about

Most of this should be moved to my personal wiki

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

terminology:

• being-set-up machine = mark
• already-set-up machine = pilot

devuan

SSHD 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

git

% sudo apt install git
% git config --global init.defaultBranch master
% git config --global user.name "Peter Harpending"
% git config --global user.email "peter@harpending.org"

git.harpending.org

• ssh keygen

  % ssh-keygen
  % cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
  

• go to git.harpending.org on pilot machine, add ssh key to user profile

dotfiles

% 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

% cp -rv ~/gho/dotfiles-ii/vimrc ~/.vimrc
% cp -rv ~/gho/dotfiles-ii/vim ~/.vim

i3

pulls in i3wm, i3lock, i3status, dunst:

% sudo apt install i3
% mkdir ~/.i3
% cp -rv ~/gho/dotfiles-ii/i3/config ~/.i3/config
% cp -rv ~/gho/dotfiles-ii/i3status.conf ~/.i3status.conf

fonts

% sudo apt install fonts-liberation fonts-fantasque-sans font-manager

to refresh font cache:

% fc-cache -fv

terminator

% sudo apt install terminator
% rsync -avn ~/gho/dotfiles-ii/config/ ~/.config

terminator

music

music

• dry run (for making sure didn't fuck up confusing af slash syntax):

  % rsync -avn Music/ pharpend@mark:/home/pharpend/Music
  

• wet run:

  % rsync -av Music/ pharpend@mark:/home/pharpend/Music
  

apt install shell utilities

exhaustive-ish

# apt install\
    build-essential \
    gcc \
    git \
    rsync \
    sudo \
    tmux \
    tree \
    vim \
    vim-pathogen \
    zsh \
    zsh-syntax-highlighting \

apt install desktop utilities

# apt install\
    blueman \
    emacs \
    firefox \
    i3 \
    gthumb \
    guake \
    kde-spectacle \
    mpc \
    mpd \
    ncmpcpp \
    nitrogen \
    redshift \
    rxvt-unicode \
    terminator \

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