🤔🛡️⚠️🐧Should You Use Carburetor on Ubuntu?

The most honest, practical answer:

Carburetor is excellent for privacy and security, but it is not for everyone.
Whether I would advise installing it on Ubuntu depends on your experience level and your threat model.

Below is a clear breakdown so you can decide confidently.

✅ Who Should Install Carburetor.

Carburetor is a good idea if you:

✔ Care deeply about privacy.

It prevents apps from reading your files, scanning your home folder, or phoning home.

✔ Use mostly native apps (not Electron).

Apps like:

• Firefox
• Thunderbird
• GIMP
• LibreOffice
• VLC (with limited GPU needs)
• Terminal apps
• GNOME/KDE apps (with some tweaks)

✔ Don’t mind occasional breakage.

You’re okay with:

• Fixing permissions.
• Editing AppArmor profiles.
• Reinstalling an app that partially updated.

✔ Have moderate Linux experience.

Basic debugging, reading logs, or understanding denied permissions helps a lot.

✔ Want a system-wide privacy improvement with minimal manual effort.

Carburetor gives strong privacy with very little setup.

For privacy-oriented Ubuntu users, Carburetor is one of the best available tools.

❌ Who Should NOT Install Carburetor

You should not install Carburetor if:

✖ You use a lot of software known to break:

• Slack
• Discord
• Microsoft Teams
• VS Code
• Steam
• Chrome/Chromium
• Spotify desktop
• Zoom
• Signal Desktop
• AppImages
• Anything Electron or proprietary

These apps often break, partially update, or fail under strict AppArmor policies.

✖ You want a stable, no-maintenance system.

Carburetor can cause:

• Apps not launching.
• Features disappearing.
• Breakage after updates.

✖ You are not comfortable troubleshooting.

If you do not want to:

• Check logs.
• Adjust profiles.
• Disable Carburetor temporarily.
• Reinstall apps.

… then the experience may be frustrating.

✖ You need maximum compatibility and convenience.

For example:

• gaming
• business software
• screen sharing
• video conferencing

Carburetor may interfere.

🧠 Neutral Advice (Based on Ubuntu use)

🟪 Ubuntu Desktop (Home User).

If you use:

• Firefox
• LibreOffice
• Native apps
  → Installing Carburetor is fine.
  Minor issues possible, but manageable.

If you use:

• Discord
• VS Code
• Steam
• Chrome-based browsers
  → I do not advise installing Carburetor.

🟦 Ubuntu for Productivity / Office Work.

If you rely on apps like:

• Zoom
• Teams
• Slack
  → Avoid Carburetor (too much breakage).

🟥 Ubuntu for Gaming.

→ Do not install Carburetor.
It will conflict with:

• Steam
• Proton/Wine
• anti-cheat
• GPUs
• game launchers

🟩 Ubuntu for Privacy-Focused Users.

→ Strongly recommended, as long as you’re technical enough to manage occasional breakage.

⭐ My Recommendation

If you’re asking “should I install it?” the safest answer is:

Install Carburetor ONLY IF:

• You understand AppArmor basics.
• You use mostly native open-source Linux apps.
• You accept the possibility of some troubleshooting.

If you need everything to “just work,” don’t install it.

Some insights about the use of carburetor.

After installation carburetor can be enabled and disabled. In most cases, software that broke under Carburetor will work again after you disable it.

But there are a few exceptions you should know about.

✅ What Happens When You Disable Carburetor?

Carburetor works by installing and enforcing AppArmor profiles.
When you disable Carburetor, those strict profiles are:

• removed from enforcement
• or switched back to complain mode
• or completely unloaded (depending on how you disable it)

As a result:

✔ Apps regain their normal permissions.

No more blocked filesystem access, DBus restrictions, IPC limits, GPU blocking, or networking issues.

✔ Most previously broken applications start working immediately.

Especially:

• web browsers
• Electron apps
• proprietary software
• anything that couldn’t launch under Carburetor

There is no permanent modification to the apps themselves—only to their AppArmor permissions—so disabling the profiles usually fixes everything instantly.

⚠️ But there are some exceptions.

Here are the cases where apps might still be broken after disabling Carburetor:

1. Apps that updated while restricted.

If an app failed a partial self-update due to blocked filesystem access (common with Electron or Chrome), it may require:

• reinstalling
• clearing the update cache
• removing leftover broken files

2. Apps installed during active Carburetor restrictions.

Some installers write config files in unusual paths.
If those files were blocked or never written, the app might not start until reinstalled.

3. Cache or permission corruption.

Rare, but possible for:

• Steam
• Discord
• VS Code
• Chrome/Chromium

A simple fix is to clear the config folder or reinstall.

4. If Carburetor wasn't fully disabled.

Some users disable the service but leave the AppArmor profiles loaded.
For full disabling, you must:

Option A: Disable Carburetor’s AppArmor profiles.

$ sudo systemctl stop carburetor

$ sudo systemctl disable carburetor

Option B: Switch profiles to complain mode.

$ sudo aa-complain /etc/apparmor.d/*

Option C: Remove Carburetor entirely.

$ sudo apt remove carburetor

If profiles remain in enforce mode, breakage will continue even if the service is off.

🧠 Summary

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