As much as I enjoy tinkering with my Ubuntu workflow, setting up a new machine has been a struggle for me each time. Recently, I had to setup a new machine I got for my office, and I decided to document the steps I took and the helpful advices I referenced. Hopefully this will be helpful to my future self and some other amateur debian users out there.

NeoVim

  • Can now be done with a simple sudo apt install neovim.
  • TODO: Setting up vimplug

Zsh

  • Can now be install through apt with sudo apt install zsh. After first-time installation, zsh will prompt you for setup instructions. Follow the instructions and you’ll be fine.
  • Changing the default shell can be done with chsh -s $(which zsh). Using sudo on this did not work for me. Maybe just stick with chsh, it will ask you for password.
  • Installing oh-my-zsh: instructions can be found here. Might require installing curl first.
  • Default themes can be selected by changing ZSH\_THEME in ~/.zshrc. Currently using af-magic.

Tmux

  • Can be installed with sudo apt install tmux.
  • Fixing the esc(ape) delay: add set -sg escape-time 20 to ~/.tmux.conf.

Git

  • Can be installed with sudo apt install git.
  • Configuring user info: 
    git config --global user.email "you@example.com"
git config --global user.name "Your Name"
  • Using github:
    • Generate ssh key: ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your_email@example.com"
    • Adding the key to github: instructions

Jekyll

  • Official Setup Guide
  • Installation
    • Install ruby by using apt install ruby causes permission issues when trying to install gems.
    • The better way is to install rvm: instructions.
    • After installing rvm, run (I still get some dependency issue for 3.0.1, hence the older version of ruby). 
        rvm install 2.7.0
  rvm use 2.7.0
    • Then, gem install jekyll bundle installs jekyll.
  • You might need to specify the ruby version with rvm before using jekyll each time. Do that by calling rvm use 2.7.0. You might get “rvm is not a function”, to address this, follow this answer.

Virtual env and Python

  • Install pip with sudo apt install python3-pip.
  • Install virtualenv with sudo apt install virtualenv. Add 
      export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER\_PYTHON=/usr/bin/python3
  export WORKON_HOME=$HOME/.virtualenvs
  export PROJECT_HOME=$HOME/Devel
  source /home/fengjun/.local/bin/virtualenvwrapper.sh

    to ~/.zshrc.

  • Then, install virtualenvwrapper with pip3 install virtualenvwrapper.
  • I broke pip with some apt purge commands. To fix it, I had to force Then I needed to adI somehow broke pip along the way with some apt purge commands that I ran. To fix it, I had to force reinstall sudo apt install --reinstall python3-pkg-resources python3-setuptools. Thankfully pip now works and I can also use virtualenvwrapper without a problem.
  • To add desired kernels to jupyter notebook, use python -m ipykernel install --user --name general --display-name "general"

Matlab

  • Installation instructions for Penn SEAS students.
  • Note to myself: remember to install the control system toolbox for stuff like idare!
  • CVX: just download the cvx .tar file from the official website and run cvx_setup in the matlab commandline. Then add the command run /home/fengjun/.cvx/cvx_startup.m to the file /home/username/Documents/MATLAB/startup.m.
  • Gurobi: somehow the cvx\_getgrbkey does not work for me. The easier way is to download gurobi from the official site, and then go to the bin folder of gurobi to run the executable grbgetkey. When prompted, save the .lic file to the home directory and then run cvx_setup. cvx should be able to automatically detect the license.

Misc

  • Fusuma
  • Chrome
  • Slack: Note that the big button downloads the .rpm package, but they have a link on the same page to download the .deb package.
  • Zoom
  • TODO: Chinese input