My Linux Setup

This repo is for me to set up a fresh install of Linux with basic and useful customizations.

Features

• Set up a fresh install of Linux nicely and lightly (within 10 mins).
• Customized appearances and keybinds for bash, tmux, and vim.
• Light but cool plugins, such as ranger, tldr, and bashmarks.
• Suitable for vim+tmux+conda users.

Download Useful Softwares

• Conda

  Download a latest Miniconda .sh installer: https://docs.conda.io/en/latest/miniconda.html#linux-installers; Alternately, directly download use wget:

  wget https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh

  Then install:

  sh Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh

  If you don't have root permission, and you don't even have a pip3 not to say an apt, then installing conda is essential, because after this you can use pip3.

• pipx: install and run end-user applications written in Python, providing isolated environment. You may need to reload your server to let conda refresh before going to the following steps.

  python3 -m pip install --user pipx
  python3 -m pipx ensurepath
  python3 -m pip install --user --upgrade pipx

• Ranger: A VIM-inspired filemanager for the console. Now you have a colorful and structural file manager!

  pipx install ranger-fm

  Usage: Use command ranger to open a file system window that is very cool.

  Tip: If you are also using iTerm2 on MacOS, you can easily preview images in ranger by following the steps below:

  1. In the menu bar of iTerm2, select iTerm2 -> Install Shell Integration. (In a session which is connected to your remote Linux server via ssh)
  2. Config ranger:

     ranger --copy-config=rc

     Then open ~/.config/ranger/rc.conf and edit Line 74 to set preview_images true and Line 117 to set preview_images_method iterm2. If you are not using iTerm2, there are also many other plugins supported by ranger for image preview. Just check out its readme.

  

• gpustat: A simple command-line utility for querying and monitoring GPU status. (colorful and just less than nvidia-smi)

  pipx install gpustat

  If you have nvtop on your server, then forget all the others!

• imgcat: Display images and gifs in your terminal emulator

  curl "https://iterm2.com/utilities/imgcat" > imgcat
  chmod +x imgcat
  mv imgcat ~/.local/bin

• tldr: too long; don't read. A helper for command usages.

  pipx install tldr

  Usage: tldr [command] then it will teach you the common usage of the command.

  

• bashmarks: Tag directories and jump quickly.

  git clone https://github.com/huyng/bashmarks.git
  cd bashmarks
  make install
  echo 'source ~/.local/bin/bashmarks.sh' >> ~/.bashrc

  Usage: s [tagname] to set a tag name for the current dir; g [tagname] to jump to the specified dir.

• vundle: Plugin manager for Vim

  git clone https://github.com/VundleVim/Vundle.vim.git ~/.vim/bundle/Vundle.vim

  required to clone into ~/.vim/bundle

• [Optional] gh: Github's client.

  The server that I am using blocks SSH connection. So I insteadly use this gh to login to my github. This is even more convenient than generate a SSH key and put to public key to the github account.

  conda install gh --channel conda-forge

  Run gh auth login to authenticate with your GitHub account.

Configuration Files

Clone this repo to get the configuration files:

cd
git clone https://github.com/viridityzhu/my_linux_setup.git

• .vimrc: vim configuration file.

  cp my_linux_setup/.vimrc ~

  To install Vim plugins from command line:

  vim +PluginInstall +qall

• .bashrc: bash configuration file. Note that it is dangerous and unnecessary to directly copy this bash config, because it will replace the original one. Only do this with confidence. Otherwise, it is recommended to copy and paste required configurations from the .bashrc file, e.g., the alias for gpu [num] and notify_me.

  cp my_linux_setup/.bashrc ~

  [optional] Uncomment force_color_prompt=yes at around line 46.

  In this file, I predefined some useful functions:

  1. An aliases for CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=xxx by simply using gpu 0, gpu 1,2, etc before commands.
  2. To ring a bell after finishing a task: notify_me [command]

• .tmux.conf: tmux configuration file.

  git clone https://github.com/gpakosz/.tmux.git
  ln -s -f .tmux/.tmux.conf
  cp my_linux_setup/.tmux.conf.local ~

  This .tmux.conf config is borrowed from gpakosz/.tmux, containing appearance and shortcut modifications. Do read the source project for better usage. My own modifications are separated in .tmux.conf.local.

  My tmux appearance:

  If you are new to tmux, I strongly recommend this tutorial: Tmux使用手册 (in Chinese).

Set Accessibility of your home

Finally, set the accessibility of your home dir. 700 means only yourself can read/write.

chmod 700 -R .

Set Git global user info

git config --global user.name "John Doe"
git config --global user.email johndoe@example.com

My Setup v2.0 - zsh shell

I am now more familiar with zsh rather than bash. Luckily I left brief notes for the zsh setup. Let me copy it here.

Install zsh

1. Installation requires root permission. You can still check if there is already zsh installed via: cat /etc/shell. For example, you may find: /usr/bin/zsh
2. Use chsh --shell zsh to change user's default shell.
3. However, this requires you to have real user permission. If you don't even have that, for example, on a lab cluster, you can use this semi-permanent way: add this to the end of ~/.bashrc:

   # If this terminal is interactive, switch to zsh
   if [[ $- == *i* ]]; then
       exec zsh
   fi

4. Before jumping into zsh, let's install oh-my-zsh to ease the configuration of everything. It will replace your default .zshrc file with its fancy template that is easy to start with.

Configure zsh

1. old configs

The first thing is to copy the useful configs in .bashrc into the new config file: .zshrc. For example, conda initialization, and your self-defined functions.

2. zsh theme/prompt

• The original zsh already supports thousands of themes, and you can easily change them by altering ZSH_THEME='xxx'. Go to their website to find a favorite. It even supports randomly selecting a theme each time you log in:
• Otherwise, powerlevel10k is all you need. It is faster than the original themes, is easy to configure, and supports proper customization.

3. zsh plugins

In the .zshrc file, easily enable plugins like this:

plugins=(git zsh-syntax-highlighting zsh-autosuggestions autojump fd fzf)

zsh-syntax-highlighting, zsh-autosuggestions, and fzf are almost necessary. Search for them and install one by one, and do nothing since oh-my-zsh will help load them.

4. others

1. fzf is for fuzzy finder. It needs additional configurations to be more powerful
2. install bat for better highlighted cat [file]. But it seems not easy to install if I have not root permission ;)

Useful commands

• Check cuda version

  nvcc -V

• Check gpu status

  nvidia-smi

  or

  nvtop

• Check cpu usage:

  htop

• List all softwares

  dpkg --get-selections

• Output the results to a .txt file by >

  dpkg --get-selections > installed-software.txt

• An alias for CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=xxx by simply using gpu 0, gpu 1,2, etc before commands.

• To ring a bell after finishing a task:

  notify_me [command]