longwei66/minux-on-feiniao

Ubuntu configuration on Dell XPS 13 2019

minux on feiniao

feiniao (肥鸟 or 'fat bird' in chinese) is the name of my laptop and this repository gathers all the documentation and scripts to install and fine tune ubuntu.

Ubuntu configuration on Dell XPS 13 2019.

Ubuntu is pre-installed on this Dell laptop, but their installation does not include hard disk encryption. I attempted to use the recovery disk but failed to install it again but it's buggy (hdd encryption password not recognized).

See this post for details.

So I decided to make a fresh install of ubuntu 18.04.

About the system

Linux feiniao 4.18.0-15-generic #16~18.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Thu Feb 7 14:06:04 UTC 2019 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

System configuration

In this part I come back on the essential points to configure or install the base system.

Touchpad

There is an issue with the standard installation and configuration of the touchpad which leads in jumping cursors. There could be a confusion by the daemon due to two touchpad detected.

See Dell's fix to this issue. https://www.dell.com/support/article/fr/fr/frbsdt1/sln308258/precision-xps-ubuntu-general-touchpad-mouse-issue-fix?lang=en

You have to edit this file

sudo vim /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/51-synaptics-quirks.conf 

Add at the end :

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad"
        MatchProduct "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
        MatchOS "Linux"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Option "Ignore" "on"
EndSection

This is supposed to work but I have still some issues and should look for a reduction of the sensitivity of the device.

Note: Seems switching to Wayland ubuntu solves the problem.

Vim

For most of my admin work and text edition I use Vim

sudo apt-get install vim

Vim is coming with plenty of packages, for autocompletion, terraform, etc... The best is to set-up a package manager like

The install process is pretty straighforward.

git clone https://github.com/VundleVim/Vundle.vim.git ~/.vim/bundle/Vundle.vim

Then edit your .vimrc to use vundle, adding the configuration mentionned in the online document.

And then to set-up a new plugin, like hashicorp terraform plugin, add the following to ~/.vimrc:

Plugin 'hashivim/vim-terraform'

Once this is done you can check which plugins are listed and install them. from vim :

• :PluginList to check list of plugins
• :PluginInstall to install these
• ...

Other plugins :

• autocompletion : https://github.com/roxma/nvim-yarp (should need pip3 install pynvimi), https://github.com/ncm2/ncm2
• nvim-R : https://github.com/jalvesaq/Nvim-R https://github.com/gaalcaras/ncm-R

Package management

To handle packages, I still find synaptic useful & apt-file to search files in packages.

sudo apt-get install synaptic
sudo apt install apt-file

Git

Git is a must !

sudo apt-get install git

ssh & pgp keys

I am using ssh to commit on gitlab / github, i need to copy my private and public keys in ~/.ssh and check they are chmod 600.

I use gnome-keyring to store all keys (ssh and pgp), seahorse is the program to use for import & export. In order to add manually some password, the best is to use secret-tool.

sudo apt-get install libsecret-tools

power management

It didn't work out of the box for me as the battery was drained quickly while on suspend.

I tried first this approach :http://tipsonubuntu.com/2018/11/18/quick-tip-improve-battery-life-ubuntu-18-04-higher/

sudo apt install tlp
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:linuxuprising/apps
sudo apt install tlpui

Run by pkexec /usr/sbin/lmt-config-gui

Alternatively, there is another utility which seems to be better : powertops https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/powertop

All of that didn't work very well, I finally found a bug from the previous generation which seems still valid in the xps 13 9380. Basically, the laptop goes to sleep in sleep2idle instead of deep sleep.

The fix is described here : https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1808957

sudo journalctl | grep "PM: suspend" | tail -2.

If the output is

PM: suspend entry (s2idle)
PM: suspend exit

cat /sys/power/mem_sleep

showed

[s2idle] deep

As a temporary fix, I typed

echo deep > /sys/power/mem_sleep

as a root user (sudo -i). Then the output of

cat /sys/power/mem_sleep was
s2idle [deep]

After suspending now,

sudo journalctl | grep "PM: suspend" | tail -2 returns
PM: suspend entry (deep)
PM: suspend exit

I have made this permanent by editing

sudo vim /etc/default/grub

and replacing

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

with

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash mem_sleep_default=deep"

then regenerating my grub configuration :

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg).

This appears to be working with no ill effects.

Environement variables

I store some of the usefull code (API credentials for instance) as environment variable.

You can edit .bash_profile to store these :

export API_1="my cool code here"
export API_2="another_one"

If you are using travis for continuous integration with github, it's possible then to encrypt you variable and add these to your project yaml file (see later)

Web & password management

chromium-browser

This tend to be my current browser with firefox install per default.

sudo apt-get install chromium-browser

Dashlane

Then I install dashlane to get my password vault https://www.dashlane.com/fr/download

I needed to install the windows client for some maintenance (there is only a web client for linux)

Install of wine

Install Wine from Ubuntu repository

sudo apt install wine64
sudo apt-get remove winbind && sudo apt-get install winbind
sudo atp-get install winetricks

Launch winetricks to install vcrun2015 DLL.

Donwload the dashlane windows client and wine it from a terminal, this should work.

Flash

Almost dead in 2019 but still some annoying websites uses it. See : https://websiteforstudents.com/install-adobe-flash-player-on-ubuntu-18-04-lts-beta-desktop/

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.canonical.com/ $(lsb_release -sc) partner"
sudo apt install adobe-flashplugin browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash

qBittorent

sudo apt-get install qBittorrent

Local network

shared folders

I use a NAS and basically need to mount the shared folders I use. I need here to modify /etc/fstab

First I need to create the directory structure

sudo mkdir /media/lagrange
sudo chown longwei:longwei /media/lagrange/
cd /media/lagrange/
mkdir lagrange_photographie
mkdir lagrange_multimedia
mkdir lagrange_photos_videos
mkdir lagrange_atelier
mkdir homes
mkdir homes/lagrange_barthelemy

Then I need to install cifs utils to get the samba access.

sudo apt-get install cifs-utils

Then I need to create a protected file to store my samba password as root sudo vim /etc/cifspwd

username=<username on server>
password=<password for that username>

And then change the access rights.

sudo chmod 600 /etc/cifspwd

Bellow are the lines to add at the end of /etc/fstab file which should contain :

# NAS 
//192.168.2.108/photographie /media/lagrange/lagrange_photographie cifs user,uid=longwei,gid=users,rw,suid,credentials=/etc/cifspwd 0 0
//192.168.2.108/multimedia /media/lagrange/lagrange_multimedia cifs user,uid=longwei,gid=users,rw,suid,credentials=/etc/cifspwd 0 0
//192.168.2.108/photos_videos /media/lagrange/lagrange_photos_videos cifs user,uid=longwei,gid=users,rw,suid,credentials=/etc/cifspwd 0 0
//192.168.2.108/atelier /media/lagrange/lagrange_atelier cifs user,uid=longwei,gid=users,rw,suid,credentials=/etc/cifspwd 0 0
//192.168.2.108/homes/barthelemy /media/lagrange/homes/lagrange_barthelemy cifs user,uid=longwei,gid=users,rw,suid,credentials=/etc/cifspwd 0 0

TODO : seems the partitions are not mounted automatically at reboot ???

nextcloud

I use nextcloud client to synchronise with my local cloud (NAS) and remote private cloud https://launchpad.net/~nextcloud-devs/+archive/ubuntu/client

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nextcloud-devs/client
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nextcloud-client

I configure my login and launch of the add at startup. http://192.168.2.108/owncloud

Desktop

gnome 3

I'd like to remove icons from the desktop, first install sudo apt-get install dconf-editor Launch dconf-editor and Locate /org/gnome/desktop/background/ and untick the show desktop icons.

conky

sudo apt-get install conky-all

See ./conky/.conkyrc in this repo for conky configuration.

Thanks : https://www.splitbrain.org/blog/2016-11/20-simple_conky_setup

Then add it to startup with gnome-session-properties

Chinese

Just follow this guide :

https://www.pinyinjoe.com/linux/ubuntu-18-gnome-chinese-setup.htm

Photo & multimedia

Must have packages

sudo apt-get install gimp
sudo apt-get install darktable
sudo apt-get install geeqie
sudo apt-get install vlc

Darktable extra config

For darktable, it's better to activate openCL capabilities :

sudo apt install ocl-icd-opencl-dev

Note: this is not working so we have a TODO fix the config issues

Digikam

We use also digikam to manage photo collection stored on NAS. We use mysql (mariaDb).

sudo apt-get install digikam
sudo apt-get install libqt5sql5-mysql

When launching digikam need to use credential on the NAS, db names :

• digikam
• digikam-recognition
• digikam-thumbnails

Editing

scribus

To edit Photo Analogies magazine, we use both scribus stable and scribus-ng

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:scribus/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install scribus
sudo apt-get install scribus-ng

Then you need to install color profiles for printing :

Download here : http://www.eci.org/en/downloads http://www.eci.org/_media/downloads/icc_profiles_from_eci/eci_offset_2009.zip

Add the profiles in your local config files :

https://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/Getting_and_installing_ICC_profiles

On Linux/Unix put your personal profiles into $HOME/.local/share/color/icc or $home/.color/icc (depending on the distribution and its version). System wide profiles for all users must be placed into /usr/share/color/icc.

pdftk

I use pdftk to merge pdfs,

https://wilransz.com/pdftk-on-ubuntu-18-04/

sudo snap install pdftk

inkscape

I use also inkscape for vector graphics

sudo apt-get install inkscape

Xournal

Ligthweight note taking and pdf annotator. I install it from the Ubuntu software center.

Coding

R

I follow this guide to install latest R packages https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-r-on-ubuntu-18-04 (step1)

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys E298A3A825C0D65DFD57CBB651716619E084DAB9
sudo add-apt-repository 'deb https://cloud.r-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu bionic-cran35/'
sudo apt update
sudo apt install r-base

Rstudio

Rstudio (preview version)

wget https://s3.amazonaws.com/rstudio-ide-build/desktop/trusty/amd64/rstudio-1.2.1280-amd64.deb
sudo apt-get install libclang-dev
sudo dpkg -i rstudio-1.2.1280-amd64.deb

Travis

I use travis for continuous integration with github and for blogdown / hugo websites. It's important to well configure the security for two aspects :

• encrypted System Environement variables
• keys for ssh deployment

Secure Environment variables

I followed this guide : https://brettdewoody.com/secure-environment-variables-with-travis/

First, install the travis gem:

gem install travis

Then in your project directory run:

travis encrypt DB_URL=super_secret

This will return an encrypted string which can be added to the project's .travis.yml file.

The .travis.yml file will now contain an entry of:

env:
  secure: MBxG/gsqeyONzA7wbWKACzv...

Secure deployment keys

TODO : write down the documentation here

Postman

API development can be a nightmare if you cannot test easily, postman is the answer :

https://linuxize.com/post/how-to-install-postman-on-ubuntu-18-04/

sudo snap install postman

e-mail

Get packages

Install necessary packages, for emailing we need, mutt as a client, offlineimap to get emails, msmtp to send emails (in fact msmtp-gnome pacakge to get keyring support). Email passwork will be stored in gnome keyring and we will use python keyring to access the keyring.

sudo apt-get install mutt offlineimap python-keyring msmtp msmtp-gnome

Step one: offlineimap

Let's use the configuration file in the mutt subfolder of this repository (.offlineimaprc) . In addition, as usual archlinux is the best documentation : https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/OfflineIMAP#Option_2:_gnome-keyring-query_script

Step two: password & auth management

We will store the email password in keyring, to add you email password in the keyring :

$ python2
>>> import is Readme
Thkeyring
>>> keyring.set_password("offlineimap","username@host.net", "MYPASSWORD")

Step three: automation of get emails

We need to automate the offlineimap launch (TODO)

Step four: send emails with msmtp

For email sending we use msmtp, a configuration file .msmtprc is also available in the mutt subfolder of this repository. You need to make sure that the smtp password of your email account is stored in you keyring.

secret-tool store --label=msmtp host xxx.net service smtp user yyyy

Step five: mutt configuration

Finally we can configure mutt, you will find in the subfolder both .muttrc file and .mutt/ folder to install in your home folder.

messenging

irssi

sudo apt-get install irssi

zoom video conferencing

Download and install the latest package from Zoom https://zoom.us/download

signal

Install and add device

sudo apt-get install curl
curl -s https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt/keys.asc | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install signal-desktop

Virtualisation

Virtualbox packages

I use virtualbox to virtualize machines (other linux distrib) or other OS for some tests.

sudo apt-get install virtualbox

Virtualbox extensions

Other

Sonos

bof bof https://www.ubuntupit.com/how-to-install-sonos-controller-app-noson-in-ubuntu/

bof https://github.com/pascalopitz/unoffical-sonos-controller-for-linux/releases sudo dpkg -i sonos-controller-unofficial-amd64.deb

qgis

sudo apt-get install qgis

Security

https://upcloud.com/community/tutorials/scan-ubuntu-server-malware/

Evaluation

sudo apt-get install lynis
sudo lynis audit system

Main changes

https://kifarunix.com/install-and-configure-aide-on-ubuntu-18-04/

sudo apt-get install aide