Installing and Managing Software on Bazzite

Bazzite
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Linux Package Formats

Package formats ranked from most recommended for daily usage:

  1. Flatpak - Universal package format using a permissions-based model; use for most graphical applications.
  2. ujust - Custom scripts that can install applications maintained by Bazzite & Universal Blue
  3. Homebrew - Install applications intended to run inside of the terminal.
  4. Distrobox - Intended for legacy applications that do not support Flatpak and Homebrew, or for use as development boxes.
  5. AppImage - Portable universal package format that relies on specific host libraries at a system-level.
  6. rpm-ostree - Layer Fedora packages at a system-level (not recommended, use as a last resort)!

How do I run Windows applications?

Use a WINE front-end:

  • Steam (pre-installed) has a Windows compatibility layer built-in.
    • Read the Gaming Guide for more information on setting up and using Proton.
  • Lutris (pre-installed) for non-Steam video games.
  • Heroic for Epic Games, GOG, and Amazon Games integration.
  • Bottles for general-purpose applications or as an alternative to Lutris.
  • itch for games on itch.io.
    • Also comes pre-installed with a Windows compatibility layer.
  • WineZGUI (pre-installed) for Windows applications that donā€™t require special considerations for their prefix.

How do I install Android applications?

Follow the Waydroid Setup Guide to install Android applications on Bazzite.

Note: Waydroid is not supported on other Universal Blue images like Aurora and Bluefin.

Tutorials for Installing Other Software

Video Showcase of Installing Software

Note: This video is missing Homebrew.

Documentation Contributors: HikariKnight

See also: Updates, Rollbacks, & Rebasing

ā† View all Bazzite documentation

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Hi,

Brew and Fleek are part of the upstream Universal Blue images. You can virtually use both in the same manner on most of the popular images (main, nvidia, bluefin, etc.)

To answer your questions in order about the Bazzite images:

  • No. Desktop images have Nvidia variants, but not the Steam Deck/HTPC and other handheld PC images do NOT have Nvidia support. These images include Game Mode (gamescope-session.) Any of the images that specifically mention -nvidia have the proprietary drives preinstalled.
  • Yes. Change the appearance settings in KDE or GNOME to move away from their branding.
  • You canā€™t unfortunately at this time.
  • bazzite is the default variant to install on an AMD/Intel GPU laptop, yes. There are special hardware variants if those apply to you (surface, framework, etc.)
  • -nokmods on Bazzite is deprecated. It is still on Fedora 38 and will probably not update past this version in the future. There is no warning. I should add that to the next newsletter. All of the regular Universal Blue images are considered nokmods except Bazzite where it is now required.

Thanks for asking.

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thanks, found out I had just installed all the time. Its just called ujust as the fish shell extension is not there

to the other questions I got the answers myself

  • bazzite has minimal customization, the non-steamdeck version has no branding.
  • yafti is completely optional and can just be closed

Thanks for the addition to the newsletter. I hope that reaches some people. Its the same with all nokmods images, I was on an unupdated kinoite for weeks and wondered a bit, but background updates dont really make that obvious

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This is a really helpful reference for packaging priority Iā€™m pinning to the desktop, thank you.

One note: as of writing, the guide states that ā€œGear Leverā€ is preinstalled, but my Bazzite install doesnā€™t have it and must be installed via Flatpak, or so says the application manager.

ostree status 
ā— ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite-nvidia:latest
                   Digest: sha256:a23627270d12e9cfa19fdba26de357f2993d3e37a375735701808f575a06ccb9
                  Version: 40.20240605.0 (2024-06-05T16:51:24Z)
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Did you install Bazzite by rebasing from an upstream Fedora Atomic Desktop image?

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I rebased from aurora-dx-nvidia, and havenā€™t touched any of the Fedora atomic desktops directly. That might have done it?

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Yes that did.

If you want the preinstalled Flatpaks, enter this terminal command:

ujust _install-system-flatpaks

If you are interested what is installed:

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