New Desktop

Introduction

I haven’t taken notes on a soup to nuts Linux reinstall in several years so I thought I’d put my notes on reinstallation here for myself and for posterity. It is interesting to me that despite being in a mainstream and quick moving Linux distribution, I had to do an incredible amount of configuration outside of the package manager.

There are a couple pieces here that make this easier. For one I’ve been keeping ‘the big list of packages’ for about a year now checked in to git. For another I finally have a dotfiles management system that I’m happy with. I’ve had dotfiles in git for a long time but setting up a new system has always been a lot of editor copy/paste work.

Those repos are here packages list and dotfiles repo.

Ubuntu Installer

Install stock Ubuntu 18.04 from USB stick
select extra packages during installation
select colemak keyboard layout during installation
select full disk encryption during installation

Installer re-used EFI partition created by windows installation. Set Ubuntu ahead of windows in the boot order (how?).

First boot steps

Update Ubuntu

root@huygens:~# apt update
root@huygens:~# apt upgrade -y
root@huygens:~# apt dist-upgrade -y

Firefox

Install Firefox beta channel

nibz@huygens:~$ mkdir -p ~/local/bin
nibz@huygens:~$ cp ~/Downloads/firefox-70.0b6.tar.bz2 local/
nibz@huygens:~$ cd ~/local/
nibz@huygens:~/local$ ls
bin
nibz@huygens:~/local$ mv ~/Downloads/firefox-70.0b6.tar.bz2 .
nibz@huygens:~/local$ ls
bin  firefox-70.0b6.tar.bz2
nibz@huygens:~/local$ tar -xvjf firefox-70.0b6.tar.bz2 
firefox/firefox
nibz@huygens:~/local$ cd bin/
nibz@huygens:~/local/bin$ ls
nibz@huygens:~/local/bin$ ln -s ../firefox/firefox
nibz@huygens:~/local/bin$ ls -l
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 nibz nibz 18 Sep 13 20:55 firefox -> ../firefox/firefox

Create firefox Profiles

cd local/bin
./firefox --new-instance --ProfileManager

Make 3 new profiles:

Work
Main
misc/bomb-disposal

Profile configuraton

Set search to duckduckgo
uncheck: Show search suggestions ahead of browsing history in address bar results
Install Tree Style Tabs
- https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tree-style-tab/
Install ublock origin
- https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/
Set about:config px per px (layout.css.devPixelsPerPx) to make firefox work normally on highdpi screens. Set to 1.5.
Install Window Titler:
- https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/window-titler/
Click titler toolbar - click gear - set profile wide title for profile
(optional, install theme)

Install core utilities

root@huygens:~# apt install vim git apt-transport-https

Install personal package list

root@huygens:~# git clone https://github.com/nibalizer/personal-ansible
root@huygens:~# ln -s personal-ansible/scripts/* .
root@huygens:~# ls
packages.yaml  install_packages.sh
root@huygens:~# vim packages.yaml  # edit out any packages that depend on a not-yet-added repo/ppa
root@huygens:~# ./install_packages.sh 
root@huygens:~# vim packages.yaml  # edit out any packages that don't exist in ubuntu
root@huygens:~# ./install_packages.sh

Setup SSH

SSH client

# Generate ssh key
nibz@huygens:~$ ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096
# Pull keys this host should trust (possibly editing after)
nibz@huygens:~$ curl https://github.com/nibalizer.keys >> .ssh/authorized_keys

(copy over ~/.ssh/config and ~/.ssh/known_hosts if needed)

Or client configuration:

ForwardAgent no
UseRoaming no
#VisualHostKey yes
VerifyHostKeyDNS ask
StrictHostKeyChecking ask
Compression yes
#ConnectTimeout 5
ServerAliveInterval 30
#openssl speed aes rc4 blowfish
#Ciphers blowfish-cbc,aes256-cbc
ForwardX11 no
ForwardX11Trusted no
#SendEnv TERM
NoHostAuthenticationForLocalhost yes
HashKnownHosts no

SSH Server (sshd)

root@huygens:~# apt install openssh-server

Disable password auth:

Change: #PasswordAuthentication yes to PasswordAuthentication no

root@huygens:~# vim /etc/ssh/sshd_config 
root@huygens:~# systemctl restart ssh 
#setup /etc/hosts if needed
root@huygens:~# sudo vim /etc/hosts

switch to KDE

root@huygens:~# apt install tasksel

root@huygens:~# tasksel install kubuntu-desktop
# select gdm when prompted
#(reboot)

KDE customizations

Keyboard will be in Colemak
Set Caps Lock to control
System Settings -> Keyboard -> Advanced > Ctrl Position -> Checkbox “Caps lock as control”
Increase bottom panel size: Right click -> system tray settings, re-size
Set face pic. KDE menu -> Click name -> Click icon -> Load from file (requires auth lol)

Install proprietary Nividia drivers

(from nixcraft)

root@huygens:~# hwinfo --gfxcard --short
graphics card:                                                  
                       nVidia GP104 [GeForce GTX 1070]

Primary display adapter: #14

root@huygens:~# lshw -C display
  *-display                 
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: GP104 [GeForce GTX 1070]
       vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: a1
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=nouveau latency=0
       resources: irq:124 memory:f6000000-f6ffffff memory:e0000000-efffffff memory:f0000000-f1ffffff ioport:e000(size=128) memory:c0000-dffff


root@huygens:~# apt install nvidia-driver-430
#(reboot)

post-reboot:

root@huygens:~# lshw -C display
  *-display                 
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: GP104 [GeForce GTX 1070]
       vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: a1
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
       resources: irq:124 memory:f6000000-f6ffffff memory:e0000000-efffffff memory:f0000000-f1ffffff ioport:e000(size=128) memory:c0000-dffff

Note the driver=nvidia

Install steam

root@huygens:~# apt install steam # 2019 living in the future #hype

nibz@huygens:~$ steam

Log in, 2fa etc
Set up remote download folder
- View -> Settings -> Steam Library Folders -> Add Library Folder
- set this to whatever remote storage you have available.
- right click - make default
- When installing a game, set this folder if the default failed

Spotify

nibz@huygens:~$ sudo snap install spotify

Launch & Login

Install Lutris & Wine

Lutris

# lutris extra libs
https://github.com/lutris/lutris/wiki/Installing-drivers

root@huygens:~# add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
root@huygens:~# dpkg --add-architecture i386 

#install libs (listed in packages.yaml)

root@huygens:~# add-apt-repository ppa:lutris-team/lutris
root@huygens:~# apt install lutris
#(reboot)

Wine

root@huygens:~# wget -nc https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key
root@huygens:~# apt-key add winehq.key
root@huygens:~# apt-add-repository 'deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ bionic main'

Wine first launch will perform many installs/setups
Set lutris defult directory (remote storage?)
Set install directory per game
Install games from internet[2019 whatttt]

Discord

Download .deb from their website (NEAT) add a couple packages ( libc++1libappindicator1) dpkg -i discord.deb

Note: Discord sound is working, I had a pulseaudio issue

Zoom

Download .deb for ubuntu 14.04+
dpkg -i and it works

Development

SaaS

TODO: setup token for hub utility

Dotfiles

Dotfiles stored in a git repo
YADM is used to manage dotfiles (basically just git)

nibz@huygens:~$ yadm clone git@github.com:nibalizer/dotfiles.git
# (this is going to be bloody)
nibz@huygens:~$ yadm reset --hard origin/master
nibz@huygens:~$ yadm submodule init
nibz@huygens:~$ yadm submodule update

Spot check and cleanup:

git username information in .gitconfig
mess with .vimrc because of course

Extra utils

nibz@huygens:~$ mkdir -p ~/devel/nibalizer
nibz@huygens:~$ cd devel/nibalizer/
nibz@huygens:~$ git clone git@github.com:nibalizer/very_misc_scripts.git 
nibz@huygens:~$ cd very_misc_scripts
# install ibmcloud cli
nibz@huygens:~$ ./install_or_upgrade_ibmcloud_cli.sh 
nibz@huygens:~$ which ibmcloud
/home/nibz/local/bin/ibmcloud
nibz@huygens:~$ ibmcloud login --sso
# install okd/kubectl)
nibz@huygens:~$ ./install_or_upgrade_okd.sh
nibz@huygens:~/devel/nibalizer/very_misc_scripts$ which oc
/home/nibz/local/bin/oc
nibz@huygens:~/devel/nibalizer/very_misc_scripts$ which kubectl 
/home/nibz/local/bin/kubectl

Golang

(from https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/Ubuntu)

root@huygens:~# add-apt-repository ppa:longsleep/golang-backports
root@huygens:~# apt-get update
./install-packages.sh

nibz@huygens:~/$ go version
go version go1.13.1 linux/amd64

Set export GOPRIVATE=*.ibm.com,${GOPRIVATE}

Install hugo to demonstrate go is working

nibz@huygens:~/$ go get github.com/gohugoio/hugo
# wait a little
nibz@huygens:~$ which hugo
/home/nibz/go/bin/hugo
nibz@huygens:~$ hugo version
Hugo Static Site Generator v0.59.0-DEV linux/amd64 BuildDate: unknown
nibz@huygens:~$ du -sh ~/go
1.1G    /home/nibz/go

OBS

I use Open Broadcaster Software quite a bit.

Remove obs if it was already isntalled

apt-remove obs-studo

Get OBS from PPA

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:obsproject/obs-studio
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install obs-studio

Get OBS Linux Browser

wget 'https://github.com/bazukas/obs-linuxbrowser/releases/download/0.6.1/linuxbrowser0.6.1-obs23.0.2-64bit.tgz'
mkdir -p $HOME/.config/obs-studio/plugins
tar -zxvf linuxbrowser0.6.1-obs23.0.2-64bit.tgz -C $HOME/.config/obs-studio/plugins/

Spencer Krum