This tutorial documents a working, verified installation of Homebrew (Linuxbrew) on a Debian 13 "trixie" LXC container. Every step reflects what was actually done on this system; nothing has been invented or copied from generic guides without verification.

Tested environment: - Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie), amd64 - LXC unprivileged container - Homebrew 5.0.15 - Primary non-root user: morgan (uid=1000)

Table of Contents

1. Prerequisites
2. Installation Steps
3. Per-User Shell Setup
4. Verification
5. Adding Future Users
6. Troubleshooting

1. Prerequisites

System packages

The Homebrew installer requires these packages. Install them as root before running the installer:

apt-get update
apt-get install -y build-essential git curl file procps

Verify all five are present:

ii  build-essential 12.12              amd64  Informational list of build-essential packages
ii  curl            8.14.1-2+deb13u2   amd64  command line tool for transferring data with URL syntax
ii  file            1:5.46-5           amd64  Recognize the type of data in a file using "magic" numbers
ii  git             1:2.47.3-0+deb13u1 amd64  fast, scalable, distributed revision control system
ii  procps          2:4.0.4-9          amd64  /proc file system utilities

PATH gotcha: /usr/sbin must be in root's PATH

On Debian 13, /usr/sbin is not automatically in the PATH of non-login shells (including those invoked by su without -l). The installer calls useradd, which lives at /usr/sbin/useradd. If /usr/sbin is missing from your PATH the installer will fail with a confusing "command not found" error.

Before running the installer, confirm your PATH includes /usr/sbin:

echo $PATH

If it does not, prepend it for the session:

export PATH="/usr/sbin:$PATH"

Or simply run the installer from a full login shell (su - rather than su).

2. Installation Steps

All steps in this section are run as root.

Step 1 — Create the dedicated linuxbrew group

Homebrew on Linux uses a shared group so that multiple users can write to the installation prefix. Create it before the installer runs so you control its GID:

groupadd linuxbrew

Step 2 — Pre-create the Homebrew prefix directory

The Homebrew installer expects to own /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew. In an LXC container the installer sometimes cannot create /home/linuxbrew itself due to ownership constraints on /home. Pre-create it and set the correct ownership before running the installer:

mkdir -p /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew
chown -R morgan:linuxbrew /home/linuxbrew
chmod 2775 /home/linuxbrew
chmod 2775 /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew

The 2775 mode sets the setgid bit (s) on the directory. This causes all files and subdirectories created inside to inherit the linuxbrew group automatically, which is what allows multiple users to install and update packages.

After this step, ls -la /home/linuxbrew/ should show:

drwxrwxr-x  3 morgan linuxbrew 4096 Feb 25 15:31 .
drwxr-xr-x  4 root   root      4096 Feb 25 15:31 ..
drwxrwsr-x 14 morgan linuxbrew 4096 Feb 25 15:31 .linuxbrew

And stat /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew confirms the setgid bit:

Access: (2775/drwxrwsr-x)  Uid: ( 1000/  morgan)   Gid: ( 1001/linuxbrew)

Step 3 — Add the primary user to the linuxbrew group

usermod -aG linuxbrew morgan

The -a flag is critical — without it usermod -G replaces all supplementary groups instead of appending to them.

Step 4 — Run the Homebrew installer as the primary user

Switch to the non-root user and run the official installer. Do not run it as root:

su - morgan
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Because the prefix directory already exists and is writable by the linuxbrew group (and morgan is a member), the installer will populate it without needing to create it or change system-level ownership.

Step 5 — Create the system-wide profile.d script

To activate Homebrew automatically for every user who logs in, create a shell script in /etc/profile.d/ as root:

cat > /etc/profile.d/homebrew.sh << 'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
if [ -d "/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew" ]; then
    eval "$(/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/bin/brew shellenv)"
fi
EOF
chmod +x /etc/profile.d/homebrew.sh

This is exactly the file present on this system:

# /etc/profile.d/homebrew.sh
#!/bin/bash
if [ -d "/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew" ]; then
    eval "$(/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/bin/brew shellenv)"
fi

The if guard makes the script safe on systems where the prefix does not exist (e.g., before installation, or if the directory is removed).

3. Per-User Shell Setup

The /etc/profile.d/homebrew.sh script runs automatically for login shells. This covers su - username, SSH logins, and console logins.

For interactive non-login shells (e.g., a new terminal tab that sources ~/.bashrc instead of ~/.bash_profile), a user may need to add the following to their ~/.bashrc:

# Homebrew (Linuxbrew)
if [ -d "/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew" ]; then
    eval "$(/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/bin/brew shellenv)"
fi

brew shellenv sets these environment variables:

4. Verification

Confirm the installation prefix layout

ls -la /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/

Expected output (all entries owned by morgan:linuxbrew, setgid s visible):

total 56
drwxrwsr-x 14 morgan linuxbrew 4096 Feb 25 15:31 .
drwxrwxr-x  3 morgan linuxbrew 4096 Feb 25 15:31 ..
drwxrwsr-x  2 morgan linuxbrew 4096 Feb 25 15:31 Caskroom
drwxrwsr-x  2 morgan linuxbrew 4096 Feb 25 15:31 Cellar
drwxrwsr-x  2 morgan linuxbrew 4096 Feb 25 15:31 Frameworks
drwxrwsr-x 15 morgan linuxbrew 4096 Feb 25 15:31 Homebrew
drwxrwsr-x  2 morgan linuxbrew 4096 Feb 25 15:31 bin
drwxrwsr-x  3 morgan linuxbrew 4096 Feb 25 15:32 etc
drwxrwsr-x  2 morgan linuxbrew 4096 Feb 25 15:31 include
drwxrwsr-x  2 morgan linuxbrew 4096 Feb 25 15:31 lib
drwxrwsr-x  2 morgan linuxbrew 4096 Feb 25 15:31 opt
drwxrwsr-x  2 morgan linuxbrew 4096 Feb 25 15:31 sbin
drwxrwsr-x  6 morgan linuxbrew 4096 Feb 25 15:32 share
drwxrwsr-x  3 morgan linuxbrew 4096 Feb 25 15:31 var

Check the Homebrew version

su - morgan -c 'brew --version'

Homebrew 5.0.15

Run brew doctor

su - morgan -c 'brew doctor'

Your system is ready to brew.

Confirm group membership

getent group linuxbrew
# linuxbrew:x:1001:morgan

id morgan
# uid=1000(morgan) gid=1000(morgan) groups=1000(morgan),100(users),1001(linuxbrew)

Test installing a package (dry run)

su - morgan -c 'brew install --dry-run hello'

==> Would install 1 formula:
hello

5. Adding Future Users

When a new user needs Homebrew access:

# As root — add the new user to the linuxbrew group
usermod -aG linuxbrew newuser

The user must log out and back in (or start a new login shell) for the group change to take effect. The /etc/profile.d/homebrew.sh script will activate brew for them automatically on their next login. No other changes are needed.

To verify the new user can reach Homebrew:

su - newuser -c 'brew --version'

6. Troubleshooting

brew: command not found in a non-login shell

The /etc/profile.d/homebrew.sh script only runs in login shells. In a non-login shell (typical terminal emulators, su username without the -), Homebrew will not be on the PATH.

Fix: source the script manually, or add the eval line to ~/.bashrc as shown in Section 3.

Quick test — if this works but brew does not:

/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/bin/brew --version

then the issue is purely PATH/environment, not the installation.

useradd: command not found during installation

useradd lives at /usr/sbin/useradd. On Debian 13, /usr/sbin is not in the PATH of non-login root shells. Run the installer from a full login shell:

su -        # note the hyphen — this gives a login shell with /usr/sbin in PATH

Or prepend it explicitly before running the installer:

export PATH="/usr/sbin:$PATH"

Installer fails to create /home/linuxbrew

In LXC containers, the installer may not be able to create the prefix directory itself because /home is owned by root:root with mode 755. The installer does not have write access to /home when running as a non-root user.

Solution: pre-create the directory as root before running the installer (see Step 2).

Permission denied errors when running brew install

The user must be in the linuxbrew group and must have started a new session after being added. Check:

id          # linuxbrew should appear in the groups list

If linuxbrew is absent, either the usermod -aG linuxbrew username step was skipped, or the user has not logged out and back in since being added.

brew doctor reports warnings about /usr/local

On Linux, Homebrew uses /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew as its prefix, not /usr/local. Warnings about /usr/local being absent or not owned by the current user are normal and harmless on a Linux installation.

Quick-Reference: Full Root-Side Install Sequence

# 1. Install dependencies
apt-get update && apt-get install -y build-essential git curl file procps

# 2. Ensure /usr/sbin is in PATH (run as login shell or set manually)
export PATH="/usr/sbin:$PATH"

# 3. Create the linuxbrew group
groupadd linuxbrew

# 4. Pre-create the prefix and set ownership/permissions
mkdir -p /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew
chown -R morgan:linuxbrew /home/linuxbrew
chmod 2775 /home/linuxbrew
chmod 2775 /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew

# 5. Add the primary user to the group
usermod -aG linuxbrew morgan

# 6. Run the installer as the non-root user
su - morgan -c '/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"'

# 7. Install the system-wide profile.d activation script
cat > /etc/profile.d/homebrew.sh << 'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
if [ -d "/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew" ]; then
    eval "$(/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/bin/brew shellenv)"
fi
EOF
chmod +x /etc/profile.d/homebrew.sh

# 8. Verify
su - morgan -c 'brew --version && brew doctor'