dotfiles-ii/README.md

about

This is an "rsync repo tracked with git" for my dotfiles; see "context" section at the end for more detail.

It essentially contains the minimal set of deviations from "Devuan with LXDE" defaults that I require in order to not find the computer to be an active hindrance to my productivity:

new system config

devuan

• SSH config:

  • copy id_rsa.pub from laptop

  • edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config to sane defaults

  • in particular:

    1. disable root login
    2. disable password login

• sudo: add pharpend to sudo group:

  # apt install sudo
  # usermod -aG pharpend sudo
  

• firefox: % sudo apt install firefox

  • rsync firefox passwords
  • add to firefox

• dotfiles:

  % sudo apt install git
  % mkdir ~/gho
  % cd ~/gho
  % git clone https://git.harpending.org/pharpend/dotfiles-ii.git
  

• tmux:

  % sudo apt install tmux % cp ~/gho/dotfiles-ii/tmux.conf ~/.tmux.conf

• zsh:

  % sudo apt install zsh zsh-syntax-highlighting % cp ~/gho/dotfiles-ii/zshrc ~/.zshrc % chsh -s /usr/bin/zsh

• vim:

  % sudo apt install vim vim-pathogen %

freebsd

• copy id_rsa.pub

• enable ssh sysadmin:

  # pw groupmod wheel -m pharpend
  

• basic shell utilities

  # pkg install tmux zsh vim rsync git lynx tree bash
  

• basic graphical environment

  # pkg install \
          xorg i3 terminator rxvt-unicode dmenu \
          liberation-fonts-ttf pulseaudio parcellite dunst \
          nitrogen redshift firefox-esr fantasque-sans-mono \
          emacs pcmanfm pavucontrol spectacle plasma6-spectacle \
          scrot vlc viewnior gthumb \
  
          linux-brave
          chromium
          iridium
  

• Erlang/zx

  # pkg install \
        erlang erlang-wx
  

context

• I set up new machines pretty frequently

• This has endowed me with a strong preference for low-maintenance operating systems with sane defaults

• The idea here is to have the "minimal" set of dotfiles where I can clone this repo and just copy everything to its location on the new machine

• I have found that the system of directly symlinking my dotfiles from the git repo to the local machine is more trouble than it's worth, due to high volume of per-machine diffs.

• e.g. laptop needs battery charge info in i3status bar config, desktop machine doesn't; there's a million little things like that that differ from one machine to another

• like i said, this is the set of things that despite my best efforts

• In the past I used Gentoo and Arch Linux and and and and...

• That was fun and fulfilling when I was 17 and I had no serious responsibilities in my life.

• to be clear, the "I use Arch BTW" phase was an extremely valuable period in which I learned the skills on which I now rely on a day to day basis.

• However I'm now in my 30s, and, for better or for worse, I have aged out of finding Arch Linux interesting.

• I just can't bring myself to care about the operating system for its own sake any more.

• I have converged on "Devuan for everything" because it annoys me the least

• In the past it was "Ubuntu for everything" but replacing the GNU coreutils with the Rust coreutils (why?) was the straw that broke the camel's back for me.

• I don't know why systemd or snaps weren't that straw