install / update NVIDIA 340xx, 390xx, 470xx, 535xx, 550xx to latest kernel 6.8 compatible versions.

Check video version of guide, howto upgrade NVIDIA drivers:

2. Upgrade Fedora 39 to Fedora 40 using DNF⌗

2.1 Change root user⌗

su -
## OR ##
sudo -i

2.2 Update Fedora 39/38/37 Packages⌗

Just make sure that you have all latest packages installed.

dnf --refresh upgrade

2.3 Reboot Your System⌗

Just make sure that you are running latest kernel.

reboot

2.4 Install/Update dnf-plugin-system-upgrade package⌗

It’s probably installed already.

dnf install dnf-plugin-system-upgrade --best

2.5 Start Upgrading Using DNF⌗

dnf system-upgrade download --releasever=40

When this finish, check if there is any errors. You might need

--best

and

--allowerasing

options to get all packages downloaded.

2.6 Start (F39 to F40) Upgrade Process⌗

dnf system-upgrade reboot

2.8 Grub 2 Menu Boot with Latest Kernel⌗

2.9 Starting System Upgrade⌗

2.10 dnf-plugin-system-upgrade Upgrading Fedora 39 to Fedora 40⌗

[]((images/fedora-upgrade/fedora-40-upgrading.png)

3. Fedora 40 Screenshots⌗

3.1 Fedora 40 GNOME 46 Desktop⌗

4. Fedora 40 Clean Up Post Upgrade (as root user)⌗

4.1 Do Distro Sync⌗

dnf distro-sync --setopt=deltarpm=0

4.2 Check All Your Config Files⌗

Use rpmconf to find .rpmnew, .rpmsave and .rpmorig files. You can keep current version, use old version, watch the diff or merge.

dnf install rpmconf

rpmconf -a