Sugar Learning Environment

Installing Sugar in Fedora - GUI method

Fedora 20's GNOME3 default graphical software installer tool fails to find Sugar, reportedly as Sugar is not considered to be an "application".

Yum Extender finds Sugar by searching for "Groups".

Yum Extender is the default graphical software installer tool in certain Ferdora Desktop Environments, for instance XFCE, and is found in Applications Menu -> Administration -> Yum Extender.

If not installed, use the default software installer tool to search for and install yumex. See also YumEx documentation.

Open Yum Extender. Package Filters are found on the line below the main search bar. Use the Package Filter buttons to select "Groups"

The navigation pane on the left, now lists all packages, grouped in alphbetical order. Near the foot of the list, press the "+" to open "Sugar Desktop Environment".

This will reveal two "Groups". Place a check in the box for "Sugar Desktop Environment". Review the selection in the right hand pane.

At the foot of the Yum Extender window, "Install All" will mark all packages for installation.

Now press "Apply" to have all necessary packages and dependencies installed, together with a useful selection of Activities.

In order to be able to use Sugar-runner, enter sugar-runner in the search field, press "Enter", mark it for installation and press "Apply".


Later (if desired) you can return to Yum Extender and install further packages within "Additional Sugar Activities"



Installing Sugar in Fedora - using the command line

In a terminal or console, enter this command line:

sudo yum install @sugar-desktop sugar-runner


Launching Sugar

With sugar-desktop and sugar-runner installed you have two simple ways of running Sugar.

1. To launch the Sugar Desktop Environment (also known as a Sugar session) you must reboot.


When you reboot Fedora, at the point where you login, login screen, a "Sugar" entry will now be present, maybe hidden, somewhere in the login prompt, under a "settings icon" or under "Session Type".


Note, the "Sugar" entry in the login screen may not be very obvious at first, and the look will depend on the login manager on your system. This image shows the "Sugar" entry being selected in Fedora 20. Click the image to enlarge.


Select "Sugar" within the login prompt, enter your password, and Enter, and the computer will boot into Sugar Desktop Environment.


2. The Sugar emulator (sugar-runner) will be available (no restart required) from the Applications Menu, Select Education, Select Sugar.

Sugar will run in a Xephyr window, Sugar in a window, within your current desktop environment. You will have full access to Sugar features, and may even run multiple instances.

Networking bugs may currently prevent collaboration with others in the jabber.sugarlabs.org server Neighborhood. Press key F1 to see the Sugar Neighborhood view.

Note sugar-runner is an improvement on sugar-emulator for Fedora 20.

By default, sugar-runner runs full screen.

"Logout" of Sugar (from the Home screen central avatar's hover palette), to return to the Desktop Environment you were previously using.
See emulator screen size adjustment.

Fedora Sugar on a Stick Spin

Fedora spins are alternative versions of Fedora, tailored for various types of users. The Fedora Sugar on a Stick Spin, http://spins.fedoraproject.org/soas/, is the variant of Fedora, with Sugar components included.

The Spin can be installed to a hard drive by following the Fedora installation process documented here.

Fedora Versions

  Fedora® version page: 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 |
Fedora and the Infinity design logo are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc.

Fedora Downloads

Subpage index