How to Set Up on A New Machine

Posted on Edited on In Views:

How to set up configs on a brand new machine (typically a ubuntu server).

For the usage of most of the rust tools, see my Unix CLI Tools.

My dotfiles are save in:

1
https://github.com/LYK-love/dotfiles-for-servers

Prerequisites: Set up SSH

You need to set up your ssh first.

Local -> Remote

Now we config the capability of connecting the server from one's local machine.

On your local machine, run:

1
ssh-copy-id user@host

where user is your user account name on the remote server, and host is the hostname or ip address of the remote server.

Or you can copy your ssh public key id_rsa.pub of your local machine to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys of the remote server.

Remote -> Github

  1. Generate ssh key on the server：

    1
    ssh-keygen -t rsa

  2. Look at ~/.ssh:

    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    ❯ ls -l ~/.ssh
    total 20
    -rw-r--r-- 1 lyk lyk   27  2月 10 15:44 config
    -rw------- 1 lyk lyk 2602  2月  9 17:18 id_rsa
    -rw-r--r-- 1 lyk lyk  571  2月  9 17:18 id_rsa.pub
    -rw------- 1 lyk lyk 3926  2月 19 12:58 known_hosts
    -rw------- 1 lyk lyk 3182  2月 19 12:41 known_hosts.old

    Copy the content of id_rsa.pub, i.e., the public key of this user, to the Github.

    The content can be got by

    1
    cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Prerequisite: Softwares

Then, you need to install following softwares.

zsh

  1. Install zsh:

    1
    sudo apt install zsh

    By default, zsh will use ~/.zshrc as config file.

  2. Switch your shell to zsh:

    1
    chsh -s /bin/zsh

  3. Now log out and log in back to enable zsh. You will see:

    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10
    11
    12
    13
    14
    15
    16
    17
    18
    19
    This is the Z Shell configuration function for new users,
    zsh-newuser-install.
    You are seeing this message because you have no zsh startup files
    (the files .zshenv, .zprofile, .zshrc, .zlogin in the directory
    ~).  This function can help you with a few settings that should
    make your use of the shell easier.

    You can:

    (q)  Quit and do nothing.  The function will be run again next time.

    (0)  Exit, creating the file ~/.zshrc containing just a comment.
         That will prevent this function being run again.

    (1)  Continue to the main menu.

    (2)  Populate your ~/.zshrc with the configuration recommended
         by the system administrator and exit (you will need to edit
         the file by hand, if so desired).

    Just type q, since we want to use my own zsh config.

    Now you can see

    1
    2
    > echo $SHELL
    /bin/zsh

  4. Move to next section to install and config Oh-my-zsh.

Oh-my-zsh

Install it via -->repo:

1
sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"
  • If you want to uninstall oh-my-zsh, just run uninstall_oh_my_zsh from the command-line. It will remove itself and revert your previous bash or zsh configuration. (-->Source)

Then install Zsh plugins:

  • zsh-autosuggestions:

    1
    git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions

p10k

The official github repo of p10k is here.

Now we install p10k, a theme of Oh-my-zsh.

1
git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k.git ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-$HOME/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/themes/powerlevel10k

After installation, you will see an interactive window to configure p10k. Since we will use my own config, and I already have one config file for p10k, we can just skip this step.

In the future, you can change the config of p10k manually with:

1
p10k configure

neovim

You may install neovim via sudo apt install neovim. However, the neovim installed through this method is very old due to the slow updates of the official package source.

Therefore, in order to install the latest neovim, which is a must to use NvChad (need neovim>0.9.4), you can install neovim via:

  1. Neovim official github repo.
  2. Or use some PPA repository since it gets updated more often (-->).

For method 2, you should

  1. Add unstable ppa repository:

    1
    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:neovim-ppa/unstable

    If you wish to install the stable version of the PPA. Enter the command below in the terminal, the rest of the procedure is the same.

    1
    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:neovim-ppa/stable

  2. The command above will ask you to confirm you want to add the unstable/stable PPA to the local package database. Press enter. This should update the local package database, but if it does not, then you will need to do it manually. We can do this by entering the command below.

    1
    sudo apt update

  3. Time to do the thing. The command below will install Neovim.

    1
    sudo apt install neovim

NvChad

--> NvChad Installation Doc

1
git clone https://github.com/NvChad/starter ~/.config/nvim && nvim

openssh (if you don't have one)

openssh-server is installed by default in many distros, you can check its installation via:

1
sudo lsof -i :22

If no process is listening to port=22, then the openssh is not enabled or enven not installed.

Below is the instructions to install and enable it:

  1. First, upate all softwares

    1
    sudo apt update

  2. Install openssh-server:

    1
    sudo apt install openssh-server

  3. Verify OpenSSH Server Installation:

    1
    sudo systemctl status ssh

    This command will show the current status of the SSH service. It should be active (running).

If the SSH service is not running, you can start it with:

1
sudo systemctl start ssh

If you want the SSH server to start automatically when your system boots, use:

1
sudo systemctl enable ssh

cargo

--> Installation of Rust

  1. Run the command to download the rustup tool and install the latest stable version of Rust:

    1
    curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.3 https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf | sh

    Next, run the following command to add the Rust toolchain directory to the PATH environment variable:

    1
    source $HOME/.cargo/env

  2. Verify the Rust installation by requesting the version:

    1
    rustc --version

  3. If you don't have a gcc, please install one.

Now rust and corresponding tools (rustup, cargo) have been installed

zellij

You must install cargo first in order to install Zellij.

1
cargo install --locked zellij

The installation of Zellij is a little bit slow.

yadm

yadm is a dotfile manaegr.

1
2
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install yadm

zoxide

zoxide:

  1. Install it.

    1
    cargo install zoxide --locked

  2. Remove the completions cache of my zsh:

    1
    rm ~/.zcompdump*; compinit

  3. (You should skip this since I have already done it.) Then, add this line to ~/.zshrc file:

    1
    eval "$(zoxide init zsh)"

  4. Install fzf:

    1
    sudo apt install fzf

eza

1
cargo install eza

atuin

Install it:

1
cargo install atuin

The config of atuin has already been done in my config files. So you don't need to do anything else now.

Others

Useful unix tools:

  • rigprep:

    1
    cargo install ripgrep

  • btm:

    1
    cargo install bottom --locked

  • procs:

    1
    cargo install procs

  • dua: Disk Usage Analyzer

    1
    cargo install dua-cli

  • tealdeer:

    1
    cargo install tealdeer

  • hyperfine:

    1
    cargo install hyperfine

  • Tokei:

    1
    cargo install tokei

  • git-lfs is essential for downloading repos in Hugginface.

    1
    2
    sudo apt-get install git-lfs
    git-lfs install

Set up terminal on a new machine

In this section we use my dotfiles to config:

  1. zsh
  2. Oh-my-zsh
  3. powerlevel10k
  4. NvChad
  5. Zellij

For forther customization, please refer to:

  1. My zsh doc

  2. My NvChad doc

  3. My Zellij doc

  4. Remove original config files, if any, in your computer.

    1
    2
    3
    4
    rm ~/.zshrc # zsh
    rm ~/.p10k.zsh
    rm -rf ~/.config/nvim/lua/custom # NvChad
    rm -rf ~/.config/zellij

  5. Clone my dotfiles

    1
    2
    3
    cd $HOME
    yadm clone [email protected]:LYK-love/dotfiles-for-servers.git
    yadm submodule update --init --recursive

    This will clone all the files in the repo to my $HOME.

    I use parameter --recurse-submodules because my NvChad dotfile, which is a distinct public repo, is added as a git submodule:

    1
    2
    3
    4
    # In `.gitmodules`
    [submodule "NvChad-custom-file"]
    	path = NvChad-custom-file
    	url = [email protected]:LYK-love/NvChad-custom-file.git

    See my dotfiles managed by yadm:

    1
    yadm list -a

  6. Source the zsh config file in my dotfiles, in order to enable some env variables.

    1
    source ~/zsh/.zshrc

    You will see the config process of p10k again. Just quit it since I already have had my own config.

    Now you can check some env variables I set:

    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10
    11
    > echo $DOT_FILE_HOME
    /home/lyk/

    > echo $ZSH_DOT_FILE_HOME
    /home/lyk/zsh

    > echo $NVIM_CUSTOM_HOME
    /home/lyk/nvchad_custom

    > echo $ZELLIJ_CONFIG_FILE
    /home/lyk/zellij/config.kdl

  7. Now set the config files as the cooresponding ones in my dotfiles:

    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    ln -s $ZSH_DOT_FILE_HOME/.zshrc ~/.zshrc # zsh
    ln -s $ZSH_DOT_FILE_HOME/.p10k.zsh ~/.p10k.zsh # p10k, the theme of oh-my-zsh.
    ln -s  $NVIM_CUSTOM_HOME/ ~/.config/nvim/lua/custom # NvChad
    mkdir ~/.config/zellij # Zellij
    ln -s $ZELLIJ_CONFIG_FILE ~/.config/zellij/

    After that, zsh, nvchad and Zellij should be correctly configured. Zsh plugins are enabled as well.

    To enable the plugins of NvChad, in Nvim, type:

    1
    :MasonInstallAll

  8. Set up other CLI tools.

    For Atuin, start the sync server Offline (no sync):

    1
    2
    3
    bash <(curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/atuinsh/atuin/main/install.sh)
                
    atuin import auto

Set up conda

--> Install Miniconda

For Linux:

These four commands quickly and quietly install the latest 64-bit version of the installer and then clean up after themselves. To install a different version or architecture of Miniconda for Linux, change the name of the .sh installer in the wget command.

1
2
3
4
mkdir -p ~/miniconda3
wget https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh -O ~/miniconda3/miniconda.sh
bash ~/miniconda3/miniconda.sh -b -u -p ~/miniconda3
rm -rf ~/miniconda3/miniconda.sh

After installing, initialize your newly-installed Miniconda. The following commands initialize for bash and zsh shells:

1
2
~/miniconda3/bin/conda init bash
~/miniconda3/bin/conda init zsh

Set up CUDA, PyTorch, Jax

See:

Set up docker

See:

After installing Dokcer, it is recommended to install lazydocker as well:

1
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jesseduffield/lazydocker/master/scripts/install_update_linux.sh | bash

The PATH variable and the alias have been set in my ~/.zshrc, so you don't need to set them again.

Add another user

--> Linux Users and Groups

Say the new username is lyk

  1. Add user

    1
    sudo adduser lyk

  2. Give the new user sudo permission:

    1
    2
    sudo usermod -a -G adm lyk
    sudo usermod -a -G sudo lyk

  3. Switch to the new user:

    1
    su - lyk