Silverblue is an operating system for your desktop built on Fedora Linux. It’s excellent for daily use, development, and container-based workflows. It offers numerous advantages such as being able to roll back in case of any problems. If you want to update to F35 Beta on your Silverblue system, this article tells you how. It not only shows you what to do, but also how to revert back if anything unforeseen happens.

Prior to the update to Fedora 35 Beta, apply any pending upgrades.

Updating using terminal

Because the Fedora 35 Beta is not available in GNOME Software, the whole upgrade must be done through a terminal.

First, check if the 35 branch is available, which should be true now:

$ ostree remote refs fedora

You should see the following line in the output:

fedora:fedora/35/x86_64/silverblue

Next, rebase your system to the Fedora 35 branch.

$ rpm-ostree rebase fedora:fedora/35/x86_64/silverblue

Finally, the last thing to do is restart your computer and boot to Fedora Silverblue 35 Beta.

How to revert

If anything bad happens — for instance, if you can’t boot to Fedora Silverblue 35 Beta at all — it’s easy to go back. Pick the previous entry in the GRUB boot menu, and your system will start in its previous state. To make this change permanent, use the following command:

$ rpm-ostree rollback

That’s it. Now you know how to rebase to Fedora Silverblue 35 Beta and back. So why not do it today?