Fedora Linux 44 brings several important changes for users of Atomic Desktop variants—Silverblue, Kinoite, Sway Atomic, Budgie Atomic, and COSMIC Atomic. This release focuses on streamlining issue tracking, unifying documentation, and removing outdated dependencies. Below we answer the most common questions about these updates, including how they affect AppImages, Plasma Vaults, and Polkit rules.
1. What changes were made to the issue tracker for Atomic Desktops?
The cross-variant issue tracker has been moved to the new Fedora forge. This centralized location is now the preferred place to report issues that affect all Atomic Desktop variants or to coordinate work across them. For issues specific to a particular desktop environment, the respective SIG trackers still apply—links to those are available in the atomic-desktops organization README. The move aims to improve collaboration and visibility. If you reported bugs on the old tracker, they should still be accessible, but new submissions should go to the forge.
2. Where can I find the unified documentation for all Atomic Desktop variants?
The unified documentation for all Atomic Desktops is now live on the new Fedora forge. Unfortunately, translations from the previous documentation have not been migrated; once the translation infrastructure is ready, we will need community help to re-translate the content. The good news is that the new docs are identical in substance and should require mostly copy‑paste work from the old version. Moreover, this unified setup means we only need to translate once, not separately for each variant. See the tracking issue atomic-desktops#10 for more details.
3. Why was FUSE version 2 removed, and what impact does it have on AppImages?
FUSE version 2 has been deprecated and unmaintained for a long time, so Fedora 44 removed it from Atomic Desktop images. The most noticeable effect is on AppImages: some older AppImages rely on an old runtime that requires FUSE 2 libraries on the host. If an AppImage fails to run, you can check its runtime version (see the discussion thread). The recommended solutions are to look for a Flatpak version of the application, or to contact upstream about using a newer AppImage runtime. Fixing this upstream benefits everyone.
4. How does the removal of FUSE2 affect Plasma Vaults on Kinoite?
KDE upstream no longer recommends the EncFS or CryFS backends for Plasma Vaults because they depend on FUSE 2 libraries. If you have existing vaults using these backends, you must migrate your data to a new vault using the still‑maintained gocryptfs backend. Ideally, perform the migration before updating to Fedora 44. Should you upgrade first and need access to your data, you can temporarily layer the required packages (cryfs or fuse-encfs) with rpm-ostree install, then after migrating, reset the layers with rpm-ostree reset.
5. What should I do if I need to access encrypted data after updating to Fedora 44?
If you updated to Fedora Linux 44 before migrating your Plasma Vault data, you can still recover it. Install the missing FUSE 2‑dependent packages by running: rpm-ostree install cryfs fuse-encfs. Then open your vault and move the contents to a new vault created with the gocryptfs backend. Once your data is safe, remove the temporary packages with rpm-ostree reset. This approach is meant only as a temporary workaround—long‑term, you should rely on gocryptfs. For AppImage issues, refer to the AppImage section above.
6. What are the alternatives for AppImages that depend on FUSE2?
If an AppImage stops working after upgrading to Fedora 44, first try to find a Flatpak of the same application—most popular apps are available as Flatpaks and work perfectly on Atomic Desktops. If no Flatpak exists, consider reporting the issue to the app’s upstream and encouraging them to switch to a newer AppImage runtime (version 2 or later). Community help here is invaluable. You can also try to bundle the FUSE 2 library manually, but that’s not recommended because it defeats the purpose of the removal. The best long‑term solution is to support upstream adoption of modern standards.
7. What about the removal of pkla Polkit rules support?
Support for the legacy pkla Polkit rules format has been dropped entirely in Fedora 44. It is very unlikely that you were relying on this format, as it was deprecated in favor of the newer JavaScript‑based rules. If you have custom pkla rules, you must convert them to the current format. Most users will see no change, but system administrators should verify their configurations. For details, see the official Fedora Change page. This removal aligns with upstream policy to simplify and modernize the authorization system.