config for my Ubuntu setup

A collection of my dotfiles and other setup (mostly minor tweaks to default configs) along with some simple setup instructions for Ubuntu Bionic Beaver.

preparation

Prepare a usb drive with the dotfiles repository and a hybrid-iso image. First, download the dotfiles repository to a dotfiles folder

git clone https://github.com/dahlbaek/dotfiles.git

Then, create folders to contain the hybrid-iso image

mkdir install

Next, create a file links in install which contains links to the install files to download. The contents of links could look like this:

https://mirror.one.com/ubuntu-cd/18.04/SHA256SUMS
https://mirror.one.com/ubuntu-cd/18.04/SHA256SUMS.gpg
https://mirror.one.com/ubuntu-cd/18.04/ubuntu-18.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso

Download the files by running the command

xargs -a links -n 1 curl -L -O

In the install folder, verify that SHA256SUMS is correctly signed by running

gpg --verify SHA256SUMS.gpg SHA256SUMS

If the key is unknown, retrieve the key with

gpg --recv-keys 46181433FBB75451

where 46181433FBB75451 is an example of a key id. Next, verify the hash of the iso, by running

sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS 2>&1 | grep OK

bootable usb

Next, create a bootable usb drive. If the unmounted usb drive is recognized on /dev/sdb, go to the install folder and run

sudo cp ubuntu-18.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso /dev/sdb

Next, use sudo fdisk /dev/sdb to create an extra ext4 partition (say sdb3) on the usb drive and format it afterwards by running

sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb3

then copy the dotfiles folder to that partition

sudo mount /dev/sdb3 ~/mnt
sudo chown dahlbaek:dahlbaek ~/mnt
cp -r dotfiles ~/mnt
sudo umount ~/mnt

install ubuntu

Simply boot from the usb drive and follow the instructions. Do not set up the network yet. Boot into the new system and copy the dotfiles repository from the usb drive

mkdir projects && cd projects
cp -r /media/dahlbaek/Ubuntu\ 18.04.1\ LTS\ amd641/dotfiles/ .

multiple users

If you will be having multiple users on a single machine, consider setting DIR_MODE=0750 in /etc/adduser.conf. Also, change your own home folder to that mode

cd /home
chmod 0750 dahlbaek

set default editor

sudo update-alternatives --config editor

sudoers

Allow yourself to update and upgrade without typing in a password. This can be done using the command sudo visudo, which is a safe way to edit the file /etc/sudoers. I do not want the terminal to remember my password for more than 1 minute, which can be controlled with the timestamp_timeout. So, add the line

Defaults	timestamp_timeout=1

and change the line

%sudo	ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

to

%sudo	ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL,\
                      NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/apt-get -- update,\
                      NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/apt-get -- upgrade

iptables and network

Copy the enable-firewall.sh and disable-firewall.sh scripts to a secure location, using the commands

sudo cp "${HOME}/projects/dotfiles/usr/local/bin/enable-firewall.sh" "${HOME}/projects/dotfiles/usr/local/bin/disable-firewall.sh" /usr/local/bin/
sudo chmod u+x /usr/local/bin/enable-firewall.sh /usr/local/bin/disable-firewall.sh

Next, use systemd to start the firewall and enable the firewall at boot

sudo cp "${HOME}/projects/dotfiles/etc/systemd/system/firewall.service" /etc/systemd/system
sudo systemctl start firewall
sudo systemctl enable firewall

Add appropriate repositories to /etc/apt/sources.list

sudo cp "${HOME}/projects/dotfiles/etc/apt/sources.list" /etc/apt

Then set up the network. Afterwards, recursively create symlinks to dotfiles and binaries, then update the system

install.sh
update.sh

apparmor and firefox

Install apparmor-utils and enable the apparmor firefox profile

sudo apt-get install apparmor-utils
sudo aa-enforce /etc/apparmor.d/usr.bin.firefox

Finally, make sure to get the HTTPS Everywhere and NoScript Security Suite for Firefox

customization

Install zsh with oh-my-zsh for a better shell experience and gnome-tweak-tool to be able to easily tweak the gnome desktop. Set fish as the default shell.

sudo apt-get install curl make git gnome-tweak-tool ranger zathura zsh
curl -Lo install-oh-my-zsh.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh
sh install-oh-my-zsh.sh

The tweak tool (accessed as "Tweaks") can be used to activate the compose key and set windows to focus on mouse-over (sloppy).

Automatic updates can be disabled in "Software and Updates".