Linux box setup

Hello!

Are you setting up a new Linux box? Then follow my setup instructions below.

Note: Never store sensitive data like credentials, etc. in this project!

Table of Contents

• Create bootable USB drive
• Install Linux
• First steps after a fresh Linux installation
• Backup / Restore
• Setup apps, more settings/configurations

Create bootable USB drive

Download a Linux ISO image (e.g. EndeavourOS or Ubuntu) and burn it to a USB drive:

# Return the device (e.g. /dev/sda) of the inserted USB drive:
ls -l /dev/disk/by-id | grep usb

# Replace /dev/??? with the corresponding device and burn image to USB drive:
sudo dd if=endeavouros.iso of=/dev/??? bs=1M oflag=sync status=progress

Install Linux

Boot from the USB drive and follow the installation steps.

First steps after a fresh Linux installation

1. Perform a full system upgrade:
   • Ubuntu: sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade
   • EndeavourOS/Arch: sudo pacman -Syu
2. Reboot.
3. Log in to your Bitwarden vault via browser using email address, password, and your 2FA device (i.e. via the Bitwarden Authenticator app on your mobile phone).
   • There is a password hint.
   • In the event that you can no longer use your normal two-step login provider (e.g. because you have lost your mobile device), your recovery code allows you to access your Bitwarden account. You can find your Bitwarden two-step login recovery code in your secret location.
   • If you ever need to restore your Bitwarden vault, import the backed-up encrypted JSON export from your Google Drive's Backups folder. The password is your Bitwarden password.
4. Restore backup (see Restore backup section below).
5. Run the setup script:

   ~/mydata/projects/private/shell-tools/setup_linux_box/setup_linux_box.sh

6. Continue with further setups and settings (see Setup apps section below).

Backup / Restore

Restore backup

Follow the instructions at https://github.com/tztz/backup.

Install restic before restoring, since it is needed by the restore script:

• Ubuntu: sudo apt install restic
• EndeavourOS/Arch: sudo pacman -S restic

Note: You can download the needed .backup.env file from your Google Drive's __INSTALL__ folder. If you wish you can also download the backup_restore.sh file from there but it's recommended to use the version from the GitHub repository.

Important: Make sure that the downloaded file starts with a dot. It must be named .backup.env not backup.env.

Create backup

After restoring the backup and running setup_linux_box.sh, new backups can be created by executing backup_create.sh (it's in the PATH).

Setup apps, more settings/configurations

Bitwarden browser plugin

• Log in
• Set vault timeout to 15 minutes
• Enable "Unlock with PIN" (PIN is stored in Bitwarden)
• Enable "Clear clipboard after 1 minute"

vscode

• Log in to sync settings

IntelliJ IDEA

• Download the IntelliJ IDEA (Ultimate) tgz file from the official homepage
• Unpack it in ~/myapps/intellij/idea
• Update the symlink so that it points to the latest idea installation
• Create/update the application menu entry by running ~/mydata/projects/private/shell-tools/setup_linux_box/setup_idea_desktop_entry.sh
• Log in to JetBrains account
• Activate license

Kafkio

• Restore the Kafkio config (i.e. copy the config directory) from ~/mydata/backups/kafkio/... to ~/.local/share/kafkio

DBeaver

• Open DBeaver
• Import the DBeaver backup (export) from ~/mydata/backups/dbeaver/...

VPN

VPN profiles are not currently created automatically by the setup script. Import the required .ovpn file from ~/mydata/auth_certificates_keys/vpn/ using your network manager, then add your credentials in its settings UI (e.g. GNOME Settings → Network → VPN).

Work

Have a look at the bin-private folder. There you find the *_vpn_connect.sh file.