diff --git a/Dockerfile-desktop-linux b/Dockerfile-desktop-linux
index 21832aa839..e646d6fae8 100644
--- a/Dockerfile-desktop-linux
+++ b/Dockerfile-desktop-linux
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 FROM --platform=linux/amd64 golang:1.25.5-bookworm@sha256:5117d68695f57faa6c2b3a49a6f3187ec1f66c75d5b080e4360bfe4c1ada398c
 LABEL maintainer="Fleet Developers"
 
+RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y musl-tools && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+
 RUN mkdir -p /usr/src/fleet
 RUN mkdir -p /output
 
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index d8eadcdd2e..fb0779192a 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -763,7 +763,7 @@ desktop-linux:
 	docker build -f Dockerfile-desktop-linux -t desktop-linux-builder .
 	docker run --rm -v $(shell pwd):/output desktop-linux-builder /bin/bash -c "\
 		mkdir -p /output/fleet-desktop && \
-		go build -o /output/fleet-desktop/fleet-desktop -ldflags "-X=main.version=$(FLEET_DESKTOP_VERSION)" /usr/src/fleet/orbit/cmd/desktop && \
+		CGO_ENABLED=1 CC=musl-gcc go build -o /output/fleet-desktop/fleet-desktop -ldflags \"-linkmode external -extldflags \\\"-static\\\" -X=main.version=$(FLEET_DESKTOP_VERSION)\" /usr/src/fleet/orbit/cmd/desktop && \
 		cd /output && \
 		tar czf desktop.tar.gz fleet-desktop && \
 		rm -r fleet-desktop"
diff --git a/orbit/changes/35413-fleet-desktop-glibc-incompatibility-fix b/orbit/changes/35413-fleet-desktop-glibc-incompatibility-fix
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..21caac674e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/orbit/changes/35413-fleet-desktop-glibc-incompatibility-fix
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+- Added `musl-tools` to fleet-desktop build process to fix GLIBC incompatibility that caused orbit agent to fail when updating fleet-desktop on Ubuntu 20.04.
\ No newline at end of file