Fedora 44 surprise-removes Plasma X11 session in mid-cycle 6.8 update
Fedora 44 users lost X11 session support when KDE Plasma was updated to 6.8, and FESCo has rejected requests to restore it for both Fedora 44 and 45.
Summary
Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop users running Fedora 44 received an unexpected removal of X11 session support when the distribution updated from Plasma 6.6 to Plasma 6.8. The KDE Project had publicly committed in 2025 to ending X11 session support with Plasma 6.7, making the 6.8 removal predictable for those following upstream announcements. However, the change arrived in Fedora 44 as a routine update rather than with a distribution version boundary, leaving users without the anticipated transition period or prominent warning.
The Fedora Engineering Steering Committee (FESCo) has now formally rejected requests to revert the Plasma 6.8 update in Fedora 44 and has also declined to restore X11 support for the newly released Fedora 45. This decision finalizes the removal across Fedora's supported releases, committing the distribution's KDE spin fully to Wayland for current and near-term future versions.
How the X11 removal reached Fedora users
- Upstream timeline: KDE announced in 2025 that Plasma 6.7 would be the final release supporting X11 sessions, with 6.8 completing the removal as scheduled.
- Fedora 44 delivery mechanism: The update from Plasma 6.6 to 6.8 arrived through Fedora's standard update channel rather than being held for Fedora 45, breaking user expectations of distribution-version boundaries for session architecture changes.
- FESCo governance decision: The Fedora Engineering Steering Committee voted against reverting Plasma 6.8 in Fedora 44 and against adding X11 support to Fedora 45, making the removal irreversible for both releases.
- Session architecture impact: Users previously relying on X11 sessions for compatibility with specific applications, display configurations, or remote desktop workflows must now migrate to Plasma's Wayland session or seek alternative environments.
Why it matters
This event highlights tension between upstream project roadmaps and distribution update policies, particularly for desktop environment transitions that break established user workflows. For the broader Linux ecosystem, Fedora's handling of the Plasma X11 removal may inform how other distributions manage Wayland-only transitions, especially for long-term support releases where session stability expectations are higher.
Original reference: lwn.net →