Fedora Unified Config

Unified configuration for bare/minimal Fedora 44 and newer. Pick a desktop environment and optionally a tiling window manager; the script wires up repos, packages, the greeter and the session entry.

This repo is the Fedora-only successor to starburst. Everything multi-distro (Arch, Debian, Ubuntu branches, OS guessing, per-distro package helpers) is gone on purpose.

Usage

git clone https://git.ku-it.org/yuri/fedora.git
cd fedora
./setup.sh                      # interactive: choose DE, then TWM
./setup.sh --debug              # same, but pause after each section

Non-interactive:

./setup.sh --yes --de=none --twm=niri
./setup.sh --yes --de=gnome --twm=none

Run as your normal user, not root. sudo is used where needed.

Layout

setup.sh                  entrypoint: args, preconditions, base setup, menus, dispatch
lib/common.sh             colours, logging, dnf helpers, rpmfusion/terra, nerd fonts
lib/session.sh            display-manager detection/switching, session entries
modules/de/{gnome,plasma,xfce}.sh
modules/twm/{niri,hyprland,mango,chadwm}.sh

Modules are separate processes, not sourced into setup.sh. That means a module's own set -e cannot leak into the caller, and every module can be run on its own for testing:

DE=none TWM=niri DEBUG_MODE=false bash modules/twm/niri.sh

Each module pulls in lib/ by relative path, so it works both ways.

Selection matrix

DE	TWM	Result
any	any	DE provides the session; TWM is added alongside it
none	any	TWM-only machine, SDDM installed as the greeter
any	none	plain desktop, no tiling WM
none	none	refused — that is not a graphical system

Desktop environments

DE	dnf group (tried in order)	native greeter
gnome	gnome-desktop, gnome-desktop-environment, workstation-product-environment	gdm
plasma	kde-desktop, kde-desktop-environment	sddm
xfce	xfce-desktop, xfce-desktop-environment	sddm

Tiling window managers

TWM	Source	Session type	Notes
niri	Fedora repos	Wayland	noctalia is packaged since F44; ships its own session entry
hyprland	COPR (lionheartp, then hermitfeather, then solopasha)	Wayland	Retired from Fedora repos after F42; first COPR with a chroot for your release wins
mango	Terra repo only	Wayland	Session entry written if the package lacks one
chadwm	built from source	X11	dwm fork; not packaged anywhere for Fedora

chadwm is the only X11 entry in the menu. The other three are Wayland compositors — do not expect the same config story from it.

Display manager policy

• A DE module leaves the DE's own greeter alone (GNOME→gdm, Plasma→sddm, XFCE→sddm). It never fights a desktop over its own login screen.
• A TWM module enforces SDDM, because it is the only greeter that lists Wayland compositors and X11 sessions in one menu.
• Either way graphical.target becomes the default.

System settings

Between base setup and the DE menu, the script asks two questions:

1. Disable SELinux permanently? — default no. Writes SELINUX=disabled to /etc/selinux/config (backup kept); a reboot applies it. Recommended answer is no.
2. Snapper + grub-btrfs + zstd compression — only asked when / is btrfs, default yes. Runs, in order:
   • btrfs subvolume list / and the fstab btrfs entries are shown
   • every fstab btrfs entry with a subvol= but no compress= gets ,compress=zstd:1 appended (fstab backed up first; re-runs cannot stack duplicate options)
   • the SysGuides installer sets up snapper (root + home), grub-btrfs, and DNF5 pre/post snapshot hooks, so every dnf transaction is snapshotted and snapper undochange works.

Unattended equivalents: --selinux=keep|disabled and --snapper=yes|no.

Design rules

1. Fail loudly, early. set -e is on unless --debug. Unsupported distro, release below 44, DE=none + TWM=none, and a missing module all abort with an explanation instead of half-installing.
2. Be idempotent. Re-running must be safe. Repos are checked with rpm -q before being added, the Nerd Font is skipped if already present, and session entries are not overwritten.
3. Prefer official repos, then Terra, then a source build. That order is why only mango and chadwm need special handling.
4. No silent optional failures. install_optional warns and continues for nice-to-haves; everything load-bearing uses install_packages and aborts.
5. Guard anything environment-dependent. clear needs || true (no TERM under cron/pipes), os-release fields are defaulted, and /usr/share/xsessions is created before writing into it.

Testing

The script was verified on a non-Fedora host with a stateful stub harness (fake sudo/dnf/rpm/systemctl/git/make/curl, a fake os-release, and sandboxed /usr + $HOME). Covered: every DE×(TWM|none) combination, the refusal paths, --help/bad args, interactive menus, --debug abort, and re-running for idempotency.

OS_RELEASE_FILE is overridable purely so the preconditions can be tested:

OS_RELEASE_FILE=/tmp/fake-os-release ./setup.sh --yes --de=xfce --twm=chadwm

Known limitations

• mangowc comes from Terra (added in the base section) and hyprland from a COPR — third-party sources whose layout is not guaranteed across Fedora releases; mango aborts with build-from-source instructions if the package is missing. noctalia has been in the Fedora repos since F44, so the niri module needs no third-party repo.
• Package names are not verified by installation in this repo's test harness — only control flow is. First real run on a fresh F44 box is the actual proof.
• gnome-tweaks/gnome-extensions-app, wofi, waybar, hyprlock and friends are installed with install_optional, so a rename will warn rather than fail.

Roadmap

• Profile files (--profile=laptop) instead of individual flags
• Optional dotfiles layer (noctalia/hyprland/niri configs)
• --dry-run that prints the dnf transaction without applying it
• Pre-flight report: what is already installed, what would change

License

See LICENSE.