{ "title": "My Debian 12 (bookworm) desktop set-up", "slug": "my-debian-12-bookworm-desktop-set-up", "excerpt": "Creating a good Debian desktop experience is not too difficult, thanks to the excellent work of the Debian developers, but I thought it might be interesting to share how I set-up my Debian systems.", "body": "![Screenshot of my Debian 12 (bookworm) GNOME desktop.](https://blog.philipnewborough.co.uk/media/3ce58bb2-9ad0-437f-824a-b0660965c6ce.png)\n\nCreating a good Debian desktop experience is not too difficult, thanks to the excellent work of the Debian developers, but I thought it might be interesting to share how I set-up my Debian systems. This post covers Debian 12 \"bookworm\" only. It also covers just my desktop installs, I may write a server specific post at a later date.\n\n## Installation\n\nTo begin with, I install Debian using the netinst image and I use the default [tasksel](https://wiki.debian.org/tasksel) selections to get a working GNOME desktop environment. The installation media can be downloaded from the [Debian downloads page](https://www.debian.org/distrib/).\n\n![Screenshot of tasksel showing default selections.](https://blog.philipnewborough.co.uk/media/79d42e8e-e25e-4c45-8606-4831bf04fd69.png)\n\nInstalling Debian is fairly trivial, but the act of installing it is beyond the scope of this blog post so I won't bore anyone with the details. That said, if you are interested to know how to install Debian, there is a good [installation guide here](https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual).\n\nThe only thing of note about my installation method is that I don't create a root user, instead opting to give sudo privileges to my user account. This is achieved by leaving the root password blank when prompted during the installation.\n\n## Post Installation\n\n### APT sources\n\nThe first thing I do after a fresh install is configure the system's APT sources file. I use the Debian contrib and non-free repositories, which are not configured by default, so I edit the file `/etc/apt/sources.list` to look like this:\n\n```\ndeb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm main non-free-firmware contrib non-free\ndeb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main non-free-firmware contrib non-free\ndeb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-updates main non-free-firmware contrib non-free\n# Backports\ndeb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-backports main non-free-firmware\n```\n\nI don't use the source repositories, so I remove any lines beginning with `deb-src`. Once the file has been edited and saved, I update APT's sources with the following command:\n\n```\nsudo apt update\n```\n\n### Install packages\n\nThe next thing I do is to install a bunch of packages. Most of the packages are utilities, tools and libraries. If you are following along, you may or may not need these. In fact, I'm not entirely sure I need all of them, but I've been adding packages to the list for a number of years and I've forgotten why I added some of them. I should probably audit the list, but in the meantime, it shouldn't do any harm to install them.\n\n```\nsudo apt install build-essential dconf-cli uuid-runtime git curl zip unzip fish terminator neofetch lm-sensors bat gir1.2-gtop-2.0 webp-pixbuf-loader xdotool firmware-linux firmware-linux-free firmware-linux-nonfree remmina sshfs gnome-sushi virt-manager heif-gdk-pixbuf heif-thumbnailer gnome-screenshot libvirt-clients ffmpeg sox pwgen uuid inxi sqlite3 imagemagick inotify-tools libnotify-bin gir1.2-gstreamer-1.0 gstreamer1.0-clutter-3.0 gstreamer1.0-libav gstreamer1.0-vaapi gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad gstreamer1.0-plugins-base gstreamer1.0-plugins-good gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly gstreamer1.0-pulseaudio gstreamer1.0-x libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-0 libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0 libgstreamer1.0-0 fonts-cantarell fonts-hack fonts-jetbrains-mono fonts-powerline fonts-roboto flatpak gnome-software-plugin-flatpak vlc menulibre fprintd libpam-fprintd network-manager-*-gnome network-manager-strongswan libcharon-extra-plugins python3-pil nmap htop rsync nautilus-nextcloud\n```\n\nIf I'm going to use virt-manager to manage virtual machines on the system, I add my user to the `libvirt` group with the following command:\n\n```\nsudo usermod -a -G libvirt $(whoami)\n```\n\n### Set-up fish shell\n\nI use [fish](https://fishshell.com) as my default shell, preferring it over the default Bash shell. I set fish as the default shell with the following command:\n\n```\nchsh -s /usr/bin/fish\n```\n\nNote, the above command will prompt you for your user password. Also, you will need to logout before it will become the default shell. Meanwhile, you can use fish by typing `fish` at the Bash prompt.\n\n#### Oh My Fish and Pure theme\n\nI use the [Oh My Fish](https://github.com/oh-my-fish/oh-my-fish ) framework to enhance my fish experience. It can be installed with the following command:\n\n```\ncurl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oh-my-fish/oh-my-fish/master/bin/install | fish\n```\n\nOnce installed, I install the Pure theme with the following command:\n\n```\nomf install pure\n```\n\n### Flathub and Flatpak apps\n\nI use [Flatpak](https://flatpak.org) to install most GUI desktop applications. I already installed the required Flatpak packages above, but the [Flathub](https://flathub.org) repository file needs to be installed with the following command:\n\n```\nflatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo\n```\n\nThe above command will prompt you for your user password. You will also need to logout and login before you can install any Flatpaks from Flathub. I have the following Flatpak apps installed my system:\n\n```\nflatpak install com.belmoussaoui.Decoder com.belmoussaoui.Obfuscate com.github.finefindus.eyedropper com.github.huluti.Curtail com.github.maoschanz.drawing com.github.tchx84.Flatseal com.mattjakeman.ExtensionManager com.mongodb.Compass com.rafaelmardojai.Blanket com.rafaelmardojai.WebfontKitGenerator com.vixalien.sticky de.haeckerfelix.Shortwave dev.geopjr.Calligraphy fr.handbrake.ghb garden.jamie.Morphosis io.dbeaver.DBeaverCommunity io.github.andreibachim.shortcut io.github.bytezz.IPLookup io.github.fabrialberio.pinapp io.github.fkinoshita.Telegraph io.github.nate_xyz.Conjure io.github.ronniedroid.concessio io.github.tfuxu.Halftone io.github.unicornyrainbow.secrets io.gitlab.adhami3310.Converter io.gitlab.news_flash.NewsFlash io.gitlab.theevilskeleton.Upscaler io.gitlab.zehkira.Monophony io.missioncenter.MissionCenter it.mijorus.collector it.mijorus.smile it.mijorus.whisper me.iepure.devtoolbox org.blender.Blender org.flozz.yoga-image-optimizer org.gimp.GIMP org.gnome.Boxes org.gnome.Extensions org.gnome.Fractal org.gnome.NetworkDisplays org.gnome.Podcasts org.gnome.Showtime org.gnome.design.IconLibrary org.gnome.dspy org.gustavoperedo.FontDownloader org.inkscape.Inkscape org.kde.kdenlive org.nickvision.tubeconverter org.soundconverter.SoundConverter page.codeberg.JakobDev.jdPixelUpscaler re.sonny.OhMySVG app.devsuite.Ptyxis\n```\n\n### GNOME Shell extensions\n\nI enjoy the vanilla GNOME Shell experience, but I do install a few extensions. I use [Extension Manager](https://flathub.org/apps/com.mattjakeman.ExtensionManager) for this (_installed above as a Flatpak app._) The extensions I use are:\n\n* [AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support](https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/615/appindicator-support/)\n* [Caffeine](https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/517/caffeine/)\n* [Clipboard Indicator](https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/779/clipboard-indicator/)\n* [Replace Activities Text](https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/4405/replace-activities-text/)\n* [Smile - complementary extension](https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/6096/smile-complementary-extension/)\n* [Tandem Raise](https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1506/tandem-raise/)\n* [TopHat](https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/5219/tophat/)\n\n### Firefox\n\nDebian comes with Firefox Extended Support Release, which is fine, but I like to run the current version. There are a bunch of ways to install Firefox on Debian, but I tend to use the compiled binaries supplied by Mozilla. I install the binaries in my home directory under `~/.local/firefox`. The following shell script will take care of this:\n\n```\n#!/bin/bash\nDOWNLOAD_URL=\"https://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-latest-ssl&os=linux64&lang=en-GB\"\nOUTPUT_FILE=\"firefox.tar.bz2\"\nLOG_FILE=\"/home/$USER/firefox-download.log\"\n\necho \"Starting download...\"\n\n# Download the file with error handling and logging\ncurl -fL --retry 3 --retry-delay 5 -o \"$OUTPUT_FILE\" \"$DOWNLOAD_URL\" > \"$LOG_FILE\" 2>&1\n\n# Check if the download was successful\nif [ $? -eq 0 ]; then\n echo \"Download succeeded.\"\n echo \"Extracting Firefox...\"\n tar -xjf firefox.tar.bz2\nelse\n echo \"Download failed. Check the log file for details.\"\n exit 1\nfi\n\necho 'Moving Firefox to /home/$USER/.local/firefox'\nmv firefox /home/$USER/.local/\necho 'Creating .desktop file'\nDESKTOP=$(cat < /home/$USER/.local/share/applications/firefox.desktop\necho \"Setting default browser\"\nsudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/x-www-browser x-www-browser /home/$USER/.local/firefox/firefox 200\necho 'Cleaning up.'\nrm firefox.tar.bz2\necho 'All done.'\nexit 0\n```\nIf I want to install Firefox Nightly, I use this shell script:\n\n```\n#!/bin/bash\nDOWNLOAD_URL=\"https://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-nightly-latest-l10n-ssl&os=linux64&lang=en-GB\"\nOUTPUT_FILE=\"firefox.tar.xz\"\nLOG_FILE=\"/home/$USER/firefox-download.log\"\n\necho \"Starting download...\"\n\n# Download the file with error handling and logging\ncurl -fL --retry 3 --retry-delay 5 -o \"$OUTPUT_FILE\" \"$DOWNLOAD_URL\" > \"$LOG_FILE\" 2>&1\n\n# Check if the download was successful\nif [ $? -eq 0 ]; then\n echo \"Download succeeded.\"\n echo \"Extracting Firefox...\"\n tar -xf firefox.tar.xz\nelse\n echo \"Download failed. Check the log file for details.\"\n exit 1\nfi\n\necho 'Moving Firefox to /home/$USER/.local/firefox-nightly'\nmv firefox /home/$USER/.local/firefox-nightly\necho 'Creating .desktop file'\nDESKTOP=$(cat < /home/$USER/.local/share/applications/firefox-nightly.desktop\necho 'Cleaning up.'\nrm firefox.tar.xz\necho 'All done.'\nexit 0\n```\n\n\n**Note:** Mozilla now provide a [Debian repository for Firefox](https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/install-firefox-linux#w_install-firefox-deb-package-for-debian-based-distributions), which is probably a better way to install Firefox. It is also available as a [Flatpak app](https://flathub.org/apps/org.mozilla.firefox).\n\n### Proprietary software\n\nI use the following proprietary software, which I download as Debian packages from the web.\n\n* [Chrome web browser](https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/chrome/)\n* [Vivaldi web browser](https://vivaldi.com/download/)\n* [VS Code](https://code.visualstudio.com)\n\nOnce I have downloaded the packages, I install them with the following command from my Downloads directory:\n\n```\nsudo apt install ./*.deb\n```\n\n### Packages from Debian Backports\n\nDepending on the device, I might install the latest available Linux kernel from the Debian backports repository. At the time of writing, this was achieved with the following command:\n\n```\nsudo apt install linux-image-6.10.6+bpo-amd64/bookworm-backports\n```\n\nYou can browse the available Kernels here: [https://packages.debian.org/bookworm-backports/kernel/](https://packages.debian.org/bookworm-backports/kernel/) \n\n### Desktop wallpaper\n\nBecause everyone knows this is the most important part of any Linux installation, right? See: [Debian Wallpaper Generator](https://philipnewborough.co.uk/demos/canvas-wallpaper-debian-01)\n\n### Finishing touches\n\nTo finalise the set-up I restore my dotfiles and configs. Depending on if I'll be using the device for work, I'll also set-up a development server environment, but this is probably best left for a separate blog post.", "tags": [], "published_at": "2024-11-15 20:22:30", "url": "https://blog.philipnewborough.co.uk/posts/my-debian-12-bookworm-desktop-set-up", "featured_image": "https://blog.philipnewborough.co.uk/media/og-2694a4c3-0a1f-46a0-a539-c2fd5be3ea87.png" }