Changelog — Fedora Remix for WSL 43.0.0

Highlights

• Updated to Fedora 43.
• Updated logo to the new Fedora Remix branding.
• First-run welcome message added (one-time per user) with support and upgrade guidance.
• Major WSL1 compatibility fixes for Fedora 43 (gdk-pixbuf/glycin workaround with pinning + cleanup).
• GNOME support removed due to lack of Xorg support; upgrade users must move to an alternative desktop.
• Updated default desktop selection (Xfce) and improved terminal profile behavior.
• Mesa install flow streamlined and updated for Fedora 43.

Changes

Fedora 43 update

• Updated scripts/CI to support Fedora 43.

Desktop environments

• Removed GNOME support due to lack of Xorg support.
• Users upgrading from 42 will no longer be able to use GNOME.
• Recommended migration path: uninstall GNOME and install Xfce, KDE, or LXDE.

First-run UX (user experience)

• Added a one-time welcome message on first run for:

  • Bash/sh shells
  • fish

• Includes support resources, update recommendations, and WSL1-specific guidance.

WSL1 compatibility (Fedora 43)

• Implemented a targeted workaround for the Fedora 43 WSL1 gdk-pixbuf/glycin incompatibility:

  • Version pinning (to avoid incompatible combinations)
  • Removal of incompatible packages where needed
  • Cache refresh/rebuild steps
  • Executed both pre-update and post-update to reduce upgrade regressions

Mesa and graphics stack

• Updated Mesa installation logic and pinning to cover Fedora 43.
• Microsoft Experimental Vulkan-to-Direct3D 12 driver (Dozen) is now included and enabled by default.
• Direct3D 12 acceleration is now available on ARM64 via an upstream Fedora change.
• Streamlined Mesa package lists in build and upgrade paths.

Terminal and session behavior

• Changed default desktop environment selection in the setup flow to Xfce.
• Improved terminal profile defaults to prevent the terminal from auto-closing on exit.
• Ensured shell history is flushed/saved before terminating WSL distributions in the desktop installer.

Full Changelog: 42.1.0...43.0.0

Changelog — Fedora Remix for WSL 42.1.0

Highlights

• XDG (base directories) now consistently defined and auto-created for better standards compliance.
• More reliable graphics/session bootstrap for WSLg: user runtime directories and audio paths are created/cleaned up safely.
• D-Bus session environment is isolated per-user via runtime directories, with tighter exported variables.
• Bash prompt logic rebuilt for clearer behavior and fewer side-effects.
• More robust repository configuration validation for the Fedora Remix repo.

Changes

Environment + XDG

• Added define_xdg_environment to both shell init paths:

  • linux_files/00-remix.sh
  • linux_files/00-remix.fish

• Ensures XDG base directories are set and created when missing (improves app compatibility and reduces “missing dir” edge cases).

• Updated environment persistence (save_environment) to only save variables that are actually set (reduces noise and prevents invalid exports).

Display + runtime directory handling (WSLg/X11)

• Improved WSLg display setup to reliably manage /run/user/$UID plus PulseAudio runtime paths/symlinks.
• Added a new create_userpath helper + sudoers entry to create required runtime paths when needed, including cleanup of stale sockets and missing directories.
• Improved fallback logic to determine Windows host IP for X11 display using route.exe + ip route for higher reliability. thanks @te-horie

D-Bus session management

• D-Bus environment files now live under user-specific runtime directories (better isolation and security posture).
• Only the necessary variables are exported and reused, reducing cross-session contamination.

Shell prompt + packaging

• Rewrote linux_files/bash-prompt-wsl.sh:

  • Applies prompt customization only in Bash and Windows Terminal.
  • Uses clearer constants and export logic to reduce unexpected prompt behavior.

• Ensures correct permissions for the new prompt script in create-targz.sh.

Repo configuration check

• Updated linux_files/check-dnf to directly modify repo files for disabling gpgcheck (more deterministic and scoped to the relevant repo). thanks to @jeffmcutter

• Fixed the Windows Terminal menu icon

• Make a workaround to an error in WSL 2.5.x that prevented the GPU video acceleration from working. (microsoft/WSL#12702 (comment))

• Made it compatible with Windows 1809 or Windows Server 2019 again. Fixes #239

• Upgraded to Fedora 42
• Now systemd is enabled by default, and it's the recommended mode
• Upgraded to Mesa 25.0.4 and the D3D12 driver includes:
  • OpenGL 4.6 support completed
  • Expanded video encode/decode support (HEVC 4:2:2/4:4:4, H.264 Baseline)
  • Added VP9 and AV1 codecs in GPU Video Acceleration
• GNOME 48 with triple‑buffered rendering, notification stacking and, well‑being timers
• XFCE 4.20 (experimental Wayland session) and LXQt 2.1 (default Wayland via Miriway) refresh the lightweight spins
• IBus 1.5.32 adds speech‑to‑text with offline VOSK models and Wayland‑IM‑v2 support
• GNU tool‑chain refresh: GCC 15, glibc 2.41, binutils 2.44, GDB 15+
• Ruby 3.4, PHP 8.4, Go 1.24, Haskell GHC 9.8/Stackage LTS 23, Tcl/Tk 9 all land as defaults
• DNF 5 gains automatic purge of expired / obsolete repo keys, plus ongoing performance work

• Upgraded to Fedora 41
• GNOME 47 and KDE Plasma 6.2
• Package updates such as LLVM 19, LXQt 2.0, Python 3.13, RPM 4.20, PyTorch 2.4, Perl 5.40, Golang 1.23, GIMP version 3
• dnf5: Faster, more efficient package manager.
• Upgraded to Mesa 24.2.5

• Upgraded to Mesa 24.1.2 and the Microsoft D3D12 driver now supports OpenGL 4.6
• Be sure that the dbus-daemon is started once, regardless of the number of times that Fedora is invoked.
• Upgraded to Fedora 40
• Fixed a small typo in the fedoraremix.exe /? message by @acuteaura

• A new script, "install-desktop.sh", allows installing GNOME, KDE, XFCE, or LXDE Desktops Environments with minimal manual steps or configuration.
• Support for Windows Terminal Shell Integration with built-in support for "Opening new tabs in the same working directory", "Show marks for each command in the scrollbar", "Automatically jump between commands," and "Select the entire output of a command." by adding some actions in the settings.json file:. More info: How to enable shell integration marks.
• Support for Windows Terminal v1.19's Command History in the Suggestions UI
• [FIX] Now, if you configure Fedora Remix as your Default Profile in Windows Terminal, right-click a folder in File Explorer, and select Open in Terminal, it will correctly open in the desired directory.
• The color prompt has been improved, read /etc/profile.d/bash-color-prompt.sh to see what you can do with the PROMPT_* environment variables.

What's Changed

• Upgraded to Fedora 39
• Upgraded Mesa to 23.1.9 with improvements in Video decoding acceleration and video codecs
• When the distro is being installed, now a progress icon appears in the Windows Terminal tab.
• Fedora Linux 39 now features a colored Bash prompt by default!