Fedora Atomic Desktops in Fedora Linux 44: Your Top Questions Answered

Fedora Linux 44 has landed, bringing a wave of updates for the Atomic Desktop line—which includes Silverblue, Kinoite, Sway Atomic, Budgie Atomic, and the newcomer COSMIC Atomic. Whether you're a daily driver or just exploring immutable desktops, this release packs several behind-the-scenes improvements and a few breaking changes you should know about. Below, we've answered the most common questions about what's new and what you need to do.

Where can I report issues that affect multiple Atomic Desktop variants?

The cross-variant issue tracker has moved to the new Fedora forge. This is now the central spot to file bugs or coordinate work that touches all Atomic Desktop flavors. For issues specific to a single desktop environment (like Silverblue or Kinoite), you should still use each respective SIG's tracker, which you can find in the atomic-desktops organization’s README. This change makes it easier for the community to track broad-impact problems and ensures nothing falls through the cracks.

Is there a unified documentation site for all Atomic Desktops now?

Yes! The long-awaited unified documentation is finally live on the new Fedora forge. All Atomic Desktop variants share one set of docs, which simplifies maintenance and updates. However, the old translations were not migrated, so the community will need to re-translate the content once the translation infrastructure is ready. The good news? It's mostly copy-and-paste from the previous docs, and you'll only need to translate once instead of separately for each variant. You can track this effort via the tracking issue atomic-desktops#10.

Why was FUSE version 2 removed from the images?

FUSE version 2 (Filesystem in Userspace) had been deprecated and unmaintained for a long time. To align with upstream decisions and improve security, Fedora 44 removed it from all Atomic Desktop images. This affects users in two main ways. First, some older AppImages that rely on the legacy FUSE 2 runtime may stop working. Second, on Kinoite, certain Plasma Vault backends (EncFS and CryFS) depend on FUSE 2 and won't function anymore. If you were using those vaults, you'll need to migrate your data to the gocryptfs backend, which is the only maintained alternative. See the Fedora Change and tracking issue atomic-desktops#50 for full details.

What should I do if my AppImages don’t work after the update?

Some AppImages still bundle an old runtime that requires FUSE 2 libraries on the host. After upgrading to Fedora 44, these AppImages will fail to run. We recommend checking the AppImage's runtime version—there's a discussion thread with examples on how to do that. For a solution, first look for a Flatpak version of the same application; Flatpaks are better integrated with Atomic Desktops and don't rely on host FUSE libraries. If a Flatpak isn't available, please report the issue upstream so the developers know to switch to a newer AppImage runtime. If you can, consider contributing your time to help them migrate.

How do I migrate my Plasma Vault data before or after updating to Fedora 44?

KDE no longer recommends the EncFS or CryFS backends for Plasma Vaults because they depend on FUSE 2. Before updating, create a new vault using the gocryptfs backend and copy your data over. If you've already updated and can't access your vault, you can temporarily layer the needed packages (like cryfs or fuse-encfs) using rpm-ostree install <package>, migrate your data, then reset the layers with rpm-ostree reset. After migration, you can safely remove the layered packages. The gocryptfs backend is fully supported and will continue to work in future releases.

What is the change regarding pkla Polkit rules?

Fedora 44 drops compatibility for the legacy pkla format of Polkit rules. This format has been deprecated for some time, and removing it streamlines policy management. Most users won't notice this change because modern Polkit rules use the newer JavaScript-based format. If you have custom pkla rules, you'll need to convert them to the current standard. Check your /etc/polkit-1/rules.d/ and /usr/share/polkit-1/rules.d/ directories. The atomic-desktops team has provided guidance in the tracking issue to help with the transition. As always, test any custom rules before upgrading.