In this brief guide, we will see what is RPM Fusion repository, why should we install RPM Fusion repository, and finally how to enable RPM Fusion repository in Fedora, RHEL, and its clones like CentOS, AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux distributions.
What is RPM Fusion Repository?
Fedora project strictly adheres the Fedora licensing policies. It excludes some packages from the official repositories for the following reasons:
- If a package is propriety, it can't be included in Fedora;
- If a package is closed-source, it can't be included in Fedora;
- If a package is legally encumbered, it cannot be included in Fedora;
- If package violates United States laws (specifically, Federal or applicable state laws), it cannot be included in Fedora.
Any package that fails to meet the aforementioned policies will not be included in the official repositories of Fedora and RHEL. This is why some third party repositories, which have liberal licensing policies, are created. One such repository is RPM Fusion.
RPM Fusion is a community-maintained, third-party software repository that provides packages that the Fedora project and Red Hat can't ship due to legal and various other reasons as stated earlier.
The RPM Fusion repository is a must have to install the necessary multimedia codecs, proprietary software and drivers in Fedora, RHEL and its clones like CentOS, AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux etc.
RPM Fusion Free and Non-free Repositories
RPM Fusion has two repositories namely "free" and "nonfree". The free repository contains the packages that are Open Source as defined by Fedora licensing guidelines. The nonfree repository contains redistributable packages that are not Open Source and packages that are not free for commercial purpose.
You can add both repos and use them simultaneously on your personal system. There won't be any conflicts between the packages in the free and nonfree repos. If you're interested in running only free packages, just add the free repo and install the nonfree repo later.
1. Enable RPM Fusion Repository in Fedora Linux 38
To enable both the free and the nonfree RPM Fusion repositories on your Fedora system, run:
$ sudo dnf install https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm
Sample output:
Last metadata expiration check: 0:46:16 ago on Saturday 29 April 2023 04:34:32 PM. rpmfusion-free-release-38.noarch.rpm 3.2 kB/s | 11 kB 00:03 rpmfusion-nonfree-release-38.noarch.rpm 9.5 kB/s | 11 kB 00:01 Dependencies resolved. ================================================================================ Package Arch Version Repository Size ================================================================================ Installing: rpmfusion-free-release noarch 38-1 @commandline 11 k rpmfusion-nonfree-release noarch 38-1 @commandline 11 k Transaction Summary ================================================================================ Install 2 Packages Total size: 22 k Installed size: 11 k Is this ok [y/N]: y Downloading Packages: Running transaction check Transaction check succeeded. Running transaction test Transaction test succeeded. Running transaction Preparing : 1/1 Installing : rpmfusion-nonfree-release-38-1.noarch 1/2 Installing : rpmfusion-free-release-38-1.noarch 2/2 Verifying : rpmfusion-free-release-38-1.noarch 1/2 Verifying : rpmfusion-nonfree-release-38-1.noarch 2/2 Installed: rpmfusion-free-release-38-1.noarch rpmfusion-nonfree-release-38-1.noarch Complete!
Like I already mentioned, you can install only the free repo like below:
$ sudo dnf install https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm
To enable only the non-free RPM Fusion repository, do:
$ sudo dnf install https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm
On Fedora Silverblue:
To add and enable free and nonfree RPM Fusion repositories on a Fedora Silverblue machine, run:
$ sudo rpm-ostree install https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm
Well, RPM Fusion repository is installed and enabled. Let us go ahead and see if RPM Fusion is enabled or not.
1.1. List Repositories in Fedora
To find the list of installed repositories in Fedora, run:
$ dnf repolist
Sample output:
repo id repo name copr:copr.fedorainfracloud.org:phracek:PyCharm Copr repo for PyCharm owned by phracek fedora Fedora 38 - x86_64 fedora-cisco-openh264 Fedora 38 openh264 (From Cisco) - x86_64 fedora-modular Fedora Modular 38 - x86_64 google-chrome google-chrome rpmfusion-free RPM Fusion for Fedora 38 - Free rpmfusion-free-updates RPM Fusion for Fedora 38 - Free - Updates rpmfusion-nonfree RPM Fusion for Fedora 38 - Nonfree rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver RPM Fusion for Fedora 38 - Nonfree - NVIDIA Driver rpmfusion-nonfree-steam RPM Fusion for Fedora 38 - Nonfree - Steam rpmfusion-nonfree-updates RPM Fusion for Fedora 38 - Nonfree - Updates updates Fedora 38 - x86_64 - Updates updates-modular Fedora Modular 38 - x86_64 - Updates
If you want to list only the enabled repositories, the command would be:
$ dnf repolist enabled
The first time you attempt to install packages from the RPM Fusion repositories, the dnf utility prompts you to confirm the signature of the repositories. Type y and hit ENTER to confirm it.
RPM Fusion for Fedora 38 - Free 1.6 MB/s | 1.7 kB 00:00 Importing GPG key 0xD651FF2E: Userid : "RPM Fusion free repository for Fedora (2020) <rpmfusion-buildsys@lists.rpmfusion.org>" Fingerprint: E9A4 91A3 DE24 7814 E7E0 67EA E06F 8ECD D651 FF2E From : /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-rpmfusion-free-fedora-38 Is this ok [y/N]: y
2. Enable RPM Fusion Repository in RHEL 8, CentOS 8, AlmaLinux 8, Rocky Linux 8
In RHEL and its clones like CentOS, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux etc., you must enable [EPEL] repository before enabling RPM Fusion repository.
To install EPEL repository in Red Hat Enterprise Linux system, run:
$ sudo dnf install --nogpgcheck https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-$(rpm -E %rhel).noarch.rpm
After enabling the EPEL repository, run the following command to enable RPM Fusion repository in RHEL and its compatible clones CentOS, AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux:
$ sudo dnf install --nogpgcheck https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/free/el/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %rhel).noarch.rpm https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/el/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %rhel).noarch.rpm
Sample output:
Last metadata expiration check: 0:09:07 ago on Friday 23 September 2022 11:41:49 AM UTC. rpmfusion-free-release-8.noarch.rpm 861 B/s | 11 kB 00:12 rpmfusion-nonfree-release-8.noarch.rpm 877 B/s | 11 kB 00:12 Dependencies resolved. ================================================================================ Package Arch Version Repository Size ================================================================================ Installing: rpmfusion-free-release noarch 8-0.1 @commandline 11 k rpmfusion-nonfree-release noarch 8-0.1 @commandline 11 k Transaction Summary ================================================================================ Install 2 Packages Total size: 22 k Installed size: 7.6 k Is this ok [y/N]: y Downloading Packages: Running transaction check Transaction check succeeded. Running transaction test Transaction test succeeded. Running transaction Preparing : 1/1 Installing : rpmfusion-free-release-8-0.1.noarch 1/2 Installing : rpmfusion-nonfree-release-8-0.1.noarch 2/2 Verifying : rpmfusion-free-release-8-0.1.noarch 1/2 Verifying : rpmfusion-nonfree-release-8-0.1.noarch 2/2 Installed: rpmfusion-free-release-8-0.1.noarch rpmfusion-nonfree-release-8-0.1.noarch Complete!
If you are using CentOS Steam 8, you need to enable [PowerTools] repository as well.
$ sudo dnf config-manager --enable powertools
CentOS 8 (older version) used a case sensitive name for the PowerTools repository:
$ sudo dnf config-manager --enable PowerTools
On RHEL 8, you should enable subscription:
$ sudo subscription-manager repos --enable "codeready-builder-for-rhel-8-$(uname -m)-rpms"
In RHEL 7 and its compatible clones like CentOS 7, run the following command to enable EPEL and RPM Fusion repositories:
$ sudo yum localinstall --nogpgcheck https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/free/el/rpmfusion-free-release-7.noarch.rpm https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/el/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-7.noarch.rpm
2.1. List Installed Repositories in RHEL-based Systems
You can view the list of the installed repositories at any time using the following commands:
$ dnf repolist
Or,
$ yum repolist
Sample output:
repo id repo name appstream AlmaLinux 8 - AppStream baseos AlmaLinux 8 - BaseOS docker-ce-stable Docker CE Stable - x86_64 epel Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64 epel-modular Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular 8 - x86_64 extras AlmaLinux 8 - Extras rpmfusion-free-updates RPM Fusion for EL 8 - Free - Updates rpmfusion-nonfree-updates RPM Fusion for EL 8 - Nonfree - Updates
3. Disable RPM Fusion Repositories
If you don't want RPM Fusion repositories anymore, you can disable RPM Fusion repository using yum-config-manager as shown below.
To disable both free and non-free RPM Fusion repositories, run:
$ sudo yum-config-manager --disable rpmfusion-free-updates
$ sudo yum-config-manager --disable rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
To enable free and non-free repositories, run:
$ sudo yum-config-manager --enable rpmfusion-free-updates
$ sudo yum-config-manager --enable rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
Conclusion
That's it. You know now how to enable RPM Fusion repository RPM-based systems such as Fedora, RHEL, CentOS, AlmaLinux, and Rocky Linux. Enabling RPM Fusion in a newly installed system is mandatory as it provides a lots of unofficial packages that are not included in the official repositories.
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2 comments
Hello SK, I am new to Linux and was wondering if there is a well built app for me to use like the inbuilt software installer I get with fedora? Thank you
Please elaborate your question.