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authorMitja Felicijan <m@mitjafelicijan.com>2023-07-08 23:25:41 +0200
committerMitja Felicijan <m@mitjafelicijan.com>2023-07-08 23:25:41 +0200
commitcd6644ea4ddc78597934ab0ef5ba50e3c3daa927 (patch)
tree03de331a8db6386dfd6fa75155bfbcea6b4feaf3 /public/debian-based-riced-up-distribution-for-developers-and-devops-folks.html
parent84ed124529ffeee1590295b8de3a8faf51848680 (diff)
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1<!doctype html><html lang=en-us><meta charset=utf-8><meta name=viewport content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1"><link href="data:image/x-icon;base64,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" rel=icon type=image/x-icon><title>Debian based riced up distribution for Developers and DevOps folks</title><meta name=description content="IntroductionI have been using Ubuntu for quite a longtime now."><link rel=alternate type=application/rss+xml title="Mitja Felicijan's posts" href=https://mitjafelicijan.com/index.xml><link rel=alternate type=application/rss+xml title="Mitja Felicijan's notes" href=https://mitjafelicijan.com/notes.xml><style>body{padding:1rem;max-width:760px;background:#fff;font-family:times new roman,Times,serif;line-height:1.35rem}hr{margin-block-start:1.5rem}h1,h2,h3{line-height:initial}footer{margin-block-start:3rem}table{max-width:100%;border-collapse:separate;border-spacing:2px;border:1px solid #000;border-left:1px solid #999;border-top:1px solid #999}blockquote{font-style:italic}table thead{background:#eee}td,th{border:1px solid #000;padding:4px;border-right:1px solid #999;border-bottom:1px solid #999;text-align:left}pre{text-wrap:nowrap;overflow-x:auto;margin-block-start:1.5rem;margin-block-end:1.5rem;padding:.5rem 0;border-top:1px solid #000;border-bottom:1px solid #000}pre code{line-height:1.3em}pre,code,pre *,code *{font-family:monospace;font-size:initial!important}img,video,audio{max-width:100%}header{display:flex;flex-direction:row;gap:3rem}nav{display:flex;gap:.75rem}.pstatus-orange{background:gold}.pstatus-green{background:#9acd32}.pstatus-red{background:#cd5c5c}@media only screen and (max-width:600px){header{flex-direction:column;gap:1rem}a{word-wrap:break-word}}</style><header><nav class=main><a href=/>Home</a>
2<a href=https://git.mitjafelicijan.com/ target=_blank>Git</a>
3<a href=https://files.mitjafelicijan.com/ target=_blank>Files</a>
4<a href=/mitjafelicijan.pgp.pub.txt target=_blank>PGP</a>
5<a href=/curriculum-vitae.html>CV</a>
6<a href=/index.xml target=_blank>RSS</a></nav></header><main><div><h1>Debian based riced up distribution for Developers and DevOps folks</h1><p>Dec 3, 2021<div><h2 id=introduction>Introduction</h2><p>I have been using <a href=https://ubuntu.com/>Ubuntu</a> for quite a longtime now. I have
7used <a href=https://www.debian.org/>Debian</a> in the past and
8<a href=https://manjaro.org/>Manjaro</a>. Also had <a href=https://archlinux.org/>Arch</a> for
9some time and even ran <a href=https://www.gentoo.org/>Gentoo</a> way back.<p>What I learned from all this is that I prefer running a bit older versions and
10having them be stable than run bleeding edge rolling release. For that reason, I
11stuck with Ubuntu for a couple of years now. I am also at a point in my life
12where I just don't care what is cool or hip anymore. I just want a stable system
13that doesn't get in my way.<p>During all this, I noticed that these distributions were getting very bloated
14and a lot of software got included that I usually uninstall on fresh
15installation. Maybe this is my OCD speaking, but why do I have to give fresh
16installation min 1 GB of ram out of the box just to have a blank screen in front
17of me? I get it, there are many things included in the distro to make my life
18easier. I understand. But at this point I have a feeling that modern Linux
19distributions are becoming similar to <a href=https://devhumor.com/content/uploads/images/August2017/node-modules.jpg>Node.js project with
20node_modules</a>.
21Just a crazy number of packages serving very little or no purpose, just
22supporting other software.<p>I felt I needed a fresh start. To start over with something minimal and clean.
23Something that would put a little more joy into using a computer again.<p>For the first version, I wanted to target the following machines I have at home
24that I want this thing to work on.<pre tabindex=0 style=background-color:#fff><code><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:green># My main stationary work machine</span>
25</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>Resolution: 3840x1080 (Super Ultrawide Monitor 32:9)
26</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>CPU: Intel i7-8700 (12) @ 4.600GHz
27</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>GPU: AMD ATI Radeon RX 470/480/570/570X/580/580X/590
28</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>Memory: 32020MiB
29</span></span></code></pre><pre tabindex=0 style=background-color:#fff><code><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:green># Thinkpad x220 for testing things and goofing around</span>
30</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>Resolution: 1366x768
31</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>CPU: Intel i5-2520M (4) @ 3.200GHz
32</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>GPU: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family
33</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>Memory: 15891MiB
34</span></span></code></pre><h2 id=how-should-i-approach-this>How should I approach this?</h2><p>I knew I wanted to use <a href=https://www.debian.org/CD/netinst/>minimal Debian netinst</a> for the base to give myself a head
35start. No reason to go through changing the installer and also testing all that
36behemoth of a thing. So, some sort of ricing was the only logical option to get
37this thing of the grounds somewhat quickly.<blockquote><p><strong>What is ricing anyway?</strong>
38The term “RICE” stands for Race Inspired Cosmetic Enhancement. A group of
39people (could be one, idk) decided to see if they could tweak their own
40distros like they/others did their cars. This gave rise to a community of
41Linux/Unix enthusiasts trying to make their distros look cooler and better
42than others... For more information, read this article
43<a href=https://pesos.github.io/2020/07/14/what-is-ricing.html>What in the world is ricing!?</a>.</blockquote><p>I didn't want this to just be a set of config files for theming purpose. I
44wanted this to include a set of pre-installed tools and services that are being
45used all the time by a modern developer. Theming is just a tiny part of it.
46Fonts being applied across the distro and things like that.<p>First, I choose terminal installer and left it to load additional components.
47Avoid using graphical installer in this case.<p><img src=/assets/dfd-rice/install-00.png alt><p>After that I selected hostname and created a normal user and set password for
48that user and root user and choose guided mode for disk partitioning.<p><img src=/assets/dfd-rice/install-01.png alt><p>I left it run to install all the things required for the base system and opted
49out of scanning additional media for use by the package manager. Those will be
50downloaded from the internet during installation.<p><img src=/assets/dfd-rice/install-02.png alt><p>I opted out of the popularity contest, and <strong>now comes the important part</strong>.
51Uncheck all the boxes in Software selection and only leave 'standard system
52utilities'. I also left an SSH server, so I was able to log in to the machine
53from my main PC.<p><img src=/assets/dfd-rice/install-03.png alt><p>At this point, I installed GRUB bootloader on the disk where I installed the
54system.<p><img src=/assets/dfd-rice/install-04.png alt><p>That concluded the installation of base Debian and after restarting the computer
55I was prompted with the login screen.<p><img src=/assets/dfd-rice/install-05.png alt><p>Now that I had the base installation, it was time to choose what software do I
56want to include in this so-called distribution. I wanted out of the box
57developer experience, so I had plenty to choose.<p>Let's not waste time and go through the list.<h2 id=desktop-environments>Desktop environments</h2><p>I have been using <a href=https://www.gnome.org/>Gnome</a> for my whole Linux life. From
58version 2 forward. It's been quite a ride. I hated version 3 when it came out
59and replaced version 2. But I got used to it. And now with version 40+ they also
60made couple of changes which I found both frustrating and presently surprised.<p>The amount of vertical space you loose because of the beefy title bars on
61windows is ridiculous. And then in case of
62<a href=https://gnunn1.github.io/tilix-web/>Tilix</a> you also have tabs, and you are
63100px deep. Vertical space is one of the most important things for a
64developer. The more real estate you have, the more code you can have in a
65viewport.<p>But on the other hand, I still love how Gnome feels and looks. I gotta give them
66that. They really are trying to make Gnome feel unified and modern.<p>Regardless of all the nice things Gnome has, I was looking at the tiling window
67managers for some time, but never had the nerve to actually go with it. But now
68was the ideal time to give it a go. No guts, no glory kind of a thing.<p>One of the requirements for me was easy custom layouts because I use a really
69strange monitor with aspect ratio of 32:9. So relying on included layouts most
70of them have is a non-starter.<p>What I was doing in Gnome was having windows in a layout like the diagram
71below. This is my common practice. And if you look at it you can clearly see I
72was replicating tiling window manager setup in Gnome.<p><img src=/assets/dfd-rice/layout.png alt><p>That made me look into a bunch of tiling window managers and then tested them
73out. Candidates I was looking at were:<ul><li><a href=https://i3wm.org/>i3</a><li><a href=https://github.com/baskerville/bspwm>bspwm</a><li><a href=https://awesomewm.org/index.html>awesome</a><li><a href=https://xmonad.org/>XMonad</a><li><a href=https://swaywm.org/>sway</a><li><a href=http://www.qtile.org/>Qtile</a><li><a href=https://dwm.suckless.org/>dwm</a></ul><p>You can also check article <a href=https://www.tecmint.com/best-tiling-window-managers-for-linux/>13 Best Tiling Window Managers for
74Linux</a> I was
75referencing while testing them out.<p>While all of them provided what I needed, I liked i3 the most. What particular
76caught my eye was the ease to use and tree based layouts which allows flexible
77layouts. I know others can be set up also to have custom layouts other than<br>spiral, dwindle etc. I think i3 is a good entry-level window manager for
78somebody like me.<h2 id=batteries-included>Batteries included</h2><p>The source for the whole thing is located on Github
79<a href=https://github.com/mitjafelicijan/dfd-rice>https://github.com/mitjafelicijan/dfd-rice</a>.<p>Currenly included:<ul><li><code>non-free</code> (enables non-free packages in apt)<li><code>sudo</code> (adds sudo and adds user to sudo group)<li><code>essentials</code> (gcc, htop, zip, curl, etc...)<li><code>wifi</code> (network manager nmtui)<li><code>desktop</code> (i3, dmenu, fonts, configurations)<li><code>pulseaudio</code> (pulseaudio with pavucontrol)<li><code>code-editors</code> (vim, micro, vscode)<li><code>ohmybash</code> (make bash pretty)<li><code>file-managers</code> (mc)<li><code>git-ui</code> (terminal git gui)<li><code>meld</code> (diff tool)<li><code>profiling</code> (kcachegrind, valgrind, strace, ltrace)<li><code>browsers</code> (brave, firefox, chromium)<li>programming languages:<ul><li><code>python</code><li><code>golang</code><li><code>nodejs</code><li><code>rust</code><li><code>nim</code><li><code>php</code><li><code>ruby</code></ul><li><code>docker</code> (with docker-compose)<li><code>ansible</code></ul><p>Install script also allows you to install only specific packages (example for:
80essentials ohmybash docker rust).<pre tabindex=0 style=background-color:#fff><code><span style=display:flex><span>su - root <span style=color:#a31515>\
81</span></span></span><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#a31515></span> bash -c <span style=color:#a31515>&#34;</span><span style=color:#00f>$(</span>wget -q https://raw.github.com/mitjafelicijan/dfd-rice/master/tools/install.sh -O -<span style=color:#00f>)</span><span style=color:#a31515>&#34;</span> -- <span style=color:#a31515>\
82</span></span></span><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#a31515></span> essentials ohmybash docker rust
83</span></span></code></pre><p>Currently, most of these recipes use what Debian and this is totally fine with
84me since I never use bleeding edge features of a package. But if something major
85would come to light, I will replace it with a possible compilation script or
86something similar.<p>This is some of the output from the installation script.<p><img src=/assets/dfd-rice/script.png alt><p>Let's take a look at some examples in the installation script.<h3 id=docker-recipe>Docker recipe</h3><pre tabindex=0 style=background-color:#fff><code><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:green># docker</span>
87</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>print_header <span style=color:#a31515>&#34;Installing Docker&#34;</span>
88</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/debian/gpg | gpg --yes --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg
89</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>echo <span style=color:#a31515>&#34;deb [arch=</span><span style=color:#00f>$(</span>dpkg --print-architecture<span style=color:#00f>)</span><span style=color:#a31515> signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/debian </span><span style=color:#00f>$(</span>lsb_release -cs<span style=color:#00f>)</span><span style=color:#a31515> stable&#34;</span> | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list &gt; /dev/null
90</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>apt update
91</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>apt -y install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-compose
92</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>
93</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>systemctl start docker
94</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>systemctl enable docker
95</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>systemctl status docker --no-pager
96</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>
97</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>/sbin/usermod -aG docker $USERNAME
98</span></span></code></pre><h3 id=making-bash-pretty>Making bash pretty</h3><p>I really like <a href=https://ohmyz.sh/>Oh My Zsh</a>, but I don't like zsh shell. When
99I used it, I constantly needed to be aware of it and running bash scripts was a
100pain. So, I was really delighted when I found out that a version for bash
101existed called <a href=https://ohmybash.nntoan.com/>Oh My Bash</a>. Let's take a look at
102the recipe for installing it.<pre tabindex=0 style=background-color:#fff><code><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:green># ohmybash</span>
103</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>print_header <span style=color:#a31515>&#34;Enabling OhMyBash&#34;</span>
104</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>sudo -u $USERNAME sh -c <span style=color:#a31515>&#34;</span><span style=color:#00f>$(</span>curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/ohmybash/oh-my-bash/master/tools/install.sh<span style=color:#00f>)</span><span style=color:#a31515>&#34;</span> &amp;
105</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>T1=<span style=color:#a31515>${</span>!<span style=color:#a31515>}</span>
106</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>wait <span style=color:#a31515>${</span>T1<span style=color:#a31515>}</span>
107</span></span></code></pre><p>Because OhMyBash does <code>exec bash</code> at the end, this traps our script inside
108another shell and our script cannot continue. For that reason, I executed this
109in background. But that presents a new problem. Because this is executed in
110background, we lose track of progress naturally. And that strange trick with
111<code>T1=${!}</code> and <code>wait ${T1}</code> waits for the background process to finish before
112continuing to another task in bash script.<p>Check <a href=https://www.cloudsavvyit.com/12277/how-to-use-multi-threaded-processing-in-bash-scripts/>Multi-Threaded Processing in Bash Scripts</a>
113for more details.<h2 id=conclusion>Conclusion</h2><p>Take a look at
114<a href=https://github.com/mitjafelicijan/dfd-rice/blob/develop/tools/install.sh>https://github.com/mitjafelicijan/dfd-rice/blob/develop/tools/install.sh</a> script
115to get familiar with it. This is just a first iteration and I will continue to
116update it because I need this in my life.<p>The current version boots in 4s to the login prompt, and after you log in, the
117desktop environment loads in 2s. So, its fast, very fast. And on clean boot, I
118measured ~230 MB of RAM usage.<p>And this is how it looks with two terminals side by side. I really like the
119simplicity and clean interface. I will polish the colors and stuff like that,
120but I really do like the results.<p><img src=/assets/dfd-rice/desktop.png alt></div></div></main><footer><hr><div><h3>Want to comment or have something to add?</h3>You can write me an email at
121<a href=mailto:m@mitjafelicijan.com>m@mitjafelicijan.com</a> or catch up
122with me
123<a href=https://telegram.me/mitjafelicijan target=_blank>on Telegram</a>.</div><hr><p>This website does not track you. Content is made available under
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