Fedora Remix for WSL 43.0.0 Released (includes 42.1.0 changes)

newshow-to

Mar 6

Fedora Remix for WSL 43.0.0 is now available. This release upgrades the distro to Fedora 43, refreshes the branding, improves first-run guidance, updates the graphics stack defaults, and ships important WSL1 compatibility workarounds—especially around Fedora 43’s gdk-pixbuf / glycin behavior on WSL1.

It also includes the maintenance improvements previously delivered in 42.1.0 (XDG/runtime-dir/D-Bus/session hardening).

Fedora 43 upstream release date: October 28, 2025. (Fedora)

What’s new in 43.0.0

Fedora 43 update

Fedora Remix for WSL is now updated to Fedora 43.
Build and environment scripts/CI have been updated to support Fedora 43.

Branding

Updated logo to the new Fedora Remix branding.

Desktop environment changes (important)

GNOME support has been removed due to lack of Xorg support in the relevant upstream stack. If you upgraded from Fedora Remix 42 and were using GNOME, it will no longer work.
Recommendation: uninstall GNOME and install Xfce, KDE, or LXDE instead.

Graphics stack

Mesa libraries updated to 25.3.6.
With Microsoft CLOn12 and all video codecs enabled
Microsoft Experimental Vulkan-to-Direct3D 12 driver (Dozen) is now included and enabled by default. (phoronix.com)
Direct3D 12 acceleration on ARM64 is now available due to an upstream Fedora change.

User experience and reliability

First-run welcome message (Bash/sh + fish), displayed once per user, with support links, update guidance, and WSL1 notes.
Default desktop selection updated to Xfce in the desktop setup flow.
Windows Terminal profile defaults adjusted to prevent “auto-close on exit”.
Shell history is flushed before terminating WSL distributions in the desktop installer.

WSL1: Fedora 43 compatibility workarounds

Robust WSL1 detection plus a targeted workaround for the Fedora 43 gdk-pixbuf / glycin incompatibility on WSL1:
- version pinning
- removal of incompatible packages
- cache refreshes
- executed both before and after updates

Included since 42.1.0 (maintenance improvements)

42.1.0 focused on standards compliance and session robustness:

XDG base directory setup is now consistent (and auto-creates missing dirs).
More reliable WSLg session bootstrap: runtime directories and audio paths are created/cleaned safely.
D-Bus session environment files are isolated per-user in runtime dirs with tighter exported variables.
Bash prompt logic rebuilt for fewer side-effects.
More robust Fedora Remix repo configuration checks. (GitHub)

Upgrade instructions (42 → 43)

Fedora upgrades in WSL are sensitive to systemd state. Fedora Remix enabled systemd by default starting in the 42 line (Whitewater Foundry), and wsl.conf is still the canonical switch for enabling/disabling it per distro. (Microsoft Learn)

0) Backup first

From PowerShell:

wsl --export fedoraremix fedoraremix42_backup.tar.gz

Path A — If systemd is enabled (common on 42+)

A1) Verify systemd is enabled

Inside Fedora Remix:

ps -p 1 -o comm=

If it prints systemd, systemd is enabled.

A2) Temporarily disable systemd for the upgrade

Edit /etc/wsl.conf and set:

[boot]
systemd=false

Terminate the distro from PowerShell:

wsl.exe --terminate fedoraremix

(WSL reads /etc/wsl.conf on next start.) (Microsoft Learn)

A3) Run the upgrade

Start Fedora Remix again (systemd now disabled), then:

sudo dnf -y upgrade --refresh
update.sh

sudo dnf -y install dnf-plugin-system-upgrade
sudo dnf4 -y system-upgrade download --allowerasing --releasever=43
sudo dnf4 -y system-upgrade reboot

You'll see an error talking about systemd, continue:

sudo dnf4 -y system-upgrade upgrade
sudo dnf4 -y autoremove
sudo dnf4 -y clean all
sudo mandb
sudo dnf4 -y system-upgrade clean
update.sh

cat /etc/fedora-release
cat /etc/os-release

(Offline upgrade flow is based on Fedora’s documented dnf system-upgrade process.) (docs.fedoraproject.org)

A4) Re-enable systemd (optional / recommended for WSL2)

Set in /etc/wsl.conf:

[boot]
systemd=true

Then terminate again:

wsl.exe --terminate fedoraremix

Path B — If systemd is already disabled

If ps -p 1 -o comm= returns something other than systemd, follow the same A3 upgrade commands directly.

Path C — WSL1 upgrade notes (extra `update.sh` runs)

WSL1 needs additional guardrails for Fedora 43 package compatibility (notably gdk-pixbuf/glycin). Your upgrade flow should intentionally “bookend” changes with update.sh:

sudo dnf -y upgrade --refresh
update.sh

sudo dnf -y install dnf-plugin-system-upgrade
sudo dnf4 -y system-upgrade download --allowerasing --releasever=43
sudo dnf4 -y system-upgrade reboot