Below is a script for my opinionated Debian (Sid) Linux setup, including many optional components.
Installation
As stated above, this is preseed file for an opinionated copy of Debian (Sid) Linux, a preseed file is intended to be inputted through the url/file location field in the “Automated install” tool included a standard copy of the Debian Net Installer, below are the specific steps to perform said installation.
- Download the latest (tested up to 13.1) Debian Net Installer ISO
- Burn the ISO to a usb using Balena Etcher or a multi-boot tool like Ventoy (sorry Veronica Explains)
- When booting, navigate using up/down arrow keys down to “Advanced options” and select using enter, then to “Automated install”, again using enter
- You will then have some automatic checks, following that process, enter “https://chrislowles.com/deb” (without quotes) into the input located at the bottom of the screen
- Answer the questions the installer is giving when prompted such as Full Name, username, password and primary drive (recommended option for new users is Guided – use entire disk)
- When you’ve selected a disk select “Finish partitioning and write changes to disk”
- Select “yes” on the prompt to confirm writing the changes to the selected disks to complete that part of the installation process
- Once the first stage of installation is completed you will be asked to reboot
- After you login for the first time you will be presented with a First Boot Wizard, following the process you will again be asked to reboot the system
- And you are done! Enjoy your (opinionated) Debian system
Pre-installed
- GNOME/GDM (desktop environment/login)
- wget/curl (common download cli)
- git (common version control system)
- yt-dlp (defacto continuation of youtube-dl, a popular video download cli)
- ffmpeg (post-processing suite of libraries that might come automatically with yt-dlp, explicit just in case)
- Distrobox (cross-distro compatibility CLI)
- GNOME Boxes (GTK QEMU GUI)
- Ptyxis (container-oriented terminal emulator, works fine as regular terminal emulator)
- Timeshift (time-tested backup utility)
- Connections (VNC/RDP remote desktop client)
- Contacts (self-explanatory)
- Calendar (self-explanatory)
- EarTag (metadata editor)
- Snapshot (camera app)
- Apostrophe (markdown editor)
- Librewolf (Trusted Firefox fork)
- Flatseal (flatpak app permissions manager)
- Flatsweep (leftover data cleaner for flatpaks specifically)
- Bleachbit (standard system cleaner)
- Gear Lever (appimage organizer/updater)
- Ignition (startup app manager)
- GNOME Extension Manager (3rd party GNOME Extension client)
Optional Tweaks:
- Optional install of Topgrade for system upgrade management across all formats, as opposed to individual formats updating functionality (which remains after installing Topgrade)
- Optional example Distrobox container for Arch Linux users
Optional Apps:
- Kdenlive (Non-linear video editor)
- GIMP [w/ G’Mic] (Image editor)
- Audacity (Audio editor/recorder)
- OBS Studio (Livestreaming suite)
- ludusavi (Save game file manager)
- Steam (Videogame storefront)
- ProtonPlus (Proton version manager)
- Bottles (Wine/Wine derivatives version manager)
- RetroArch (Broad-spectrum emulator front-end)
- qBittorrent (Torrenting client)
- Shortwave (radio-browser client)
- Upscaler (Basic image upscaler)
- Curtail (Basic image compressor)
- Detwinner (Duplicate file finder)
- Diffuse (File diff GUI)
- Github Desktop Plus (Git GUI, fork of official Github Desktop Client)