How I automated my workstation setup

1

Ubuntu

One other thing about this basic Arch setup is that you need to install and configure many more things according to your preferences, all by yourself. Though I like to do it this way so that I have the most control over how I set up my Linux, not everyone would want to go through this lengthy and arguably difficult process. So, if instead of a basic system, you're looking for a ready-to-use out-of-the-box system that is still Arch, you can install one of the Linux distributions based on Arch, and there are plenty of them, just like there are so many of them based on Debian and Ubuntu. When speaking of Arch-based distributions, you cannot miss mentioning Manjaro as it's one of the best Arch-based Linux distributions out there and it comes with a range of official and community editions for you to choose from. Installing one of these Arch-based distributions is way easier as they come with the familiar graphical installer, which is often the Calamares installer.

#Linux #Operating Systems #Linux Distribution 229 social mentions

2

Syncthing

Then I set up startup services, the first one of them is Syncthing (my local cloud) and then there's network-manager service so that I can connect to wireless networks on Arch.

#Cloud Storage #File Sharing #File Sharing And Backup 826 social mentions

3

Manjaro

One other thing about this basic Arch setup is that you need to install and configure many more things according to your preferences, all by yourself. Though I like to do it this way so that I have the most control over how I set up my Linux, not everyone would want to go through this lengthy and arguably difficult process. So, if instead of a basic system, you're looking for a ready-to-use out-of-the-box system that is still Arch, you can install one of the Linux distributions based on Arch, and there are plenty of them, just like there are so many of them based on Debian and Ubuntu. When speaking of Arch-based distributions, you cannot miss mentioning Manjaro as it's one of the best Arch-based Linux distributions out there and it comes with a range of official and community editions for you to choose from. Installing one of these Arch-based distributions is way easier as they come with the familiar graphical installer, which is often the Calamares installer.

#Operating Systems #Linux #Linux Distribution 123 social mentions

4

Gnome Boxes

VirtualBox is a pretty popular virtualization solution and has been the one that I've been using on my computers for several years as well. However, we'll use a new tool for this demo, it's called Gnome Boxes. Gnome Boxes is an easy and modern way of running virtual machines without much configuration. Back when I tried it for the first time, I felt strongly obligated to give it a shout-out on Mastodon and another user replied to my Toot saying Boxes creates a VM as easy as a picture viewer opens a picture. That tells you how easy it is to use. I also didn't know one can right-click on an ISO file and create a virtual machine: that's cute!

#Virtualization #Virtual Machine Management #Linux Virtualization 7 social mentions

5

GitHub Gist

The base (or vanilla) Arch does not come with the regular graphical installer that most of us are familiar with. Instead, the entire installation happens within a command-line terminal and involves typing a lot of commands manually. Arch documentation is enormous for almost everything and hence they have a pretty detailed page dedicated for installation as well, which you can find here. After I successfully installed Arch for the first time on my Dell desktop, I created a couple of personal notes as Gists on GitHub for my own reference. You can find them here and here, each of them being for a very specific computer. Obviously, both of these links are mentioned in the description. They're mostly based around the steps mentioned in Arch's official setup guide, and though you should rather refer to the official material, it can serve as an example for quick reference, just in case.

#Design Playground #JavaScript #Links 8 social mentions

6

fish shell

We take care of a few more steps before we start setting up the GUI. One of them is switching the default user shell to fish-shell. This step is still not totally automated, and I have to do some typing here.

#Developer Tools #Cryptocurrencies #Blockchain 124 social mentions

7

Arch Linux

My primary Linux distribution for quite a long time has been Arch, and that is the one we'll install during the demo today.

#Linux #Linux Distribution #Operating Systems 256 social mentions