Starting with Fedora 18, it is no longer possible to upgrade a Fedora system using PreUpgrade or the installation DVD. FedUp is the recommended upgrade solution going forward from Fedora 18
Upgrading with FedUp
This is the recommended method to upgrade your Fedora system for Fedora 18 and newer.
Using the DVD to upgrade
This is the recommended method to upgrade your Fedora system for Fedora 17 and older. Note that the DVD cannot be used to upgrade to Fedora 18 or later
For upgrading to all releases up to Fedora 17, the process of using Anaconda installer to upgrade is the recommended and supported method and detailed in the Fedora Installation Guide. The Release Notes also have some useful information.
PreUpgrade
PreUpgrade is an application you can use to upgrade Fedora while continuing to use it. PreUpgrade downloads the packages required for the upgrade. Once everything is downloaded and set up, you will be notified that you can reboot at any time to start the Fedora upgrade. This method of upgrading is explicitly tested and supported by Fedora. To read more, refer to PreUpgrade.
To say that preupgrade is supported is potentially misleading. What the word "supported" means is not defined. If it is supported by who and in what medium?
Upgrading directly using Yum
Upgrading directly from one release to the next using yum is not explicitly tested by Fedora QA and issues with it are not considered blockers for a release, but in practise it works for many users, probably due to our packaging guidelines providing detailed information on maintaining upgradability. To learn more, refer to Upgrading Fedora using yum.
Upgrading from a pre-release (alpha, beta, release candidate or other development snapshot) to the final release
If you are using a pre-release of Fedora, and want to know more about upgrading to the final release, refer to Upgrading from pre-release to final.
Tips
- It's a good idea to have a backup of your system before performing an upgrade. Keeping
/homein a separate logical volume or partition makes backing up user data easier. This is a feature requested for the Fedora Installer. Refer to Bug 150670 for more on this issue. This is the default from Fedora 13 onwards.
- Doing a clean installation and then restoring user data from backups may work better for some users. Future releases may include features to assist in this process. Refer to AnacondaWorkItems for more information.
- You can do an upgrade using the regular installation DVDs. Live media only performs fresh installations, not upgrades. The installation overrides any third party packages which conflict with the default installation set. Applications within the Fedora repository are easily upgradeable. Refer to the Installation Guide for more information.
- Make sure you read the Release Notes carefully before attempting an upgrade.
Rawhide
Rawhide is a development version of Fedora that is updated daily. It is suitable for people who are developing or testing Fedora before broad public release.
- To move from Rawhide to a stable release, refer to Upgrading from pre-release to final.
- To move from a stable release to Rawhide, refer to Releases/Rawhide.