Fedora 45 release date: October 20 target, what's new and how to upgrade

Fedora 45 is scheduled for release on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, the current target in the Fedora Project's official schedule. If release-blocking bugs remain, two fallback dates are already set: October 27 and November 3, 2026. Whether the first date holds is decided at the final Go/No-Go meeting on Thursday, October 15, 2026.

The beta arrived on September 15, 2026 with GNOME 51, KDE Plasma 6.7 and Linux 7.2. Notable changes include kmscon as the text console, mandatory RPM signature checks and tighter ptrace limits; upgrade steps are below.

Fedora 45 release schedule

These milestones come from the Fedora 45 schedule published by the Fedora Project:

• September 15, 2026: Beta release
• October 6, 2026, 14:00 UTC: Final freeze begins
• October 15, 2026: Final release Go/No-Go meeting
• October 20, 2026: current (early) target for general availability
• October 27, 2026: target date #2
• November 3, 2026: target date #3
• November 24, 2027: scheduled end of life for Fedora 45

A "No-Go" decision pushes the release to the next target, one week later. Fedora does not publish a release hour, but recent announcements on Fedora Magazine have gone up around 14:00 UTC (10 a.m. ET, 7 a.m. PT): Fedora 44 at 13:59 UTC on April 28 and the Fedora 45 beta at 14:05 UTC on September 15. Treat that as a pattern, not a commitment.

What's new in Fedora 45

Desktops and kernel

Fedora Workstation 45 ships GNOME 51. The KDE Plasma Desktop edition's beta carries Plasma 6.7, the same series Fedora 44 users already receive through updates. The beta was built on the Linux 7.2 kernel, according to 9to5Linux. Installed systems move to newer kernels through regular updates.

System changes

The approved changes are tracked on the Fedora 45 ChangeSet. The ones most users will notice:

• kmscon as the text console. Virtual terminals now run the userspace console kmscon instead of the kernel's fbcon.
• Enforced RPM signature checking. Following the RPM 6 upstream default, RPM refuses packages whose signature it cannot verify. Installing an unsigned package requires an explicit --nosignature override.
• Restricted ptrace. Unprivileged users lose some debugging permissions by default. Installing debugging tools switches full functionality back on system-wide.
• New secrets service. According to the beta announcement, desktop secret storage now uses oo7 in place of older backends such as GNOME Keyring and KWallet.
• Installer updates. Anaconda can install onto Stratis storage, and Atomic Desktop ISOs switch to the WebUI installer. Atomic installs can also be finished remotely: the target machine boots the installer, and the setup is completed in a browser on another computer over HTTPS, protected by a PIN.
• Networking. NetworkManager turns on IPv6-mostly support by default.

Toolchain and developer packages

The GNU toolchain moves to GCC 16.2, binutils 2.47, glibc 2.44 and GDB 17.2. Go 1.27, Python 3.15 and RPM 6.1 also land. Podman 6 is a major release with breaking changes to its API and command line; it drops slirp4netns, cgroups v1 support and the BoltDB database backend. MySQL 9.7 and MariaDB 12.3 become the default database versions, and Pandas 3 and Ruby on Rails 8.1 are packaged. Language and tooling releases are covered in our Developers section.

Editions, spins and Atomic desktops

The beta was offered as Fedora Workstation, KDE Plasma Desktop, Server, Cloud and IoT, plus Fedora Atomic Desktops, Spins and Labs. The exceptions were the MiracleWM ISOs and the Budgie Atomic and Sway Atomic ISOs, which were not released for the beta. Fedora CoreOS adds systemd-oomd and zram swap support in its Fedora 45 builds.

How to upgrade to Fedora 45

Wait for the final release announcement; upgrading earlier installs pre-release packages. Back up your data first and apply all pending updates on your current release.

Graphical upgrade

On Fedora Workstation, the upgrade is offered in GNOME Software once the new release is out, as Fedora noted for Workstation 44.

Terminal upgrade with DNF

The DNF5 system-upgrade documentation describes three steps:

1. Update the current system: sudo dnf upgrade --refresh
2. Download the Fedora 45 packages: sudo dnf system-upgrade download --releasever=45
3. Reboot into the offline upgrade: sudo dnf system-upgrade reboot

The machine restarts, applies the packages and boots into Fedora 45. If the download step reports dependency conflicts, for example from third-party repositories without Fedora 45 builds, adding --allowerasing lets DNF remove the conflicting packages. To check the log of the last attempt, run sudo dnf system-upgrade log --number=-1.

Atomic desktops

Silverblue, Kinoite and the other Atomic desktops upgrade with rpm-ostree. Following Fedora Magazine's Fedora 44 rebase guide, run rpm-ostree update, then rpm-ostree rebase fedora:fedora/45/x86_64/silverblue (replace silverblue with kinoite on Kinoite) and reboot. If the new version misbehaves, pick the previous deployment in the boot menu; rpm-ostree rollback makes it the default again. The guide recommends moving one release at a time rather than skipping versions, and it lists extra steps for systems with RPM Fusion packages layered.

How long Fedora 45 will be supported

Fedora 45's end of life is scheduled for November 24, 2027, about 13 months after the first target date. Fedora's schedule marks that date as changeable and tied to the early target. Fedora 43, released October 28, 2025, is scheduled to reach end of life on December 9, 2026, according to endoflife.date, so Fedora 43 users should plan their upgrade before then. Fedora 44, released April 28, 2026, is listed as supported until June 2, 2027. For more distribution and project releases, see our Open Source and Launches coverage.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Fedora 45 release date?

The current target is Tuesday, October 20, 2026. If the October 15 Go/No-Go meeting decides the release is not ready, the next targets are October 27 and November 3, 2026.

Will unsigned RPM packages still install on Fedora 45?

Not by default. RPM now requires a verified signature, and installing an unsigned package needs an explicit --nosignature override.

How long is Fedora 45 supported?

Until November 24, 2027 on the current schedule, which gives roughly 13 months of updates if the October 20 date holds.