Installing Software¶
Flatpak¶
Flatpak is the default way of installing GUI applications on image-based Fedora variants (like uBlue). Flathub is the largest repository of Flatpak applications. On Fedora versions below 38, you might need to add the Flathub repository by running
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists --user flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
You can install Flatpaks using GNOME Softare or KDE Discover respective to which of the two desktop environment you are running.
You can also install Flatpaks (for example, mpv) from the CLI by running:
flatpak install flathub io.mpv.Mpv
Note
The CLI method will be necessary for desktop-environments other than GNOME or KDE.
You can also browse the Flathub website and when deciding you want to install something copy the proper command from the section "Manual Install" at the bottom of the page.
There should be a .desktop file for the application, so you can run it with your application launcher. You can also run Flatpaks (for example, mpv) from the CLI by running:
flatpak run io.mpv.Mpv
Distrobox and Toolbox¶
Toolboxes are little CLI podman containers that you can install anything into without it polluting your host system. Read more on the dedicated page.
Fleek / Nix¶
Fleek is a wrapper for Nix home-manager that can be used to easily install different packages with Nix. The packages are not isolated or containerized in any way, but they are still not part of your base system, as they are installed into Nix-specific directories.
Fleek & home-manager also take over some of your dotfiles such as your .zshrc or .bashrc.
Follow the installation instructions to add Fleek to your environment.
To install a package (for example, micro) with Fleek, run:
fleek add -a micro
The -a flag will apply the changes immediately, omitting it will just edit your configuration file and wait until you run fleek apply to apply it.
Read the Fleek docs for more information.
rpm-ostree¶
rpm-ostree is the system package manager for uBlue and other image-based Fedora variants. Unlike more traditional Linux desktops, on an image-based Linux distribution you probably shouldn't install everything directly onto your base system. The more liberally you use the system package manager, the more likely you are to run into some instability that affects your base operating system, therefore we recommend that you use it sparingly.
To install a single package (for example, zsh), run:
sudo rpm-ostree install zsh
To install multiple packages (for example, various CLI text editors), run:
sudo rpm-ostree install micro neovim helix
To apply the staged new staged image that includes your packages, reboot your computer.
There is no search functionality in rpm-ostree, but you can use a general package search website such as Repology.
There is also no command to enable copr or other repositories in rpm-ostree, but you can add the repo files manually to /etc/yum.repos.d/