Fedora’s Plan to Drop i686 Support: What It Means for Gaming and Linux Users

As 32‑bit software and systems become obsolete, major Android app stores such as Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo required all Android apps to switch to 64‑bit by August 2022. The same trend has reached the Linux world, and Fedora developers have proposed a final step: completely dropping i686 support in Fedora 44.

The proposal would remove multilib support, meaning 64‑bit systems would no longer provide 32‑bit compatibility packages. This has sparked controversy, especially in the gaming community.

Fedora’s transformation: saying goodbye to 32‑bit support

Fedora has been gradually reducing 32‑bit support. Since Fedora 31 it stopped shipping i686 kernels and installation images, though multilib packages were kept to run 32‑bit applications on 64‑bit systems. From Fedora 37 onward, maintainers could stop building an i686 package once it became a leaf package (no longer depended on by others).

Now the Fedora team plans a two‑stage removal:

Stage 1: Stop providing i686 builds in the x86_64 repository, effectively removing multilib support.

Stage 2: Completely cease building any i686 packages.

The change is intended to reduce the workload for package maintainers, the release engineering team, infrastructure, and end users. For example, about 10 000 i686 packages would be removed, shrinking repository metadata and speeding up dnf operations.

However, many older games and Steam applications still depend on 32‑bit components. The Bazzite distribution, a Fedora‑based gaming OS, warned that dropping i686 could force the project to halt.

Maintainers note that removing i686 does not mean abandoning all 32‑bit code; programs that bundle their required 32‑bit libraries can still run. Steam’s Linux client remains 32‑bit, making it the biggest obstacle. Wine’s new WoW64 mode and Flatpak can run 32‑bit Windows programs without system‑wide 32‑bit libraries.

Community members argue that the focus should be on deciding which 32‑bit libraries are essential rather than a blanket removal. Fedora’s FESCo member Neal Gompa suggested extending i686 support at least until Fedora 65 (around 2036) to give projects time to adapt.

In summary, the proposal aims to streamline Fedora’s architecture support, but its impact on gaming, especially Steam and projects like Bazzite, remains a contentious issue.