I recently needed to re-configure my primary desktop from scratch.

In hopes of maybe making the process a little easier next time, I decided to document the programs I installed, and how I went about doing so, in addition to any random notes I thought might be helpful next time I do this.

Disclaimer: Although I've been using Linux on-and-off for almost two decades, I've never considered myself very proficient with the system. I'm still learning new sysadmin tricks and practices every day. I suspect my decision-making about which packages to build from source, fetch binaries, or rely on package managers could appear very haphazard (no to mention the actual packages I choose to install).

Applications Installed

This isn't a list of all the programs I regularly use, it's just the first ones that I found myself installing, roughly in the order that they came to mind. Some programs (such as Firefox) are installed by default and I didn't even try to install them. Others (like git) are installed by default and I didn't realize until trying to install.

I've tried to note the official website for each program.

• git – Source control already installed

• GNU Privacy Guard (gpg) – Encryption toolkit already installed

• Vim – Primary text editor https://www.vim.org/git.php note: make failed without libncurses-dev (sudo apt install libncurses-dev)

Clone git repo and build from source:

git clone https://github.com/vim/vim.git
cd vim
git pull
cd src
make distclean  # if you build Vim before
make
sudo make install

• Veracrypt – Manage encrypted volumes https://www.veracrypt.fr/code/VeraCrypt/ Download, verify, and install

  cd ~/Downloads/
  wget https://www.idrix.fr/VeraCrypt/VeraCrypt_PGP_public_key.asc
  gpg --import VeraCrypt_PGP_public_key.asc 
  wget https://launchpad.net/veracrypt/trunk/1.24-update7/+download/veracrypt-1.24-Update7-Ubuntu-21.04-amd64.deb.sig
  wget https://launchpad.net/veracrypt/trunk/1.24-update7/+download/veracrypt-1.24-Update7-Ubuntu-21.04-amd64.deb
  gpg --verify veracrypt-1.24-Update7-Ubuntu-21.04-amd64.deb.sig veracrypt-1.24-Update7-Ubuntu-21.04-amd64.deb
  sudo dpkg --install veracrypt-1.24-Update7-Ubuntu-21.04-amd64.deb
  

• KeepassXC – Password manager https://keepassxc.org/download/

  sudo apt install keepassxc 
  

• Syncthing – Cross-device file syncing https://syncthing.net/downloads/ https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing/releases/download/v1.18.4/syncthing-linux-amd64-v1.18.4.tar.gz use systemd user config Didn't work at first. Used systemctl -l status syncthing.service to determine the issue (which was that syncthing hadn't been moved to /usr/bin).

  wget https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing/releases/download/v1.18.4/syncthing-linux-amd64-v1.18.4.tar.gz
  gunzip syncthing-linux-amd64-v1.18.4.tar.gz 
  ls -ltra
  tar -xvf syncthing-linux-amd64-v1.18.4.tar 
  cd syncthing-linux-amd64-v1.18.4/
  mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user
  sudo mv syncthing /usr/bin
  cp syncthing.service ~/.config/systemd/user/
  systemctl --user enable syncthing.service
  systemctl --user start syncthing.service
  

  Web interface at: http://127.0.0.1:8384/

• Flameshot – Screenshot capture tool https://flameshot.org/guide/installation/installation-linux/

  sudo apt install flameshot
  

• Tor Browser – Darkweb browser https://www.torproject.org/download/

wget https://dist.torproject.org/torbrowser/10.5.10/tor-browser-linux64-10.5.10_en-US.tar.xz.asc
wget https://www.torproject.org/dist/torbrowser/10.5.10/tor-browser-linux64-10.5.10_en-US.tar.xz

https://support.torproject.org/tbb/how-to-verify-signature/

gpg --auto-key-locate nodefault,wkd --locate-keys torbrowser@torproject.org
gpg --output ./tor.keyring --export 0xEF6E286DDA85EA2A4BA7DE684E2C6E8793298290
gpgv --keyring ./tor.keyring tor-browser-linux64-10.5.10_en-US.tar.xz.asc tor-browser-linux64-10.5.10_en-US.tar.xz

gpgv: Signature made Mon 25 Oct 2021 03:17:07 PM EDT
gpgv:                using RSA key EB774491D9FF06E2
gpgv: Good signature from "Tor Browser Developers (signing key) <torbrowser@torproject.org>"

https://tb-manual.torproject.org/installation/

./start-tor-browser.desktop --register-app --verbose --detach

• Pandoc – Document conversion tool (I use this for making PDFs from markdown files) https://pandoc.org/installing.html

  wget https://github.com/jgm/pandoc/releases/download/2.16.1/pandoc-2.16.1-1-amd64.deb
  sudo dpkg -i pandoc-2.16.1-1-amd64.deb 
  

• Inkscape – Vector graphics (SVG) editor https://inkscape.org/release/inkscape-1.1.1/

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:inkscape.dev/stable
sudo apt update
sudo apt install inkscape

• glances – A top/Task Manager/Activity Monitor tool https://nicolargo.github.io/glances/

  sudo apt install python3-pip # Pip is the Python package manager, I'm surprised I didn't need it up until here
  pip install glances
  

• youtube-dl – Easily download streaming videos

sudo apt install python
  wget https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/releases/download/2021.06.06/youtube-dl-2021.06.06.tar.gz
  wget https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/releases/download/2021.06.06/youtube-dl-2021.06.06.tar.gz.sig
  gpg --verify youtube-dl-2021.06.06.tar.gz.sig youtube-dl-2021.06.06.tar.gz # this didnt work
tar -xvf youtube-dl-2021.06.06.tar.gz 
cd youtube-dl/
make && sudo make install

• VLC Media Player – A video player https://www.videolan.org/vlc/#download

sudo apt install vlc

• OpenShot – Video editor https://www.openshot.org/

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:openshot.developers/ppa
sudo apt update
sudo apt install openshot-qt python3-openshot 

• clang – C/C++ compiler suite https://clang.llvm.org/get_started.html

sudo apt install clang

wget https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/releases/download/llvmorg-13.0.0/clang+llvm-13.0.0-x86_64-linux-gnu-ubuntu-20.04.tar.xz.sha256
wget https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/releases/download/llvmorg-13.0.0/clang+llvm-13.0.0-x86_64-linux-gnu-ubuntu-20.04.tar.xz

• mlocate – Indexed local search https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Mlocate sudo apt install mlocate

• midnight commander (mc) – File browser https://midnight-commander.org/

• Rust – The only good programming language https://www.rust-lang.org/learn/get-started

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

git clone https://github.com/rust-lang/rust.vim ~/.vim/pack/plugins/start/rust.vim

• TOR – The Onion Router and accompanying tools sudo apt install tor

• OBS – Streaming/recording, a powerful broadcasting suite https://obsproject.com/download

  sudo apt install ffmpeg
  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:obsproject/obs-studio
  sudo apt install obs-studio
  

  and virtual cam (so I can use OBS output as the input for Zoom):

  sudo apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r) v4l2loopback-dkms # v4l = "Video 4 Linux?"
  

• nmap – Network scanner/mapper https://nmap.org/ sudo apt install nmap gives version from last Oct (not the latest)

• ImageMagick – Powerful image conversion and batch editing https://imagemagick.org/ Already installed

• mplayer – Another media player https://mplayerhq.hu/design7/news.html

  svn checkout svn://svn.mplayerhq.hu/mplayer/trunk mplayer
  cd mplayer && ./configure # Failed first time --needed to install yasm
  make && sudo make install

• Wireshark – Network capture and analysis https://www.wireshark.org/download.html

sudo apt install wireshark

• Jupyter notebook – It's like if a python program and a markdown file had a baby

https://jupyter.org/install

• Zoom – Video conferencing https://zoom.us/download

• Subversion (svn) – Source control https://subversion.apache.org/

sudo apt install subversion

Firefox plugins:

These are my must-have plugins:

• uBlock Origin – Ad blocker https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/

• Script blocker – Selectively enable Javascript https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/noscript

• Privacy Badger – Reduce tracking https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/privacy-badger17

• Facebook Container – Reduce tracking (by sandboxing Facebook login) https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-container

• Pinboard – Cloud bookmarks (https://pinboard.in) https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/pinboard-extension/

  Firefox configuration

  These are the firefox config settings that I changed.

  • Default browser
  • Default search –> Duckduckgo
  • fingerprint protection
  • block requests for location
  • tracking protection
  • do not track
  • don't save passwords/credit cards/addresses
  • disable suggestions
  • disable analytics
  • enable https-only mode in all windows

Not yet installed (but probably will soon)

• gimp – Raster image editor
• signal – Online chat
• discord – Online chat
• chromium – Web browser

#software #applications