dotfiles

Just a place to put my dotfiles

Setting up a new computer

Linux

The basics

• Install Git from ppa:git-core/ppa
• Generate SSH keys with ssh-keygen -C "$(hostname)"
• Clone dotfiles (with git clone --recurse-submodules) and symlink configuration/bins
• Install brew
• Install i3, polybar, neovim, fonts-firacode, fonts-font-awesome, build-essential, feh, acpi, policykit-1-gnome, fish, and node
• Run updatekitty
• Install IDrive

Disable automatic APT updates

Change /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20auto-upgrades to contain:

APT::Periodic::Update-Package-Lists "0";
APT::Periodic::Unattended-Upgrade "0";

See How to Disable Automatic Updates in Ubuntu for more information.

Set up Git

The ~/.gitconfig file should be as below. Other git configuration files can just be symlinked.

[include]
    path = ~/dotfiles/git/gitconfig
[user]
    name = Ben Weedon
    email = ben@weedon.email

Set up kitty

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator x-terminal-emulator (which kitty) 50
sudo update-alternatives --config x-terminal-emulator

Set up fish

chsh -s "$(which fish)"

Purge snap and stand-in Firefox on Ubuntu

Follow Install Firefox .deb package for Debian-based distributions for the most part. Slight modifications:

1. Remove the stand-in version of Firefox with sudo apt-get remove --purge firefox
2. Remove the snap version of Firefox with sudo snap remove --purge firefox
3. Delete the ~/.mozilla/ directory
4. Only then attempt to install firefox from ppa:mozillateam/ppa

I’ve had to try this a few times to get it to work sometimes? You’ll know it works when firenvim works.

Set dark theme

Create ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini with the contents:

[Settings]
gtk-application-prefer-dark-theme=1

Then run gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface color-scheme prefer-dark.

See Dark theme not applying in Nautilus 42.1.1 for more details.

Set up touchpad

If on a laptop with a touchpad, create /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-touchpad.conf:

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "libinput touchpad catchall"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Driver "libinput"

        Option "Tapping" "on"
        Option "NaturalScrolling" "on"
EndSection

This will allow tapping the touchpad to register (rather than just clicking it) and will set the scroll direction to be more natural.

Set up brightnessctl

This is only necessary if you want to change the screen brightness using the brightness keys.

First install brightnessctl using sudo apt install brightnessctl. Next add your user to the video group with sudo adduser $USER video. Then log out and back in for the change to take effect.

Set up hibernation

First, make sure the swap file is at least the size of the amount of memory on the machine. This can be done by following How do I increase the size of swapfile without removing it in the terminal?. To append more bytes to the swap file, change the value of the count parameter to dd. For example, sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1M count=1K oflag=append conv=notrunc will append 1GB, and sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1M count=4K oflag=append conv=notrunc will append 4GB.

Next, enable hibernation by following How to Enable Hibernate Function in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, specifically “Enable Hibernate on Swap File” and skipping “Create Swap File” and “Regenerate initramfs”.

To allow hibernation without sudo, create /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/com.0.hibernate.pkla with the content:

[Enable hibernation without sudo]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.freedesktop.login1.hibernate;org.freedesktop.login1.handle-hibernate-key;org.freedesktop.login1;org.freedesktop.login1.hibernate-multiple-sessions;org.freedesktop.login1.hibernate-ignore-inhibit
ResultActive=yes

You may also need to install polkitd-pkla if you still get the error “Call to Hibernate failed: Access denied”.

Finally, if setting up a laptop, follow How to go automatically from Suspend into Hibernate? to automatically switch to hibernate after the laptop lid is closed for some time. The following two new files should be created (without the filename comments):

# /etc/systemd/sleep.conf.d/99-hibernate.conf
[Sleep]
HibernateDelaySec=1h

# /etc/systemd/logind.conf.d/99-hibernate.conf
[Login]
HandleLidSwitch=suspend-then-hibernate

Configure HiDPI monitors

Specify the DPI you want in ~/.Xresources by settings its contents to something like below and then running xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources:

Xft.dpi: 192

Run xdpyinfo | grep -B2 resolution to determine the current resolution of your monitors and try to make your new DPI an even multiple.

Configure battery status notifications

Make sure acpi is installed with sudo apt install acpi. Symlink systemd/user-battery-status.service and systemd/user-battery-status.timer into ~/.config/systemd/user/ using systemctl --user link, then enable the timer with systemctl --user enable user-battery-status.timer and start it with systemctl --user start user-battery-status.timer.