Debian workstation user setup

November 18, 2024

Console

In /etc/default/keyboard.

XKBOPTIONS="ctrl:swapcaps"

See man keyboard, man x-keyboard-options.

$ sudo setupcon -k

TODO: This is all a bit broken and nees debugging.

Avoid installing xterm by fulfilling x-termimal-emulator.

sudo apt -y install stterm

Install a window manager while we’re here

sudo apt -y install spectrwm

And finally

sudo apt -y install xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-core xinit

(Optional) Generate an xorg configuration file for future tweaking.

$ cd /etc/X11
$ sudo Xorg -configure
$ sudo mv /root/xorg.conf.new xorg.conf
$ cd -

startx should then start Xorg, and start spectrwm. Alt + Shift + Enter starts a new (st) terminal. Alt + P starts dmenu.

This is a good place from which to install other X11 applications. To get us off the ground

sudo apt -y install firefox-esr