netzfisch's ...wikibrain and blogpost taker

Lubuntu devbox quick setup

After years staying with my old laptop, downgrading the window manager from GNOME 3 back to GNOME 2 and finally to LXDE, to keep decent performance - while upgrading to new distro-releases, finally the point came: I had to change my beloved companion IBM ThinkPad T41! So, I sad good bye ;-( and hello :-) to a more powerful one!

But can you remember, what you installed in the past years, what to keep - what to move? It took me a while to get the same working state I had before, therefore I summarized the accomplished steps and put some love in my dotfile organization at github.

In the last years, I got used to a fast and lightweight operating system, so I keep on using lubuntu, as the core is based on Ubuntu, focuses on speed and energy-efficiency, and uses the minimal desktop LXDE. Perfect conditions to stay the next decade with my new gadget - hopefully.

So get your iso-image and copy it to a the USB-stick. Before installing the base system, be aware to change your BIOS boot order at startup via <F1> (persistent) or hit <F12> to choose your temporary boot device . While moving through the installer make sure to choose the system encryption option or encrypt at least your home directory!

Than backup your old home directory, see using tar details here:

$ tar -cvpzf backup-home.tar --exclude=~/backup-home.tar --one-file-system /home/YourUserName

extract your backup on the new box

$ tar -xvpzf backup-home.tar -C /home/YourUserName/backup

and copy your .ssh-folder from the backup directory to the root level of your home directory. Make sure only YOU can read/write to it chmod -R 600 ~/.ssh !

To install dropbox, heroku CLI and foreman add additional repositorys

$ sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://linux.dropbox.com/ubuntu saucy main"
$ sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://toolbelt.heroku.com/ubuntu ./"

and the corresponding keys to your apt sources:

$ sudo apt-key add https://toolbelt.heroku.com/apt/release.key
$ sudo apt-key adv --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 5044912E

Afterwards update and spice up your system with the essential terminal, and dev tools:

$  sudo apt-get update
$  sudo apt-get install aptitude curl git git-man gitg gitk heroku-toolbelt mc nodejs vim vim-doc xfce4-terminal zsh zsh-doc

and some useful desktop apps:

$  autokey audacity bogofilter chromium-browser diodon dropbox gimp gkrellm gwakeonlan keepassX lubuntu-restricted-extras shutter thunar

Switch your shell $ chsh -s /bin/zsh, clone, and install your dotfiles, mine are here.

Integrate your local NAS by changing /etc/fstab according to the hints at the ubuntu wiki and support your work flow by a music streaming service. I add the google Linux Software Repositories, download and install the google-music-manager.

Finally install ruby via rvm or rbenv and commonly used gems, e.g.

$ gem install jekyll rubocop termit

Happy hacking!