Alice

The Alice project is my continuously evolving set of dotfiles for a completely customized, (mostly) keyboard-driven linux experience. It stands for Advanced Linux Interface for Control & Efficiency.

• Is it a really forced acronym made up after the fact? Yes.
• Is it really called Alice because of my infatuation with the children's tale? Yes.
• Is it accurate and fitting, though? Also yes.

Setup

• Back up previous system

  • don't forget to bring over ssh keys and vpn configs from the old install, if applicable

• Install a fresh Ubuntu in "Minimal" mode

  • allocate the following partitions, if it's gonna be a standalone OS:

    • boot (~1GB)
    • swap (~size of RAM)
    • root (~50GB)
    • home (rest)

  • otherwise, install Windows first

    • after disabling secure BOOT at the BIOS level
    • also, don't forget to disable hibernation so that it can't mess with dual boot: powercfg -h off in an admin PowerShell
    • then shrink about 60-80GB for Ubuntu, and install there, automatically "next to" Windows

  • allow the sudo group to sudo without a password

    • sudo visudo
    • modify the corresponding line: %sudo ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

  • customize grub, if applicable

    • sudo apt install grub-customizer
    • make sure that the default entry is the "previously booted entry" so we can change it temporarily
    • also, to not depend on exact names, make sure that Ubuntu is first in the list and Windows is second

  • install basic dependencies: sudo apt install curl git nodejs npm vim htop maim bluez x11-xserver-utils xclip baobab unrar

  • check ssh keys and permissions, as the ssh agent will refuse keys that are "too accessible"

    chmod 700 ~/.ssh
    chmod 600 ~/.ssh/*
    

  • upgrade node

    sudo npm install -g n
    sudo n latest

• Initialize dotfiles (inspired by this guide):

  • clone repo

    cd
    git clone --bare [email protected]:mrzealot/alice.git .alice
    alias alice='/usr/bin/git --git-dir=$HOME/.alice/ --work-tree=$HOME'

  • checkout contents to home dir

    mkdir -p .config-backup
    alice checkout
    if [[ $? != 0 ]]; then
        echo "Checked out alice config.";
    else
        echo "Backing up pre-existing dot files.";
        alice checkout 2>&1 | egrep "\s+\." | awk {'print $1'} | xargs -I{} mv {} .config-backup/{}
    fi;
    alice checkout

  • ignore untracked files: alice config status.showUntrackedFiles no

  • make all tracked scripts executable: alice ls-tree -r master --name-only | grep .sh$ | xargs chmod +x

• Setup WM-related stuff:

  • sudo apt install i3 i3lock feh compton rofi redshift playerctl tty-clock at xbacklight

  • adjust X11 to be able to control backlight:

    sudo cp .config/i3/xorg.conf.tpl /etc/X11/xorg.conf

  • disable graphical login manager: sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target

    • (reversible with sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target)

  • add an auto login script:

    sudo mkdir -p /etc/systemd/system/[email protected]
    sudo cp .config/i3/autologin.conf /etc/systemd/system/[email protected]/autologin.conf

  • set i3 as the default WM: sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/x-session-manager x-session-manager /usr/bin/i3 60

  • rename user folders:

    mv Asztal .desktop
    mv Letöltések .downloads
    mv Sablonok .templates
    mv Nyilvános .public
    mv Dokumentumok .documents
    mv Zenék .music
    mv Képek .pictures
    mv Videók .videos

• Setup terminal and shell

  • sudo apt install zsh rxvt-unicode

  • install Oh-my-zsh! by sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

  • install external plugins:

    git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions

  • setup conda for python env support

    • install according to this doc
    • activation/hooking script is already in the zsh config

• Setup browser

  • install according to this doc

• Setup editor

  • sudo snap install --classic code

  • set as the default editor through the alternatives system, too (xdg mime type associations are handled already through .config/mimeapps.list):

    sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/editor editor /snap/bin/code 60
    sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gnome-text-editor gnome-text-editor /snap/bin/code 60

  • install extensions (needs zsh)

    code_exts=(
        Asuka.insertnumbers
        ban.spellright
        James-Yu.latex-workshop
        jsynowiec.vscode-insertdatestring
        kirozen.wordcounter
        mhutchie.git-graph
        ms-python.python
        earshinov.permute-lines
    )
    for ext in $code_exts; code --install-extension $ext

  • set up correct spell check by giving spellright the system hunspell dictionaries: ln -s /usr/share/hunspell ~/.config/Code/Dictionaries

• Setup my own bins

  • coin

    git clone [email protected]:mrzealot/coin.git .coin
    cd .coin && npm install && sudo npm link; cd

  • whip

    git clone [email protected]:mrzealot/whip.git .whip
    cd .whip && npm install && sudo npm link; cd

• Setup media/office stuff

  • sudo apt install transmission vlc kolourpaint gimp inkscape audacity libreoffice calibre filezilla librecad ffmpeg handbrake youtube-dl

  • setup scdl SoundCloud downloader by pip3 install git+https://github.com/flyingrub/scdl

    • example command: scdl -l https://soundcloud.com/mrzealot -f --path .music/soundcloud -c --onlymp3 --debug

• Setup jekyll for blogging

  • install according to this doc
  • environment vars are already in the zsh config

TODO

• add support for the other XF86 keys

  • XF86Display (F7)
  • XF86WLAN (F8)
  • XF86Tools (F9)
  • XF86Bluetooth (F10)
  • F11 is not standard
  • XF86Favorites (F12)

• robust-ize notification DPI timeout

  • add a temp file (with a timestamp, e.g.) and check that no other notification is running before resetting the DPI