Fedora 44 KDE Plasma — Automated System Setup Script

A single-command post-install setup script for Fedora 44 KDE Plasma Desktop, optimised for the Intel N100 mini PC. Installs and configures development tools, Tailscale VPN, Intel hardware acceleration, media codecs, KDE extras, and Flatpak applications automatically.

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Overview

Setting up a fresh Fedora install involves dozens of manual steps — adding repositories, installing packages, configuring services, and tweaking system settings. This script automates all of it in a single run, following official documentation from Fedora, Tailscale, RPM Fusion, and Docker.

Tested and verified on a live Fedora 44 KDE install — June 2026.

Specifically tuned for:

• Fedora 44 (DNF5 exclusively)
• KDE Plasma 6.6 desktop environment
• Intel N100 (Alder Lake) integrated graphics with full VA-API hardware acceleration

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Quick Start

# Download the script
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/YOUR_USERNAME/YOUR_REPO/main/fedora-setup.sh

# Make it executable
chmod +x fedora-setup.sh

# Run as root
sudo bash fedora-setup.sh

After the script completes:

sudo tailscale up   # Connect to your Tailnet
sudo reboot         # Apply kernel tweaks and drivers

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What Gets Installed

System

• Full system update and upgrade via dnf upgrade --refresh
• RPM Fusion Free and Non-Free repositories with AppStream data for KDE Discover
• DNF5 tuning — parallel downloads, fastest mirror selection

CLI Essentials

Tool	Purpose
bat	Better cat with syntax highlighting
btop	Modern resource monitor
fastfetch	System info display (replaces neofetch)
fzf	Fuzzy finder
fd-find	Fast alternative to find
ripgrep	Fast grep alternative
neovim	Modern text editor
tmux	Terminal multiplexer
zsh + Oh My Zsh	Default shell

Development Tools

• Build essentials — GCC 16, G++, Clang, CMake, Make
• Languages — Python 3, Node.js 22, Go, Rust, Ruby, Java 25
• Containers — Podman, Podman Compose, Buildah, Skopeo
• Docker CE — Official Docker Engine with Compose and BuildKit plugins
• Git with Git LFS

Tailscale

• Adds the official Tailscale repository for Fedora
• Installs and enables the tailscaled daemon on boot
• Authenticate after setup with sudo tailscale up

Intel N100 Graphics (Alder Lake)

• intel-media-driver — iHD driver for 12th Gen Intel graphics
• Full VA-API stack — libva, libva-utils, libva-intel-driver
• Mesa Vulkan and VA drivers
• LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=iHD set system-wide for hardware video decode

Media Codecs

• FFmpeg 8, GStreamer plugins (good, bad, ugly, freeworld)
• VLC, MPV, LAME, GStreamer VA-API plugin

KDE Plasma 6.6 Extras

• kdeconnect — phone and desktop integration
• kate — advanced text editor
• ark — archive manager
• kdeplasma-addons — additional widgets
• plasma-discover-flatpak — Flatpak support in KDE Discover
• plasma-browser-integration — browser control from KDE
• KDE Connect firewall rules configured automatically

Flatpak Applications (via Flathub)

App	Category
Brave Browser	Web browser
Discord	Communication
VSCodium	Code editor
GitHub Desktop	Git GUI
GIMP	Image editing
Krita	Digital painting
Kdenlive	Video editing
LibreOffice	Office suite
Flatseal	Flatpak permissions manager
Warehouse	Flatpak app manager

System Tweaks

Tweak	Value	Reason
vm.swappiness	10	Reduces swap, better for SSD
vm.dirty_ratio	10	Improved NVMe write performance
vm.dirty_background_ratio	5	Smoother background writeback
net.core.rmem/wmem_max	128MB	Better network buffer performance
fstrim.timer	Enabled	Weekly SSD/NVMe TRIM
firewalld	Enabled	System firewall active on boot
DNF parallel downloads	10	Faster package installs

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Requirements

• Fedora 44 KDE Plasma Desktop
• Internet connection
• sudo / root access

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Fedora 44 Specific Notes

Several package names changed in Fedora 44 / DNF5. If verifying manually use these exact names:

Old name	Fedora 44 name
neofetch	fastfetch
nodejs	nodejs22
npm	nodejs22-npm
fd	fd-find
java-21-openjdk	java-25-openjdk-devel
dnf groupinstall	dnf group install
"Development Tools"	development-tools

Post-install verification — the script runs this automatically at the end:

rpm -q bat btop fd-find fzf git neovim tmux zsh fastfetch \
  gcc gcc-c++ clang cmake golang nodejs22 nodejs22-npm python3 \
  cargo rust podman buildah skopeo \
  tailscale docker-ce intel-media-driver libva ffmpeg 2>&1 | grep "not installed"

No output = everything installed correctly.

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After Setup

# 1. Connect to your Tailnet
sudo tailscale up

# 2. Reload systemd (clears any unit file warnings)
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

# 3. Log out and back in (Docker group and zsh shell changes)

# 4. Reboot (applies kernel tweaks and Intel graphics drivers)
sudo reboot

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Verified Against Official Documentation

Component	Source
Tailscale	pkgs.tailscale.com/stable
RPM Fusion	rpmfusion.org/Configuration
Docker CE	Fedora Developer Portal
Fedora 44 Release Notes	Fedora Magazine
KDE Plasma 44	Fedora Magazine KDE

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Notes

• Safe to run on a live system — dnf install skips already-installed packages
• Both Podman and Docker CE are installed — Podman is rootless by default
• Oh My Zsh only installs if ~/.oh-my-zsh does not already exist
• Flatpak apps that fail to install are skipped with a warning — the script will not stop
• KDE Plasma 6.6 on Fedora 44 uses Plasma Login Manager (PLM), not SDDM

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License

MIT — free to use, modify, and distribute.

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Contributing

Pull requests welcome. If a package name changes, a repo URL moves, or a new Fedora version requires different syntax, please open an issue or PR.