Does a Fedora Silverblue rebase preserve rpm-ostree layered packages in newly created Toolbox containers?

No, a Fedora Silverblue rebase does not preserve or transfer rpm-ostree layered packages into newly created Toolbox containers. Layered packages installed on the host remain exclusive to the host's immutable root filesystem and are not inherited by the containerized userspace.

The Separation of Host and Container

To understand why this occurs, it is necessary to distinguish between the host's deployment and the Toolbox environment:

• Host Layering: When you use rpm-ostree install, you are creating a new deployment of the host OS with an additional overlay. This is intended for system-level dependencies, such as drivers, VPN clients, or kernel-level utilities.
• Toolbox Containers: A Toolbox container is a separate OCI-compliant image (typically based on the standard Fedora Workstation image). While it shares the host's kernel and maps your home directory, it maintains its own independent root filesystem.

Because Toolbox containers pull a clean base image from a registry, they have no mechanism to "scan" or import the host's rpm-ostree layers during the toolbox create process. A system rebase updates the host's base image, but it does not modify the logic of how Toolbox images are instantiated.

Synchronizing Your Environment

Since there is no automatic synchronization, you must manage development dependencies within the container itself. To replicate a host-layered tool inside a Toolbox, follow these steps:

1. Create your container: toolbox create
2. Enter the container: toolbox enter
3. Install the required package using the mutable package manager: sudo dnf install [package-name]

Verification Steps

You can verify this behavior with the following scoped commands:

# 1. Install a utility on the host
rpm-ostree install htop
# (Reboot to apply changes)

# 2. Create and enter a new toolbox
toolbox create
toolbox enter

# 3. Check for the package inside the container
htop

The result will be a bash: htop: command not found error, confirming that the host layer did not propagate to the container.

Diagnostic Detail Needed

Are you attempting to share a specific system library or a binary tool? If you are trying to access a specific hardware-related library, you may need to look into /dev mapping or specific volume mounts rather than package layering.