Raspberry Pi Dotfiles

Restore instructions

There are some assumptions about the Pi being configured:

It is being setup in headless mode
It has already had an image installed
SSH has been initialised in Raspberry Pi Imager configuration
WiFi has been setup in Raspberry Pi Imager configuration

Raspberry Pi Setup

The script below automates the following operations:

Generate SSH key
Start SSH agent and add the new key to the agent
Create an SSH configuration file with the correct permissions
Add the new key to the configuration file for use with Github

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "39803787+simonward87@users.noreply.github.com"
eval $(ssh-agent) && ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
pushd ~/.ssh/
touch config && chmod 600 config
cat >> config<< EOF
Host github.com
  User git
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
EOF
popd

Now copy the public key (~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub), add to Github > Settings > SSH and GPG keys, and then test the SSH connection ($ ssh -T git@github.com). If successful, run the script below to clone this repository and navigate into the newly created directory.

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y git
git clone --recurse-submodules --jobs=8 git@github.com:simonward87/dotfiles-pi.git ~/.dotfiles
cd ~/.dotfiles

Confirm or adjust setup details in install.conf.yaml, and finally, run ./install.

WiFi SSH Dropouts

When connecting over SSH, the connection always drops after a period of time, necessitating a reboot. This can be stopped by turning off power_save in /etc/rc.local. Add the line below, before exit 0 is called:

/sbin/iwconfig wlan0 power off

It can also be manually disabled using $ sudo iw wlan0 set power_save off, although this will not persist.

Note:
`/usr/sbin` currently has to be manually added to `PATH` for `iw` to function, as it is not included by default

Local setup

For convenience, add an alias to ~/.ssh/config (changing NAME, USER and HOST to device alias, username and IP address):

Host NAME
    User USER
    HostName HOST
    ServerAliveInterval 5
    TCPKeepAlive no

Docker Setup

Uncomment the line below in ./install.conf before running the install script (or just run the script directly)

# - command: ./scripts/setup_docker.zsh

Desktop Setup (GNOME)

Uncomment the line below in ./install.conf before running the install script (or just run the script directly)

# - command: ./scripts/setup_gnome.zsh

Run the desktop and login to get started

$ startx

Optionally, set the desktop environment to load on boot — run raspi-config, and then update the boot / auto-login settings to boot to desktop

$ sudo raspi-config

Root User Config

If desired, symlink local config (e.g. .vimrc) to the root user directory:

$ sudo ln -s ~/.dotfiles/vimrc /root/.vimrc
$ sudo ln -s ~/.dotfiles/zshrc /root/.zshrc
$ sudo rm /root/.bashrc && sudo ln -s ~/.dotfiles/bashrc /root/.bashrc

Setup PostgreSQL

$ sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade -y
$ sudo apt install postgresql
$ sudo su postgres # Change to the postgres user 

$ createuser <username> -P --interactive # create a new role

$ psql
[psql]=# CREATE DATABASE <username>; # create new db matching username

[psql]=# \q # quit out from the CLI, and then from the default user

psql
CREATE DATABASE example;
\c example; " connect to new db

Setup remote access

$ psql -c 'SHOW hba_file;'

Edit the hba file with superuser privileges
At the end of the file, find IPv4 local connections
Add an entry for the desired IP address, followed by /32
Set the METHOD to trust:

# TYPE  DATABASE  USER  ADDRESS           METHOD
host    all       all   192.168.1.999/32  trust

In the same directory as the hba file, edit postgresql.conf, and set listen_addresses = '*'
Finally, restart the server:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/postgresql restart

Manual Pi Initialisation

Most of these steps can be handled more easily through the Raspberry Pi Imager configuration – I've kept these notes here for reference.

Initialise SSH by placing an empty file named ssh in the root directory
Setup WiFi by configuring wpa_supplicant.conf and placing in the root directory
Once the pi is connected to your network, install your local machine public key to the remote Pi:

$ ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25520 USER@HOST

Learning About Dotfiles

I learned a ton about dotfiles, command line use, Homebrew, zsh, git, macOS and more with the course Dotfiles from Start to Finish-ish by @EIEIOxyz.