[SOLVED] Bazzite is great, but: "How the hell do I install stuff on Bazzite to control my laptop?!"
[SOLVED] Bazzite is great, but: "How the hell do I install stuff on Bazzite to control my laptop?!"
Pretty much the title. Maybe to add a bit of a backstory: Bazzite was awesome at first, all games ran on the first try!!
But then: I still haven't installed my vpn, let me quickly do that. Oh wait, there's no flatpak for my vpn, that's right.
Aight, lemme first install tlp and get these laptop fans under control. But wait, how? There's no flatpak. If I install it in distrobox, it has no effect, which kinda makes sense.
Whatever, lemme try auto-cpufreq. No flatpak, so distrobox it is. To no surprise, it fails. "System has not been booted with systems as init system."
Same with Goverlay. So then I just fell back into my chair and screamed: "How the hell do I install stuff on Bazzite to control my laptop?!"
So flatpak or distrobox is the recommended way to install “user” apps, but if you need closer to the “system”, that’s where rpm-ostree comes in. Its recommended to limit the layers (the package manager works by layering the app you install over your current images), but the apps you’re looking to install is a perfect use case for it. Feel free to comment any questions you have about using “rpm-ostree” and I’ll try my best to help. Also I love bazzite too!
Thank you so much for the hint, I sporadically read the word "rpm-ostree" but never thought that it was related to my issue. I'll do some research on it tomorrow and keep you updated!
Don't let yourself get too discouraged. Things are done differently from what you're used to. Over time, you start to understand more and the vocabulary starts to develop to more quickly search for answers.
Before I developed my chops I could spend all morning searching for answers to how to do something or other at the command line. Now I can get the answer in one search query for most things. It was a matter of learning how to ask the right questions. You simply do not know what you do not know.
Cheers.
No worries! You’re doing exactly what’s recommended, so I’d say you’re on the right path! Main thing is that rpm-ostree is the built in package manager, so like rpm, dnf, apt, Pac-Man, etc. so if you’ve used any of them before, it’s going to be pretty straight forward. And yeah, just comment or message me and I’ll try to respond when I get a chance. I’m no expert, but I know a bit
Hey!
So I've managed to find the time and install tlp and I'm already hugely grateful for that. You were right, and it was really just as easy as typing "sudo rpm-ostree install tlp" and it worked just like it would with apt or dnf. 1/5 done!
But sadly the other ones weren't so easy.
- Goverlay gives an error when using rpm-ostree, and the installation via tarball required qt6pas which I didn't manage to install correctly. Edit: After trying the same exact rpm-ostree a second time it....worked! But no idea what just happened. 2/5!!
- "Razer laptop control project" requires some packages (libdbus-1-dev libusb-dev libhidapi-dev libhidapi-hidraw0 pkg-config libudev-dev) that rpm-ostree isn't able to find.
- Auto-cpufreq uses an installer that exited with an error about the package "cairo" not being found (or rather, it being inactive). Installing it via rpm-ostree didn't change that...
- NordVPN for Linux uses a weird sh command that exited with the code "rpm-ostree: Dropping privileges as 'rpm' was executed with not 'known safe' arguments." I couldn't find anything on the internet about adding those arguments.
I've basically accepted my fate and given up on these last three programs, and it's largely my fault for wanting to install stuff that hasn't been made to work on an OS like Bazzite just yet. But maybe you can spot a rookie mistake or something that might help me again! Regardless of that, a huge thanks for your help and I'm glad I've got some programs to work while also learning something new along the way :)
I really appreciate your positive attitude about having to change your workflow when using a new technology.
Just a tip to help when you search for how tos, tips, or guides: since bazzite is built on top of ublue, and ublue is built on top of fedora silver blue/ fedora kinotie, you can use those as search options as well. For example, you can use “how to install goverlay on fedora silverblue” instead of “how to install goverlay on bazzite”. Since more people use fedora silver blue or kinotie, it will increase the possible results, and they SHOULD be 100% compatible as you can rebase to either 3 (as long as they use the same DE, can’t go from gnome to KDE or vice versa).
I’ll try to find time to provide good links for those 3 remaining programs (I know how hard it is to find and use a replacement, or be missing features).
Here’s one for now: NordVPN for Linux** this link seems like a good resource: https://www.answeroverflow.com/m/1153350314028695562
- I currently use proton vpn, but I’ve had nord in the past and believed I used the”openvpn” option mentioned. Openvpn is a common standard with lots of support, and most vpn providers offer it as an option.
Why would you need to limit the layers?
So just to clarify, it’s recommended to limit they layers, but it’s not a hard rule or anything. The reason it’s recommended for a couple reasons.
One reason is that the layers are basically your “core” install, your “actual” os. One of the big benefits of atomic distros is the inherent stability, and by adding layers you are adding more risk and complexity, which doesn’t eliminate the stability but it does decrease the odds of it being as stable and reliable.
Another reason is that the more layers you have, the longer updates are going to take, and the more storage space used. Atomic distros usually keep multiple “versions” around (current and previous), so if you install 10 layers you’re really taking up twice that space. Atomic distros sacrifice disk space and update speed, to increase reliability stability and reproducibility. I think it’s a fair trade off, but a bunch of layers do shift the scales a bit more towards a net zero. Also besides have two versions (usually standard), you can also pin versions that you want to keep around, for example let’s stay you’re on plasma 5 and upgrading to 6, you can pin the version with 5 until you’re confident that 6 is working out for you. In the grand scheme that’s not a lot of storage, especially when cheap, but still worth factoring in.
There’s also concern about file conflicts, inheritance (a layer overwriting a config that’s used by the base or lower layers), etc. I wouldn’t worry about it too much, just in general it’s better to use distrobox or flatpak where possible, and only use rpm-ostree where it’s the only option.