Project Bluefin is rapidly changing how we think about desktop Linux, offering a pristine, atomic, and highly reliable experience based on Fedora Silverblue. However, the true superpower of Bluefin lies hidden in plain sight inside your terminal: the ujust command. If you want to unlock the full potential of your system without memorizing pages of complex documentation, mastering this tool is essential.

This handbook dives deep into the hidden features of Bluefin, explaining exactly how to use the built-in ujust command to effortlessly install drivers, enable complex background services, and tweak system settings.

What is the ujust Command?

In the Linux world, configuring a system usually requires stringing together multiple package manager commands, editing text files, and managing systemd services. Project Bluefin simplifies this by utilizing a task runner called just, wrapped specifically for Bluefin as ujust. It acts as a shortcut library for all your system administration needs.

ELI5 (Explain Like I’m 5): Imagine you are at a restaurant. Instead of walking into the kitchen, finding the ingredients, and cooking a complex meal yourself (which is like typing long, confusing Linux commands), you simply point to an item on a menu and say, “I want that.” The chef does all the hard work for you. The ujust command is that menu for your computer. You type what you want, and the computer does all the complicated background work automatically.

Getting Started: Accessing the ujust Menu

Before installing drivers or tweaking settings, you need to know how to see what is available. Bluefin makes this incredibly intuitive.

Open your terminal and simply type:

ujust

Hitting enter will display a categorized list of every available command. If you want an interactive menu where you can use your arrow keys to select a task, you can run:

ujust --choose

Hidden Features: Installing Drivers with ujust

Hardware compatibility on Linux has improved massively, but installing proprietary drivers and codecs can still be a stumbling block. The ujust command turns this into a one-click process.

Managing NVIDIA Drivers

If you are using an NVIDIA graphics card, you know that managing proprietary drivers can sometimes break your system. Because Bluefin is an atomic operating system, driver management is handled at the image level, but ujust allows you to interact with it safely.

To easily install or configure the NVIDIA proprietary drivers, you can use:

ujust configure-nvidia

This command automatically fetches the correct, stable NVIDIA drivers tested for your specific Bluefin image, ensuring your gaming and rendering workloads run smoothly without risking a broken boot sequence.

Installing Multimedia Codecs

Out of the box, some Linux distributions cannot play certain video or audio formats due to software patent restrictions. Instead of hunting down the correct GStreamer packages, you can install all necessary multimedia codecs instantly.

ujust install-codecs

This hidden gem ensures that your web browser can play all HTML5 videos, and your local media players can handle formats like H.264 and HEVC without throwing error messages.

Enabling Services the Easy Way

Power users often need background services for development, virtualization, or gaming. Traditionally, this requires installing packages and manually enabling them via systemctl. Bluefin streamlines this completely.

Setting Up Virtualization and Docker

If you are a developer or a tinkerer, you likely need Docker, Podman, or virtual machines. Setting up the necessary permissions and daemon services can be tedious.

To get your system ready for containerized development, run:

ujust setup-docker

ELI5: Think of a virtual machine or a Docker container as a “computer inside your computer.” It needs a special bridge to talk to your main system. Normally, you have to build this bridge yourself with a lot of tools. The ujust setup-docker command is like hiring a construction crew that builds the bridge for you in five seconds.

Similarly, if you want to run full Virtual Machines using tools like KVM and Virt-Manager, simply run:

ujust setup-virtualization

Optimizing for Gaming

Bluefin is an excellent gaming OS, but you can squeeze even more performance out of your hardware by enabling Feral Interactive’s GameMode. This service temporarily applies optimizations (like CPU governor adjustments) while a game is running.

ujust setup-gaming

This command installs and configures GameMode, Steam, and other necessary compatibility layers (like Proton tools) so you can launch your games with maximum performance.

Tweaking System Settings for Peak Performance

Beyond drivers and services, ujust includes several quality-of-life scripts that make maintaining and customizing your Bluefin installation a breeze.

Effortless System Updates

While Bluefin updates automatically in the background, you might want to manually trigger an update before installing new software or right after booting. The easiest way to update everything—including the base OS, Flatpaks, and hardware firmware—is one simple command:

ujust update

This ensures you are running the latest security patches and software features without needing to run separate commands for rpm-ostree, flatpak, and fwupdmgr.

Customizing the Desktop Experience

Bluefin ships with a beautifully customized GNOME desktop experience, but you might want to toggle certain features on or off, such as the built-in tiling window manager extensions or specific dock behaviors. You can explore customization tweaks by running:

ujust configure-desktop

This brings up a menu allowing you to safely modify GNOME settings without needing to download a third-party tweaks tool. If you ever make a mistake, the immutable nature of Bluefin means you can simply roll back or reset the configuration with ease.