What are DNF Groups?

Think of dnf groups as pre-packaged sets of software designed for specific purposes. (They’re often known as meta packages.) Instead of manually installing individual packages, which can be tedious and prone to errors, not to mention, you might not be aware of the names of certain packages, you can install entire groups with a single command. For example, the “Development Tools” group includes compilers, debuggers, and other essential tools for software development.

Groups vs. Individual Packages

Individual Packages: Installing packages one by one gives you granular control. However, it requires you to know the exact package names and dependencies. This can be time-consuming, especially when setting up a new system.
DNF Groups: Groups simplify the process by bundling related packages together. This is particularly beneficial for tasks like setting up a development environment, multimedia workstation, or gaming rig.
The Power of Customization: Mandatory, Default, and Optional

When you install a group, dnf by default installs the “mandatory” and “default” packages.

Mandatory: These are the essential packages required for the group to function.
Default: These are the commonly used packages within the group.
Optional: These are less frequently used packages that provide additional functionality.
You have the power to control which packages are installed:

Default Behavior (Mandatory and Default): sudo dnf group install
Mandatory, Default, and Optional: sudo dnf group install –setopt=group_package_types=mandatory,default,optional
Everything (including hidden packages): sudo dnf group install –setopt=group_package_types=mandatory,default,optional,hidden
Why “Install Everything” (Within Reason) is Often Better

In today’s world of terabyte-sized hard drives, storage space is rarely a concern for most users. Installing all the packages within a relevant group can save you time and prevent future headaches. You might discover tools you didn’t know you needed, and you won’t have to worry about missing dependencies later.

Important Caveat: Don’t Go Group-Crazy!

While installing everything within a specific group can be beneficial, it’s crucial to avoid indiscriminately installing every group. This will lead to a bloated system with unnecessary software. Carefully consider which groups align with your needs.

Discovering Available Groups: sudo dnf group list

The sudo dnf group list command displays a list of available groups. This is your gateway to exploring the vast array of software packages Fedora offers.

A Note for Blind Users: The Importance of | less

For blind users, text scrolling off the screen can be a significant obstacle. When running sudo dnf group list, the output might be, and probably will be, too long to fit on a single screen. To address this, use the | less command as a pipe:

sudo dnf group list | less
This pipes the output to the less pager, allowing you to navigate the list using the up and down arrow keys. Hit the spacebar to move to the next page, and a lowercase B, as in back/bravo to move back a page. press a lowercase Q, as in quit to return to your terminal.

Example: Installing the Sound and Video Group

Let’s say you want to install all the packages related to sound and video. You can use the following command:

Bash

sudo dnf group install sound-and-video –setopt=group_package_types=mandatory,default,optional
This command will install all the mandatory, default, and optional packages within the “Sound and Video” group.

In Conclusion

DNF groups are a powerful feature that simplifies software installation on Fedora Workstation. By understanding the different package types and using the | less command, you can efficiently manage your software, regardless of your visual abilities. So, explore the world of DNF groups and unlock the full potential of your Fedora system!

Let me illustrate with a common scenario: I’m in Thunderbird, trying to compose an email. I have word echo enabled in Orca, expecting to hear each word spoken as I type each word followed by the spacebar. However, instead of the expected feedback, silence. Orca seems completely unresponsive, despite being correctly configured within its settings. It’s as if the keystrokes are disappearing into a void.

The root of the issue, as far as I can determine, lies in how Orca interacts with these Snap-packaged applications. Orca word echo relies on receiving specific events, such as word delimiter events, to understand the text being entered. In the case of Thunderbird (and other Snap-packaged Mozilla apps), these events often fail to reach Orca. The result is that Orca doesn’t “see” the key input, and therefore cannot provide the necessary feedback.

My current theory, though not definitively proven, points to Snap’s sandboxing as a potential culprit. Snaps are designed to run in a confined environment, isolated from the rest of the system. This sandboxing might be interfering with Orca’s ability to communicate with the Snap version of Thunderbird, preventing the necessary events from being passed along. It’s important to emphasize that this is a working theory, and further investigation is needed to confirm the exact cause. However, until a better explanation arises, this seems to be the most likely reason.

The problem is, on most modern Debian based systems like Ubuntu, Mozilla, by default, installs the Snap version of Thunderbird, even if you use apt to get the package. If you don’t have snap installed, well, tough! It will install it as a dependency.

Below, I will include the steps on a Debian-based system such as Debian, Ubuntu, etcetera to properly remove the Snap version of Thunderbird and install the version from the official Mozilla PPA. This should resolve the Orca issues. Please be aware that this process will revert any custom settings you have made to Thunderbird. It is crucial to back up your Thunderbird profiles before proceeding if you wish to preserve these settings. I wouldn’t normally advise doing this, but in this case, it’s the only way so far I’ve been able to hack around this problem. Note that this bug has been reported to Joni on the Github page, so she is definitely aware of it. There isn’t however much she can do at this given time given the unique criteria causing this problem in the first place.

You can follow these steps if you want to try fixing this problem. Note that while this worked on my end, I can’t be held responsible for any data loss or strange behavior on your system, if something goes awri. I’m giving you these instructions with the understanding that they worked for me, but you do this at your own risk.

First, add the PPA by Mozilla Team.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/ppa

Then, copy and paste the following code in a terminal in one go (don’t copy-paste line by line) to prioritize the apt version of thunderbird over the snap version.

echo ‘
Package: *
Pin: release o=LP-PPA-mozillateam
Pin-Priority: 1001

Package: thunderbird
Pin: version 2:1snap*
Pin-Priority: -1
‘ | sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/thunderbird

Next, remove the snap version of thunderbird.

sudo snap remove thunderbird

Install Thunderbird with apt.

sudo apt install thunderbird

To ensure that unattended upgrades do not reinstall the snap version of Thunderbird, enter the following command.

echo ‘Unattended-Upgrade::Allowed-Origins:: “LP-PPA-mozillateam:${distro_codename}”;’ | sudo tee /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/51unattended-upgrades-thunderbird

To undo these changes
Remove the PPA.

sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:mozillateam/ppa

Remove the apt pin.

sudo rm -rf /etc/apt/preferences.d/thunderbird

Remove the apt version and reinstall the snap one.

sudo apt remove thunderbird && sudo snap install thunderbird

Again, I want to re-emphesize that you soly do this at your own disgression/risk.

In this guide, I will show you the basics to get you up and running as quickly as possible. I hope this helps!