Cross installation of fedora in other linux

Ask Fedora
1

can we install fedora in other linux distros (such as Ubuntu, Debian, Arch) directly?

2

You can use a VM to install Fedora in any other Linux, but you will have to ask those communities or look at their documentation to find out how.

3

I’m not asking for the VM stuff, but using fedora to replace other linux.

4

You can replace another OS with Fedora, yes. But you asked

5

I mean, is there any way like https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Install_Arch_Linux_from_existing_Linux for fedora?

6

There probably is, but it will be very involved, and would be much easier to back up you data and reinstall.

The best guide you will find is the one you showed us there.

7

Unless this is an experiment or learning process, save yourself time and headaches and potential data loss.

Steps for a successful install:

  1. backup all important data
  2. make a note of any custom configurations or scripts you may want on the new install
  3. download the ISO and make a bootable USB
  4. start it up and follow the prompts in the installer, make sure to choose erase and use entire disk (unless…you are dual or multi booting)
  5. sip some coffee (or whatever you prefer)
  6. let the installation finish
  7. enjoy your new Fedora install
8

A long time ago, I bookmarked Minimal Fedora Installation via Chroot , but I have never tried it. As you can see from the URL, it’s from 2019 and it installs Fedora 30, a lot has changed since then.

In any case, if you want to do this from a running system and not a live system, I think you would need to install into a separate partition or subvolume.

But I would also emphasize what others have written: unless you have a very specific reason to do this, the simplest and most supported way is definitely to use the installer. Using such a manual and unofficial process could cause your system to differ from a system that was installed with the installer, which in turn could lead to issues that are very hard to diagnose.

9

Agreed.

There’s a thread from last year where someone got this working on their setup. Very interesting if you want to tinker, but it should be regarded as highly experimental. For almost everyone, using the standard installer is going to be easier than this.

Another approach would be to install in a VM, and then dd from the VM disk image onto your partitions. But that still likely needs a bit of extra work to get the EFI setup right. (Edit - and probably the initramfs also needs to be regenerated when you boot it on the bare metal.)