Silverblue Guide
Edited April 2023
Fedora Silverblue is an immutable desktop operating system. It aims to be extremely stable and reliable. It also aims to be an excellent platform for developers and for those using container-focused workflows.
https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/fedora-silverblue/
Fedora Silverblue provides a very rock solid system making it ideal for daily desktop use. It's main source of applications is Flatpak, RPMs can be installed but require a system restart each time a RPM package is modified due to sandboxing reasons so it is only recommended for important system packages.
Silverblue uses Gnome, Kinoite is available if you want KDE
https://kinoite.fedoraproject.org/
Overview
Pros
+ Very stable system
+ Vast amount of packages with use of containers with Distrobox (AUR, DEB ect.)
+ Minimal applications included in installer ISO
+ Easy to use installation ISO
+ Most Fedora support forum advice and guides will work with Silverblue
Cons
- Restart required for install, update and removal of RPM packages by default
- Cannot test live session, only boots to installation
- SystemD
SystemD likes to hang on shutdown very commonly for me
- Containers have large filesizes
- Gnome-software (application installer) is very buggy
- Doesn't come with many video codecs. Flatpaks may come with them
Neutral
~ Downstream is a corporate controlled distro
~ Prepackaged Flatpaks use Fedora repos, which come with their own runtimes which are large and ideally shared with other Flatpaks, so switching default applications to flathub is a good idea to save space
What doesn't work
Shell extensions
quick-settings-extension: Argument filename may not be null
What should I use to install software?
Flatpak > Container > RPM
For example: Dino is in the RPM repos but not a flatpak. It's possible to install it as a layered RPM if wanted, but most people would recommend installing it with toolbox or distrobox and adding it to your menu.
My Fedora Silverblue setup
Add RPMs
rpm-ostree install gnome-tweak-tool alacarte distrobox
gnome-tweak-tool - Tweak Tool
alacarte - Application menu editor (Flatpaks cause errors)
distrobox - Use other distros in containers, supports GUI applications
Remove RPMs
Optional. It may cause issues when upgrading to new Fedora releases
rpm-ostree override remove firefox gnome-tour
firefox - Use Flatpak for browsers
gnome-tour - Only used once on major updates
Add Flatpaks
Extension Manager - install Gnome shell extensions without a browser
Flatseal - Advanced flatpak permission manager GUI
Bottles - Run Windows programs easily (WINE GUI)
Distrobox
What Distrobox can do
- Access the home directory by default
- Create shortcuts onto the host machine to container GUI commands
What Distrobox can't do
- Sandbox by default
- Edit system files such as editing .desktop files from the container
- (unsure 100%) Open-with host files into container applications
- Open links by default (ctrl+f Junction)
Install your distro of choice in distrobox
or
Install Arch Linux in distrobox
distrobox-create --image docker.io/library/archlinux:latest --name arch
Name can be whatever you want it to be
Recommended: Add a terminal profile to start with "distrobox-enter arch" with a different colour scheme
distrobox-enter arch
yay nano
sudo nano /etc/pacman.conf
ctrl + s to save
Install pamac-aur from Chaotic-AUR or AUR for pacman/AUR gui
yay pamac-aur
Add a desktop file to the hosts OS
distrobox-export --app pamac --sudo
Enable AUR with Hambuger menu > Settings > Third Party > Enable AUR support
Install junction from the aur to open links from the container to the host
Pods (podman gui) for managing distrobox
Remove Fedora repository flatpaks
u/BenkeiKuruma: After you install flathub, do this to completely remove the Fedora flatpak repo, and reinstall all apps with their flathub versions:
flatpak install $(flatpak list --app --columns=application) --reinstall
When asked, choose “flathub” remote, or otherwise choose “yes” for a flathub flatpak it wants you to install as a dependency.
After it’s done, remove the fedora remote from your system with:
flatpak remote-delete fedora
When prompted, remove the fedora platform runtimes, which should be the only thing remaining on your system from the fedora remote.
Just for good measure, run this last:
flatpak remove --unused
My old method
Disable Fedora flatpak repo
Remove Fedora flatpak runtimes
flatpak list --app | grep "fedora"
flatpak install --reinstall org.gnome.Calculator org.gnome.Calendar org.gnome.Characters org.gnome.Connections org.gnome.Contacts org.gnome.Evince org.gnome.Logs org.gnome.Weather org.gnome.baobab org.gnome.clocks org.gnome.eog org.gnome.font-viewer
Software to look out for
Waydroid (run Android applications) without custom kernel (not working correctly right now)
/tech/linux/