46 KiB
Arch Linux, Phundrak-flavored
- Introduction
- Install Arch Linux
- Execute bootstrap
- Decrypt private yadm files
- Get a correct keyboard layout
- Set our locale
- Create some folders
- Set user’s shell to fish
- Install basic packages
- Tangle configuration files from Org files
- Set up dotfiles’ git repository
- Enable some services
- Symlink some system config files
- Install packages from git
- Install Rust
- Set up our fish shell
Introduction
Here will be presented what I do to get my system up and running on a fresh Arch Linux install. These installation instructions were written in order to get an Arch Linux distribution up and running with the same configuration as my main computer’s and my travelling laptop’s configuration.
Install Arch Linux
I usually install Arch from the vanilla ISO, however I began using archfi to
install easily the distro (I’ve done it so many times, I know how it works now).
Usually, my distros will be installed on two partitions: /home
and /
(root).
If the computer supports EFI bootloaders, the EFI partition will be mounted on
/boot/efi
. I generally use systemd-boot
as my boot manager, but if you are
more comfortable with another one, just install what you want. Be aware that if
you format your /boot
partition, you will delete all boot managers that
already exist; so, if you are dual-booting, DO NOT FORMAT IT. Yes, I made the
mistake of wiping the Windows boot manager when I used to dual-boot.
In order to use the suspend-then-hibernate
systemd command, it is necessary to
have a swap partition at least twice the size of your installed RAM. That is
because when this command will be run, the system will try to save the current
state of your machine, stored in your RAM, to the swap filesystem. If there is
not enough space, the command will fail, and you won’t be able to use this
command. For instance, my current computer has 32 GB of RAM, hence my SWAP
partition is 16 GB large.
Get the latest, fastest mirrors
When you boot into the live ISO, execute the following command:
pacman -Sy reflector
reflector -c FR -c DE -c BE -l 200 -p http -p https --sort rate \
--save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist --verbose
This will update the packages from your live ISO, and you will get the best mirrors for your installation. Of course, change the countries accordingly to your location. In my case, I am only interested in French, German, and Belgian mirrors.
Install the system
Then you can use a custom script to ease your installation of Arch if you do not
wish to do it manually. Personally, I’ve done it several times already, I know
how the distro works, I just want to be able to install my distro quickly now.
I’ll need to download the script with wget
, but apparently it isn’t installed
by default on Arch ISOs anymore, so I’ll need to install it.
pacman -S wget
Now, let’s grab the script. You can check it on GitHub.
wget archfi.sf.net/archfi
# Or from matmoul.github.io/archfi if SourceForge is down
sh archfi
Then, follow the instructions and install Arch Linux. Take the opportunity to
install as many packages as you need, mainly paru
which I use as my package
manager (it is just a wrapper for pacman
) and AUR helper, and pacman-contrib
which will help us to install some packages later.
Once your system is installed, reboot and remove your installation media from your computer.
Execute bootstrap
The first thing I will do is add the Chaotic AUR repository to get
access to paru
as well as some AUR packages without the need of an AUR
helper (ironic considering paru
is one). We can then install fish
,
git
, and paru
:
sudo pacman -S fish git paru
And now that paru
is available, we can install yadm
:
paru -S yadm
yadm
comes with a very handy feature: its bootstrap script. It can be executed
automatically once the dotfiles are cloned with yadm:
yadm clone https://labs.phundrak.com/phundrak/dotfiles
# or if labs.phundrak.com is down or too slow for you
#yadm clone https://github.com/phundrak/dotfiles
Let’s take a look at what it does.
Decrypt private yadm files
Some private files are stored encrypted in the repository of my yadm dotfiles. I will need them later on during the bootstrap execution.
if test "$USER" = 'phundrak'
yadm decrypt
else
whiptail --yesno "Decrypt private files?" 8 40 && yadm decrypt
end
Get a correct keyboard layout
I use mainly the bépo layout, a French keyboard layout inspired by Dvorak layouts, however I sometimes need to switch back to the standard French AZERTY or the American QWERTY layout, so I make it so the Menu key switches for me my layout between these three. This makes it so my xorg configuration of my keyboard looks like this:
set keyboardconf \
'Section "InputClass"
Identifier "system-keyboard"
MatchIsKeyboard "on"
Option "XkbLayout" "fr"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbVariant" "bepo_afnor"
Option "XkbOptions" "caps:ctrl_modifier"
EndSection'
So, let’s ask the user if they want to set it as their keyboard configuration.
printf "\n# Set keyboard layout #########################################################\n\n"
whiptail --yesno "Would you like to set your keyboard layout to the bépo layout?" 8 55
if test $status -eq 0
echo $keyboardconf | sudo tee /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/00-keyboard.conf
end
Set our locale
I use two main locales, the French and US UTF-8 locales, and I like to keep the Japanese locale activated just in case.
set mylocales "en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8" "fr_FR.UTF-8 UTF-8" "ja_JP.UTF-8 UTF-8"
I’ll let the user accept them one by one.
printf "\n# Set locale ##################################################################\n\n"
for item in $mylocales
whiptail --yesno "Set the \"$item\" locale?" 8 40
if test $status -eq 0 -a (grep -e "#$item" /etc/locale.gen)
sudo sed -i "/$item/s/^#//g" /etc/locale.gen
end
end
This is my configuration I usually use when it comes to my locale.
set localeconf "LANG=en_DK.UTF-8
LC_COLLATE=C
LC_NAME=fr_FR.UTF-8
LC_IDENTIFICATION=fr_FR.UTF-8
LC_TELEPHONE=fr_FR.UTF-8
LC_MONETARY=fr_FR.UTF-8
LC_PAPER=fr_FR.UTF-8
LC_ADDRESS=fr_FR.UTF-8
LC_MEASUREMENT=fr_FR.UTF-8"
Let’s set it as our system’s locale if the user whishes to.
whiptail --yesno "Do you agree to have the following locale set?\n\n $localeconf" 20 43
if test $status -eq 0
echo $localeconf | sudo tee /etc/locale.conf
end
Now we can generate our locale!
printf "\n# Generate locale #############################################################\n\n"
sudo locale-gen
Create some folders
Let’s create some folders we might need for mounting our drives, Android devices and CDs.
printf "\n# Create directories for mounting #############################################\n\n"
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/{USB,CD,Android}
sudo chown $USER:(id -g $USER) /mnt/{USB,CD,Android}
Set user’s shell to fish
First, the bootstrap shell will set the user’s shell to fish.
printf "\n# Set fish as the default shell ###############################################\n\n"
whiptail --yesno "Set the current user’s default shell to fish?" 8 50
if test $status -eq 0 -a ! "$SHELL" = '/usr/bin/fish'
chsh -s /usr/bin/fish
end
Install basic packages
Ok, let’s list all the packages that I need. First, let’s begin with system packages.
Package name | Why I need it |
---|---|
acpi | Battery, power, and thermal readings |
acpilight | To modify the monitors’ brightness |
bluez-firmware | Firmware for my bluetooth device |
bluez-utils | To interact with bluez through custom tools |
bzip2 | A compression algorithm and program |
cpupower | Examine and tune power saving related features of the CPU |
exfat-utils | Utilities for exFAT filesystems |
ffmpegthumbnailer | Create thumbnails with ffmpeg |
freeglut | A small OpenGL library |
gcc-libs | Runtime libraries for GCC |
gdb | The GCC debugger |
gnome-disk-utility | To manage easily my disks and partitions |
gnome-epub-thumbnailer | Thumbnailer for Epub files |
i3lock-color | My screen locker |
corrupter-git | A script for my script using also i3lock-color |
inetutils | Common network programs |
jfsutils | JFS utilities to interact with Android |
jmtpfs | FUSE filesystem for the MTP protocol |
kitty | My current terminal emulator, works with Xorg and Wayland |
logrotate | Rotate system logs automatically |
man-pages | Linux's man pages |
man-db | Read the Linux man pages |
netctl | Profile based systemd network management |
network-manager-applet | System tray applet for NetworkManager |
networkmanager-openvpn | Connect to OpenVPN servers with NetworkManager |
nm-connection-editor | Manager NetworkManager connections |
ntfs-3g | Utilities to access NTFS filesystems |
openssh | SSH. Do I need to say anything more than that? |
pavucontrol | Graphical interface to PulseAudio settings |
wireplumber | Session manager for PipeWire |
pipewire-pulse | PipeWire replacement for pulseaudio and pulseaudio-bluetooth |
gst-plugin-pipewire | PipeWire plugin for GStreamer |
noise-suppression-for-voice | Realtime noise suppression plugin for voice |
raw-thumbnailer | thumbnailer for RAW images |
reflector | Sort pacman mirrors |
shadow | Password & account management tools |
sshfs | Mount remote filesystems through SSH |
usbutils | USB utilities |
xdg-user-dirs-gtk | Creates user dirs and asks to relocalize them |
xfce-polkit | XFCE’s policy kit |
xidlehook | xautolock with extra features |
xfsprogs | Access XFS filesystems |
xorg-xinit | xorg init program |
xss-lock | Use an external program as X lock screen |
xwallpaper | Set my Xorg session’s wallpaper |
For development purposes, I need the following packages:
Package name | Why I need it |
---|---|
asar | Package needed by some Electron programs |
base-devel | Metapackage providing lots of basic tools for development |
clang | LLVM’s C/C++ compiler |
cppcheck | Static code analysis for C/C++ |
cppreference | The cppreference wiki offline |
cppreference-devhelp | Access cppreference through devhelp |
docker | VMs are too heavy, get a better virtualization engine! |
docker-compose | Docker from the CLI? I prefer through a Yaml file. |
dockerfile-language-server-bin | Dockerfile LSP server |
doxygen | A great tool for writing code documentation for C/C++ |
emacs | The best |
farbfeld | Lossless image format |
flake8 | Code checker for python |
gnuplot | An awesome plotting tool |
go | The Go programming language |
go-tools | Go’s tooling |
graphviz | Graph visualization |
hugo | Static website generator |
javascript-typescript-langserver | LSP server for Javascript |
js-beautify | Formatter for Javascript |
linux-headers | Development with the Linux kernel |
lldb | The LLVM debugger |
meson | Meson build system |
mupdf-tools | Tools for PDF and XPS viewers |
npm | Javascript package manager |
pacman-contrib | Create and install custom ArchLinux packages |
pandoc-bin | Convert documents of various formats into other formats |
prettier | Format various web files formats |
python-autoflake | Remove unused imports and variables in Python |
python-epc | EPC (RPC stack for Emacs Lisp) for Python |
python-importmagic | Automatically manage imports in Python |
pyright | Python LSP server |
python-nose | A discovery-based test extension for Python |
python-pip | The Python package manager |
python-poetry | Python dependency management and packaging made easy |
python-ptvsd | Python debugger |
python-pytest | Python testing suite |
qemu | Machine emulator and virtualizer |
r | The R programming langugae |
rustup | The Rust toolchain installer |
sbcl | My favorite CommonLisp implementation |
typescript | Better Javascript |
typescript-language-server-bin | LSP server for Typescript |
valgrind | Our lord and saviour when writing C code |
vscode-css-languageserver-bin | LSP server for CSS |
vscode-html-languageserver-bin | LSP server for HTML |
yaml-language-server-bin | LSP server for Yaml |
zeal | Offline documentation browser |
A couple of packages need to be installed to make LaTeX usable.
Package name | Why I need it |
---|---|
biber | A BibTex replacement, for citations in papers |
minted | Syntax highlight for LaTeX |
texlive-bibtexextra | Additional BibTeX styles and bibliography databases |
texlive-fontsextra | All sorts of extra fonts |
texlive-formatsextra | Collection of extra TeX 'formats' |
texlive-humanities | LaTeX packages for law, linguistics, social sciences, and humanities |
texlive-langjapanese | Fonts and macro packages to typeset Japanese texts |
texlive-pictures | Packages for drawings graphics |
texlive-pstricks | Additional PSTricks packages |
texlive-publishers | LaTeX classes and packages for specific publishers |
texlive-science | Typesetting for mathematics, natural and computer sciences |
Some visual packages:
Package name | Why I need it |
---|---|
adobe-source-han-sans-jp-fonts | Japanese fonts |
inter-font | I’m not sure why I have these fonts |
nordic-theme-git | Nord theme for GTK |
noto-fonts-emoji | Font with emojis |
otf-ipafont | Japanese font |
picom | See /phundrak/config.phundrak.com/src/commit/47d63fedb43b46d8f90171626e43e45a6b5f7a06/org/config/picom.org |
powerline-fonts | Powerline fonts |
siji-git | Siji font |
ttf-arphic-uming | CJK font Ming style |
ttf-baekmuk | Korean font |
ttf-charis-sil | API font |
ttf-dejavu | DejaVu font |
ttf-hanazono | Japanese kanji font |
ttf-joypixels | Emoji font |
ttf-koruri | Japanese Truetype font |
ttf-liberation | Liberation font |
ttf-monapo | Japanese font |
ttf-sazanami | Japanese fonts |
ttf-unifont | The font I use in StumpWM |
ttf-tibetan-machine | Tibetan font |
unicode-emoji | Unicode emoji data files |
Terminal utilities
Package name | Why I need it |
---|---|
ascii | Work with ASCII |
aspell-en | Aspell’s dictionary for English |
aspell-fr | Aspell’s dictionary for French |
bat | A better cat with syntax highlighting |
bitwarden-cli | CLI application for my password manager |
bpytop | A very beautiful htop alternative |
exa | A great ls replacement |
fd | find , but better |
findutils | find files on the system |
fzf | Command-line fuzzy finder |
htop | top , but better |
isync | Gives access to mbsync so I can check my mails |
mpc | Dead simple MPD client |
mpd | Music Player Daemon |
mpv | The best video player in existance |
nano | Simple text editor |
ncdu | Graphical representation of disk usage |
ncmpcpp | TUI for MPD |
neofetch | System info in the terminal |
nordvpn-bin | Connect to NordVPN on Linux |
numlockx | Turn on the numpad in Xorg |
p7zip | 7zip on Linux |
pass | The standard UNIX password manager |
pdfpc | PDF presentation tool in the console with multi-monitor support |
ripgrep | grep but better |
rsync | scp is dead, long live rsync ! |
flameshot | To take screenshots |
tealdeer | tldr but faster, great cheatsheets in the terminal |
tmux | Terminal multiplexer |
tree | See files and directories as a tree |
unrar | Support for rar file format |
w3m | Terminal web browser |
wget | Retrieve files from the web |
x11-ssh-askpass | Passphrase dialog over SSH |
xclip | Interact with the X11 clipboard |
yt-dlp-drop-in | yt-dlp but it also replaces youtube-dl |
Let’s install some desktop applications too, shall we?
Package name | Why I need it |
---|---|
bitwarden | Desktop application for my password manager |
discord | For messaging friends |
firefox | Because I need a good browser |
gimp | GIMP Is Mbetter than Photoshop |
helvum | Pipewire patchbay |
nemo | One of the best graphical file managers |
nemo-fileroller | Add compression options to Nemo |
nemo-preview | Quick file previewer for Nemo |
obs-studio | Simply the best screen recording and streaming software |
rofi | A beautiful dmenu replacement |
All these packages will be installed with the command paru -S
--skipreview --needed
to prevent it from nagging me about the PKGBUILD
when I want to install something from the AUR, and if something is
already installed it paru won’t try to reinstall it.
(format "set %s %s"
varname
(mapconcat #'identity packages " \\\n"))
(concat
(format "%s %s %s"
"printf \"\\n# Installing"
varname
"##################################################\\n\\n\"")
"\n"
(format "for pkg in $%s\n paru -S --skipreview --needed $pkg\nend" varname))
<<gen-package-list(packages=packages-system[,0],varname="SYSTEMPKG")>>
<<gen-package-install(varname="SYSTEMPKG")>>
<<gen-package-list(packages=packages-devel[,0],varname="DEVELPKG")>>
<<gen-package-install(varname="DEVELPKG")>>
<<gen-package-list(packages=packages-latex[,0],varname="LATEXPKG")>>
<<gen-package-install(varname="LATEXPKG")>>
<<gen-package-list(packages=packages-terminal[,0],varname="TERMINALPKG")>>
<<gen-package-install(varname="TERMINALPKG")>>
<<gen-package-list(packages=packages-apps[,0],varname="APPSPKG")>>
<<gen-package-install(varname="APPSPKG")>>
Finally, I wish to install some custom packages for which I’ve written
a PKGBUILD
file myself. I store all of them in a dedicated directory
located in $HOME/Documents/code/PKGBUILDs
. I want to install some of
them immediately.
Package Name | What it is |
---|---|
emacs | My custom Emacs build, it will replace the one already installed |
nsxiv | The best image viewer after Emacs |
pumopm-git | My very simple battery manager |
sent | A very simple presentation tool |
(let ((base-dir "~/Documents/code/PKGBUILDs"))
(mapconcat (lambda (dir)
(format "cd %s && makepkg -si; cd .."
(expand-file-name dir base-dir)))
packages
"\n"))
Tangle configuration files from Org files
Before tangling our configuration files, we need to create some directories first to make sure our files can be properly tangled. Here’s the list of directories we need to create:
$HOME/.config/fish |
$HOME/.config/gtk-2.0 |
$HOME/.config/gtk-3.0 |
$HOME/.config/ncmpcpp |
$HOME/.config/neofetch |
$HOME/.config/picom |
$HOME/.config/yadm |
$HOME/.local/bin |
$HOME/.stumpwm.d |
$HOME/org/capture |
(mapconcat (lambda (x) (format "mkdir -p %s" (car x)))
dirs
"\n")
mkdir -p $HOME/.config/fish mkdir -p $HOME/.config/gtk-2.0 mkdir -p $HOME/.config/gtk-3.0 mkdir -p $HOME/.config/ncmpcpp mkdir -p $HOME/.config/neofetch mkdir -p $HOME/.config/picom mkdir -p $HOME/.config/yadm mkdir -p $HOME/.local/bin mkdir -p $HOME/.stumpwm.d mkdir -p $HOME/org/capture
Our code to generate such directories looks like this:
<<gen-dirs-tangle()>>
The next step is to tangle all the Org files. Here is the list of files that are to be tangled:
filename |
---|
bin.org |
emacs.org |
fish.org |
index.org |
mpd.org |
neofetch.org |
picom.org |
rustfmt.org |
stumpwm.org |
tmux.org |
(mapconcat (lambda (x) (concat
(format "printf '\\n\\n==== Tangling %s\\n\\n' && \\\n" x)
(concat "emacs -q --batch --eval '(require \\'ob-tangle)' \\\n"
"--eval '(setq org-confirm-babel-evaluate nil)' \\\n"
(format "--eval '(org-babel-tangle-file \"~/org/config/%s\")'\n" x))))
files
"\n")
printf '\n\n==== Tangling bin.org\n\n' && \ emacs -q --batch --eval '(require \'ob-tangle)' \ --eval '(setq org-confirm-babel-evaluate nil)' \ --eval '(org-babel-tangle-file "~/org/config/bin.org")' printf '\n\n==== Tangling emacs.org\n\n' && \ emacs -q --batch --eval '(require \'ob-tangle)' \ --eval '(setq org-confirm-babel-evaluate nil)' \ --eval '(org-babel-tangle-file "~/org/config/emacs.org")' printf '\n\n==== Tangling fish.org\n\n' && \ emacs -q --batch --eval '(require \'ob-tangle)' \ --eval '(setq org-confirm-babel-evaluate nil)' \ --eval '(org-babel-tangle-file "~/org/config/fish.org")' printf '\n\n==== Tangling index.org\n\n' && \ emacs -q --batch --eval '(require \'ob-tangle)' \ --eval '(setq org-confirm-babel-evaluate nil)' \ --eval '(org-babel-tangle-file "~/org/config/index.org")' printf '\n\n==== Tangling mpd.org\n\n' && \ emacs -q --batch --eval '(require \'ob-tangle)' \ --eval '(setq org-confirm-babel-evaluate nil)' \ --eval '(org-babel-tangle-file "~/org/config/mpd.org")' printf '\n\n==== Tangling neofetch.org\n\n' && \ emacs -q --batch --eval '(require \'ob-tangle)' \ --eval '(setq org-confirm-babel-evaluate nil)' \ --eval '(org-babel-tangle-file "~/org/config/neofetch.org")' printf '\n\n==== Tangling picom.org\n\n' && \ emacs -q --batch --eval '(require \'ob-tangle)' \ --eval '(setq org-confirm-babel-evaluate nil)' \ --eval '(org-babel-tangle-file "~/org/config/picom.org")' printf '\n\n==== Tangling rustfmt.org\n\n' && \ emacs -q --batch --eval '(require \'ob-tangle)' \ --eval '(setq org-confirm-babel-evaluate nil)' \ --eval '(org-babel-tangle-file "~/org/config/rustfmt.org")' printf '\n\n==== Tangling stumpwm.org\n\n' && \ emacs -q --batch --eval '(require \'ob-tangle)' \ --eval '(setq org-confirm-babel-evaluate nil)' \ --eval '(org-babel-tangle-file "~/org/config/stumpwm.org")' printf '\n\n==== Tangling tmux.org\n\n' && \ emacs -q --batch --eval '(require \'ob-tangle)' \ --eval '(setq org-confirm-babel-evaluate nil)' \ --eval '(org-babel-tangle-file "~/org/config/tmux.org")'
printf "\n# Tangling org files ##########################################################\n\n"
<<generate-tangle()>>
Set up dotfiles’ git repository
Update our dotfiles’ remotes
This line in the bootstrap script will test if the current user is using my username. If yes, it’s probably me.
if test "$USER" = 'phundrak'
If it is me installing and using these dotfiles, I want the remotes of my dotfiles to be set to ssh remotes using my ssh keys.
printf "\n# Update yadm’s remotes #######################################################\n\n"
yadm remote set-url origin git@labs.phundrak.com:phundrak/dotfiles.git
I will also want to decrypt my encrypted files, such as said ssh keys.
printf "\n# Decrypt encrypted dotfiles ##################################################\n\n"
yadm decrypt
Finally, let’s close this if
statement.
end
Update our submodules
Now we can download the various dependencies of our dotfiles. To do so, let’s run the following command:
printf "\n# Getting yadm susbmodules ####################################################\n\n"
yadm submodule update --init --recursive
Enable some services
We have installed some packages which require some services to run. Let’s enable them.
Systemd-timesyncd
This service enables time syncing with the NTP protocol, so I can be sure my computer’s time is correct. The service first needs to be enabled:
printf "\n# Enabling timesync ###########################################################\n\n"
sudo systemctl enable --now systemd-timesyncd
Now, let systemd know I want to use the NTP protocol to keep my computer’s time synced.
sudo timedatectl set-ntp true
Acpilight
acpilight
is our utility managing the brightness of our screen. There
is actually no service to enable here, but we must ensure the user is
part of the video
group to enable the user modifying the brightness of
our screen without using sudo
.
sudo usermod -aG video $USER
Docker
First, let’s activate Docker on startup.
printf "\n# Enabling and starting Docker ################################################\n\n"
sudo systemctl enable --now docker
Now, if we wish it, we can add ourselves to the docker
group to avoid
typing sudo
each time we call Docker or Docker Compose.
read --prompt "echo 'Do you wish to be added to the `docker` group? (Y/n): ' " -l adddockergroup
if test $adddockergroup = 'y' || test $adddockergroup = "Y" || test $adddockergroup = ''
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
end
Emacs
Emacs will run as a user service, which means it won’t be launched until we log in. However, the service won’t be started immediately, I personally prefer to start a standalone instance in which installing and compiling the Emacs packages will happen, and then once that is done I will start the service.
printf "\n# Enabling Emacs as user service ##############################################\n\n"
systemctl --user enable emacs
I don’t want to activate it immediately however, since the first startup might require some interactivity with the main Emacs frame, not with emacsclient. When Emacs will be ready, its service can be started like so (command not tangled in the bootstrap):
systemctl --user start emacs
Mpd
Mpd will also use as a user service in order to get rid of some lines of code in my configuration.
printf "\n# Enabling Mpd as a user service ##############################################\n\n"
mkdir -p ~/.config/mpd/playlists
systemctl --user enable --now mpd
NordVPN
Thanks to the AUR package nordvpn-bin
, I no longer have to manually maintain
my VPN connections with OpenVPN. However, it requires a service that we should
activate:
sudo systemctl enable --now nordvpnd
Let’s also set its default protocol to UDP. This will allow me to use any port while connected to any Wi-Fi as long as the 443 port is available. Because yes, I do connect to a Wi-Fi that blocks some important ports, such as the IMAP and SMTP ports. Thanks University of Paris 8 for being SO paranoid.
nordvpn s protocol tcp
Note that this change in protocol is only valid when using the OpenVPN technology. If we want to use the Wireguard technology through Project NordLynx, this option will no longer be available. To set NordVPN to use WireGuard, we can run this command (not tangled in the bootstrap).
nordvpn set technology NordLynx
Why WireGuard? Well, it can achieve better performances than OpenVPN with physically nearby servers, and according to this article the former can be more than half as fast as the latter. It is also much more auditable than OpenVPN (only a few thousands lines of code against some hundred of thousands). Oh, and WireGuard is part of the Linux kernel since its version 5.6. And Windows’ since August 2021, but I don’t really care about Windows.
But, WireGuard is less privacy-oriented than OpenVPN. So, if I ever need to use my VPN for privacy reasons, I can simply revert to the OpenVPN technology like shown with this command (not tangled in the bootstrap):
nordvpn set technology OpenVPN
Finally, I want to be notified of NordVPN’s actions, and I want to be able to use IPv6.
nordvpn set notify enabled
nordvpn set ipv6 enabled
PipeWire
PipeWire is a replacement for PulseAudio, ALSA and the likes, and it is much better in terms of security and performance. However, unlike PulseAudio, Pipewire is a user service that needs to be enabled per user.
systemctl --user enable --now pipewire-pulse.service
I also installed noise-suppression-for-voice
which is a plugin usable
by PipeWire to remove all noise the microphone might record save for
the voice. It is damn effective, and it can be activated as a user
service! In fact, I have in my dotfiles the service saved, so let’s
activate it right away:
systemctl --user enable --now pipewire-input-filter-chain.service
Just make sure afterwards the microphone is redirected to the noise-canceling source. The same source should be your input device where you want to use your microphone. The only downside is this is ony a mono input, but it shouldn’t matter for most people.
SSH server
Maybe we want to activate an SSH server on our machine. If so, we can enable it. Let’s ask the question.
whiptail --yesno 'Do you want to activate the ssh server?' 8 50
if test $status -eq 0
printf "\n# Enabling ssh server #########################################################\n\n"
sudo systemctl enable --now sshd
end
Symlink some system config files
Let’s symlink the plock
script (source here) to /usr/bin
so xss-lock
can find it.
sudo ln -s ~/.local/bin/plock /usr/bin/plock
Install packages from git
Now, let’s install some packages from git directly.
mkdir -p ~/fromGIT
Reveal.JS
I sometimes use Reveal.JS to make presentations, and I set its
location in my Emacs config to be in ~/fromGIT
, so let’s clone it
there.
printf "\n# Install Reveal.JS ###########################################################\n\n"
cd ~/fromGIT
git clone https://github.com/hakimel/reveal.js.git
Install Rust
Install the toolchains
When using Rust, I bounce between two toolchains, the stable
toolchain and the
nightly
toolchain, although I try to stick with Rust Stable. To install them,
I will use rustup
which has already been installed previously.
printf "\n# Install the rust toolchains, nightly is the default one #####################\n\n"
rustup default stable
This will both download the stable toolchain and set it as the default one. Now to install the nightly toolchain, let’s run this:
rustup toolchain install nightly
Install some utilities
We’ll need some utilities when developing Rust from Emacs, namely rustfmt
and
racer
. Let’s install them with cargo
.
printf "\n# Add rust utilities ##########################################################\n\n"
cargo install rustfmt racer
We will also need some components for development purposes.
Component | Why |
---|---|
rust-src | Rust documentation in Emacs |
rls | LSP backend for Emacs |
clippy | A better version of cargo’s check command |
(mapconcat (lambda (x) (format "rustup component add %s" x))
components
"\n")
rustup component add rust-src rustup component add rls rustup component add clippy
Here is the code to do so:
<<rust-components-gen()>>
Set up our fish shell
The last thing we want to do is to set up our fish shell with some extensions in order to improve the user experience.
Install fisher
We will be using fisher
as our extension manager for Fish. Let’s install it.
printf "\n# Installing fisher ###########################################################\n\n"
curl -sL https://git.io/fisher | source && fisher install jorgebucaran/fisher
Install our extensions
I generally use the following extensions in my Fish shell.
Package name | Description |
---|---|
decors/fish-colored-man | Color man pages to make them more readable |
franciscolourenco/done | Automatically receive notifications when a long process finishes |
jethrokuan/fzf | Improved key bindings for junegunn/fzf |
jorgebucaran/fish-bax | Run bash scripts, replaying environment changes in fish |
jorgebucaran/fish-getopts | CLI options parser; alternative to the argparse fish builtin |
laughedelic/pisces | Autoclose parentheses, braces, quotes and other paired symbols |
(mapconcat (lambda (x) (format "fisher install %s" x))
extensions
"\n")
fisher install decors/fish-colored-man fisher install franciscolourenco/done fisher install jethrokuan/fzf fisher install jorgebucaran/fish-bax fisher install jorgebucaran/fish-getopts fisher install laughedelic/pisces
printf "\n# Installing Fisher Extensions ################################################\n\n"
<<fish-extensions-gen()>>