Fedora Xfce4 Install Guide

The standard Fedora installation process for Xfce desktop includes additional packages that may not be necessary for many users. This guide will allow you to install a minimal Xfce desktop, adding additional packages as needed.

Requirements

• A Fedora netinstall LIVE USB.

• sudo privileges to install packages and run optional install script.

ISO for installing Fedora

• Download Fedora Everything net installer

Installing Fedora with Xfce4

In the Software Selection menu, select Xfce Desktop as the base environment & add the following additional softwares for the selected environment,

• Applications for the Xfce Desktop
• Multimedia support for Xfce

Note: You can skip these too maybe, installs a lot of crap.

Switching from LightDM to SDDM

LightDM was randomly causing Black Screen during some of my system startups. If it happens with you too, switch to SDDM.

Remove LightDM:

sudo dnf remove lightdm

Install SDDM:

sudo dnf install sddm

After this, if SDDM doesn't automatically start on restart, use the following command. (Note: I don't remember if I've used this command. So it might be wrong.)

sudo systemctl start sddm

Installing proprietary NVIDIA graphics card driver

Prerequisites:

• This guide requires the secure boot to be turned off to load up the unsigned NVIDIA kernel modules.

Step #1: Update from the existing repositories

sudo dnf update

Step #2: Add the RPM Fusion nonfree repositories

Install nonfree repositories & enable fedora-cisco-openh264 repository:

sudo dnf install https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm
sudo dnf config-manager --enable fedora-cisco-openh264

Step #3: Refresh to add the new repositories

sudo dnf update --refresh

Step #4: Install the driver & its dependencies

Update the system:

sudo dnf update -y

Note: Reboot if not on the latest kernel.

Install the following packages:

sudo dnf install gcc
sudo dnf install automake
sudo dnf install akmod-nvidia
sudo dnf install xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda
sudo dnf install xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs.i686

Step #5: Wait for the kernel modules to load up

You must wait 5-10 minutes for the kernel modules to load. Please do not proceed to the next steps immediately. (Note: I'm not sure if it is necessary to wait. I've never tried not waiting. Just saw it in the doc, so putting it here.)

Once the module is built,

modinfo -F version nvidia

should outputs the version of the driver such as 440.64 & not modinfo: ERROR: Module nvidia not found.

Step #6: Using KMS, add NVIDIA modeset argument to kernel boot parameters

sudo grubby --update-kernel=ALL --args='nvidia-drm.modeset=1'

Note: DO NOT restart after this step. Gives me black screen.

Step #7: Install the following packages

Install Vulkan:

sudo dnf install vulkan

Install NVENC/NVDEC:

sudo dnf install xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda-libs

Note: xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda already covers this installation.

Install VDPAU/VAAPI:

sudo dnf install nvidia-vaapi-driver libva-utils vdpauinfo

Step #8: Edit the X11 configuration

Install xrandr:

sudo dnf install xrandr

Edit the nvidia.conf from /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/ to add

Option "PrimaryGPU" "yes"

in the OutputClass section of it.

For example, use MousePad with root privileges to edit the nvidia.conf file. Use the following command to launch MousePad as root.

sudo MousePad

Then open nvidia.conf file in MousePad from /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/ & make the required changes.

The file should look similar to this.

#This file is provided by xorg-x11-drv-nvidia
#Do not edit

Section "OutputClass"
    Identifier "nvidia"
    MatchDriver "nvidia-drm"
    Driver "nvidia"
    Option "AllowEmptyInitialConfiguration"
    Option "SLI" "Auto"
    Option "BaseMosaic" "on"
    Option "PrimaryGPU" "yes"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier "layout"
    Option "AllowNVIDIAGPUScreens"
EndSection

You can see the additions in both sections.

Execute the following command to copy the display render details for the X11:

sudo cp -p /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/nvidia.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/nvidia.conf

Edit the Xsetup file from /etc/sddm/ to add:

xrandr --setprovideroutputsource modesetting NVIDIA-0
xrandr --auto

Restart SDDM:

systemctl restart sddm

Step #11: Reboot your system

Reboot your system and proceed to the next steps to verify the change in configuration.

sudo reboot

Step #12: Verify the configuration

Execute:

glxinfo | egrep "OpenGL vendor|OpenGL renderer"

It should show your NVIDIA GPU.

Execute:

neofetch

It should show your NVIDIA GPU under the GPU name.

Execute:

glxgears

It should display 3D OpenGL graphics by running glxgears program.

Switching between Nouveau/NVIDIA

To boot using the Nouveau driver instead of the NVIDIA binary driver, edit the kernel entry from grub bootloader & remove the following linux boot command arguments,

rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau modprobe.blacklist=nouveau nvidia-drm.modeset=1

then boot with the updated boot command.

Reference docs:

• NVIDIA
• Multimedia
• Optimus
• How to Set Nvidia as Primary GPU on Optimus-based Laptops
• Configuration
• Display Managers
• Resolution, screen scan wrong. EDID errors in Xorg.log
• Third-Party Repositories
• Fuse