Installation

Github Setup

This needs to be done once per user.

Set up dotfiles-public repo.

• Go to https://github.com/romkatv/dotfiles-public and click Fork.
• Replace "romkatv" and "[email protected]" in .gitconfig of the newly created fork with your own data. You can do it thrugh the GitHub web UI.

Set up dotfiles-private repo.

• Go to https://github.com/new and create an empty dotfiles-private repo. Make it private.

Set up ssh keys.

• Generate a pair of ssh keys -- rsa_id and rsa_id.pub -- and add rsa_id.pub to github.com. See https://help.github.com/en/articles/connecting-to-github-with-ssh for details. Use a strong passphrase.
• Backup rsa_id in a secure persistent storage system. For example, in your password manager.

Windows Setup

Windows Preparation

This needs to be done once per Windows installation. You don't need to repeat these steps when reinstalling Ubuntu.

• Download these four ttf files:
  • MesloLGS NF Regular.ttf
  • MesloLGS NF Bold.ttf
  • MesloLGS NF Italic.ttf
  • MesloLGS NF Bold Italic.ttf
• Double-click on each file and click "Install". This will make MesloLGS NF font available to all applications on your system.
• Open PowerShell as Administrator and run:

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux

• Reboot if prompted.
• Install chocolatey from https://chocolatey.org/install.
• Open PowerShell as Administrator and run:

choco.exe install -y microsoft-windows-terminal vcxsrv

• Run Start > XLaunch.
  • Click Next.
  • Click Next.
  • Uncheck Primary Selection. Click Next.
  • Click Save Configuration and save config.xlaunch in your Startup folder at %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup.
  • Click Finish.

Optional: if disk D: does not exist, make it an alias for C:. If you don't know why you might want this, then you don't need it.

• Open PowerShell as Administrator and run:

if (!(Test-Path -Path "D:\")) {
  New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\DOS Devices" -Name "D:" -PropertyType String -Value \DosDevices\C:\ -Force
}

• Reboot.

WSL Removal

Follow these steps to remove your Linux distro with all files (applications, settings, home directory, etc.). You can recreate it by following WSL Installation guide below.

• Find out the name of your default distro by running the following command from PowerShell:

wsl.exe --list

• Delete a distro:

wsl.exe --terminate DISTRO
wsl.exe --unregister DISTRO

WSL Installation

These steps allow you to recreate the whole WSL environment. Before proceeding, delete the current distro if you have it. See WSL Removal.

• Download id_rsa into the Windows Downloads folder. It's OK if it's downloaded as id_rsa.txt.
• Run these commands from PowerShell:

  wsl.exe --set-default-version 1
  wsl.exe --install -d Ubuntu-22.04

• When prompted, create a new user.
• Type this (change the value of GITHUB_USERNAME if it's not the same as your WSL username):

GITHUB_USERNAME=$USER bash -c \
  "$(curl -fsSL 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/romkatv/dotfiles-public/master/bin/bootstrap-machine.sh')"

• Say Yes when prompted to terminate WSL.
• Run Start > Windows Terminal.
  • Press Ctrl+Shift+,.
  • Replace the content of settings.json with this. Change "romkatv" to your WSL username.

Optional: Windows Defender Exclusion

• Run Start > Windows Security.
  • Click Virus & threat protection.
  • Click Manage settings under Virus & threat protection settings.
  • Click Add or remove exclusions under Exclusions.
  • Click Add an exclusion > Folder.
  • Select %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu22.04LTS_79rhkp1fndgsc.

Maintenance

Run this command occasionally.

sync-dotfiles && bash ~/bin/setup-machine.sh && z4h update #maintenance

Pro tip: Copy-paste this whole command including the comment. Next time when you decide to run maintenance tasks, press Ctrl+R and type #maintenance. This is how you can "tag" commands and easily find them later. You can apply more than one "tag". Technically, everything after # is a comment.