Installing "unavailable" apps on Bluefin / Aurora / Bazzite

A worked example: getting Brave (the Origin build) running as a first-class desktop app by putting it in a Distrobox Ubuntu container and exporting it back to the host. I'll show the Containers GUI as the main path and drop in the equivalent CLI commands as I go.

1. Overview

Bluefin, Aurora, and Bazzite are image-based (immutable) Linux distributions built on Fedora Silverblue / Kinoite. Because the root filesystem is read-only, you can't install packages with dnf install the traditional way. Typically, Flatpaks are recommended for GUI apps while homebrew packages are recommended for CLI apps. But sometimes a Flatpak is not available. For the Fedora Atomic distros, you could perhaps use rpm-ostree to install packages but that is not supported and is, in fact, actually discouraged in the Universal Blue images (Bluefin/Aurora/Bazzite). In the case of Brave which I am using as my example here, it isn't available in the ostree layered image anyway.

Distrobox is the way out. It spins up a normal, mutable container (Podman under the hood) running whatever distro you like. Inside it you have a plain old package manager, and once the app is installed you can export it back to the host so it shows up in your app launcher, dock, and Alt+Tab like anything else. The app runs inside the container but draws on your real display, so you'd never know the difference.

2. Create the container

There are two ways to do this: type a few commands, or click through the Containers app (DistroShelf) that Bluefin and Aurora ship. I'll show both — but I'll be honest about which one I'd reach for.

CLIThe easy way

Honestly, the whole thing is five commands. Open a terminal and run:

# on the host: create the box and step inside
$ distrobox create --name ubuntu --image ghcr.io/ublue-os/ubuntu-toolbox:latest
$ distrobox enter ubuntu

# now inside the container: install Brave, add audio, then export to the host
$ curl -fsS https://dl.brave.com/install.sh | FLAVOR=origin sh
$ sudo apt-get install -y libpulse0        # so browser audio works
$ distrobox-export --app brave-origin

That's genuinely it — create the box, step in, run Brave's installer, add the audio library, export the launcher, and Brave Origin lands in your app menu a moment later. That libpulse0 line is easy to skip but you'll want it: without it the browser runs fine but plays no sound (see troubleshooting). Prefer a stock Ubuntu image? Swap in --image ubuntu:26.04; just note the bare image doesn't ship curl, so run sudo apt-get install -y curl first.

GUIThe hard way (the Containers app)

Open Containers from the system menu.

Fix one setting first, because the default is wrong. The app's Preferences → Preferred Terminal ships set to GNOME Terminal, which none of these images actually include — so later, when you click Terminal to enter the box, nothing happens. Open the menu (☰) next to the DistroShelf title → Preferences and set Preferred Terminal to Ptyxis, which is what Bluefin, Aurora, and Bazzite all ship. Do it now (you can't reach Preferences once the create dialog is open) and the Terminal button will work when you need it.

Click + (top left) to open the guided Create a Distrobox dialog. Give it a name — I called mine ubuntu — and leave the rest at their defaults. (I flipped NVIDIA Support on because I have an NVIDIA card; skip it if you don't.) Then tap Base Image to choose the distro.

Search for ubuntu and pick a current image. I want the latest Ubuntu, not an old LTS, so I use the Ubuntu toolbox image (ghcr.io/ublue-os/ubuntu-toolbox) — it tracks the newest Ubuntu release and comes with curl and the usual niceties already baked in. Plain ubuntu:26.04 works too. Select it and you're back at the create dialog with that image set.

⚠️ Don't grab 24.04

The predefined list tops out at ubuntu:24.04. That still works, but it's a release behind. Use the toolbox image (latest) or type ubuntu:26.04 into the custom field so you're on current packages.

Back in the dialog, hit Create. Distrobox pulls the image and sets the box up; when it's done you'll see the task marked successful, and it tells you how to enter it from a terminal (distrobox enter ubuntu).

Select the container and you land on its Overview. This is command central: a Terminal button to jump inside, Applications for exporting apps to the host (we'll use that later), Upgrade Container, and a Danger Zone if you ever want to delete it.

With that set, click Terminal to drop into the box. The first time, it runs through its setup and leaves you at a shell prompt inside the container — notice it changes to [john@ubuntu ~]$. From here you're in exactly the same place the CLI path landed: install Brave (next section), then export it.

3. Install Brave with one command

Everything from here runs inside the container. Brave publishes a one-line installer that adds their APT repo, imports the signing key, and installs the package for you, so there's no manual key-and-repo dance anymore. Their download page hands you the exact command:

Paste it into the container shell and run it:

$ curl -fsS https://dl.brave.com/install.sh | FLAVOR=origin sh

💡 Origin vs regular Brave

FLAVOR=origin installs Brave Origin (the build without the rewards/wallet/AI extras) and gives you a brave-origin command. Drop that variable and you get the standard brave-browser instead — the rest of this guide works the same either way, just swap the name.

The script pulls in Brave and its dependencies. On a fresh Ubuntu box that's a couple hundred megabytes the first time, so give it a minute.

While you're still in the container, install one more package or the browser will have no audio: libpulse0. Brave loads it at startup to reach your speakers through the host's audio server, and the toolbox image doesn't include it.

$ sudo apt-get install -y libpulse0

💡 Why this is separate

Distrobox already shares the host's audio socket into the container, so there's no permission to grant — Brave just needs the PulseAudio client library present to use it. Chromium-based browsers load it dynamically, so if it's missing they run happily but silently.

When it finishes it tells you exactly how to launch it. Try it from the container shell to confirm the window comes up, then close it — next we'll make it a proper desktop app.

$ brave-origin

4. Export it to your desktop

Right now Brave only exists inside the container. Exporting it creates a .desktop launcher on the host that points into the box, so it shows up in your launcher and Alt+Tab like a native app.

GUIFrom the Containers app

On the container's Overview, open Applications ("Manage exportable applications"), find Brave in the list, and toggle it on. That's the same export, just without the terminal.

CLIFrom inside the container

$ distrobox-export --app brave-origin

Once exported, Brave turns up in:

• GNOME: Activities overview, dash, app grid, Alt+Tab
• KDE Plasma: Application Launcher, task manager, KRunner
• Both: as a browser option when another app opens a link

If you want Brave to launch with particular flags from the desktop icon (say, force a scale factor), pass them through at export time:

$ distrobox-export --app brave-origin \
  --extra-flags "--force-device-scale-factor=1.25"

KDE note: Plasma sometimes needs a log out / log in before the new launcher appears. GNOME usually picks it up right away.

5. Verify & troubleshoot

Confirm the export landed

$ ls -la ~/.local/share/applications/brave*

You should see a brave-origin.desktop file.

Launch it from the host

Click the icon in your launcher, or from a host terminal:

$ distrobox enter ubuntu -- brave-origin

That runs Brave without dropping you into the container shell first.

When something's off

$ distrobox enter ubuntu -- sudo apt-get install -y libpulse0

$ distrobox enter ubuntu -- pactl info | grep "Server Name"
Server Name: PulseAudio (on PipeWire ...)

$ distrobox enter ubuntu -- brave-origin

$ distrobox-export --app brave-origin --extra-flags "--no-sandbox"

$ sudo sed -i '/127.0.1.1/d' /etc/hosts
$ echo "127.0.1.1 $(hostname)" | sudo tee -a /etc/hosts

$ distrobox-export --app brave-origin --extra-flags "--disable-gpu"

$ distrobox enter ubuntu
$ sudo apt install -y xdg-utils xdg-desktop-portal

6. Keeping it updated

Brave installed itself from an APT repo inside the container, so it updates the same way everything else in the box does. From the Containers app, that's the Upgrade Container button on the Overview. From a terminal:

$ distrobox enter ubuntu
$ sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Or as a one-liner from the host, without entering the box:

$ distrobox enter ubuntu -- sh -c 'sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y'

# ~/.config/systemd/user/brave-update.service
[Unit]
Description=Update the Brave container

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=distrobox enter ubuntu -- sh -c 'sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y'

7. Removing it

Un-export the desktop launcher but keep the container:

$ distrobox enter ubuntu -- distrobox-export --app brave-origin --delete

Uninstall Brave but keep the container for other things:

$ distrobox enter ubuntu -- sudo apt remove -y brave-origin

Stop the container (it'll start again next time you use it):

$ distrobox stop ubuntu

Or nuke the whole thing — container and everything in it:

$ distrobox rm ubuntu

In the GUI, that last one is Delete Container in the Overview's Danger Zone.

Quick command reference

Same recipe works for anything that ships a .deb or an APT repo — Brave Origin is just the example.