My computer setup and dotfiles, managed with chezmoi

Project goals

• Cross-platform == Windows, Mac, Debian-based
• Unified set of apps, tools, commands and aliases
• Personal and work

TOC

• Project State
• Install
  • Debian-based
  • Windows
• Tooling
  • Terminals
  • Shells
  • Package Managers
  • Apps
  • Other Notes
• 💡 Inspirations

Project State

• Debian-based
  • tested on Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
• MacOS
  • support TBD; when need arises
• Windows
  • tested on Windows10
  • decided to support Windows vs WSL. There are times where Windows cannot be avoided.

Install

Debian

cd ~
curl -sfL https://git.io/chezmoi | sh
export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/bin"
export GITHUB_USERNAME="StephenGemin"
chezmoi init --apply https://github.com/$GITHUB_USERNAME/dotfiles.git

Windows (semi-automated)

• Recommend running in PowerShell (not pwsh)
• install prereq dependencies

  get-Command winget  # check winget installed
  # if missing:
  # 1. download winget from MS store
  # 2. If MS store is blocked (typically work env) then install from .msixbundle
  #    - https://github.com/microsoft/winget-cli/releases/latest
  #    - double click downloaded file to install
  #    - if this is also blocked, can install from powershell command `Add-AppxPackage -Path "PATH_TO_FILE"`
  
  winget install -e --id Git.Git
  winget install twpayne.chezmoi
  $env:GITHUB_USERNAME = "StephenGemin"
  chezmoi init --apply https://github.com/$GITHUB_USERNAME/dotfiles.git

• May need to install MSYS2 manually
• NeoVim with NVChad
  • Do not start Neovim until NVChad reqs are installed!
  • Install dependencies for NVChad (use MSYS2)
    • pacman -S --needed base-devel mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-toolchain
    • pacman -S make gcc
• To install fonts go to ~\.local\share\fonts; find tff files, right-click desired files, and selectinstall
• Install Whatsapp from MS store (unavailable from winget)
  • Ref microsoft/winget-pkgs issue 156231
• Add to PATH (if not there):
  • %USERPROFILE%.pyenv\pyenv-win\shims
  • C:\Program Files\Git\cmd
  • C:\Program Files\Neovim\bin

Tool specific

Manual setup steps for individual tools / apps

• PyCharm
  • Import settings from ~\.config
• neovim
  • Run :MasonInstallAll on first run

Tooling

✅==Supported   ❓==May support, unused or not tested   🚫 ==Never support

Terminals

	Deb	Win	Mac
WezTerm	✅	✅	❓
Alacritty*	✅	✅	❓
Windows Terminal	🚫	✅	🚫

*No tmux yet for Alacritty

Shells

	Deb	Win	Mac	Notes
Zsh	✅	🚫	❓	Slow on Windows, see Other Notes
Bash	✅	✅	❓	Slow on Windows
PowerShell	❓	✅	❓

Package Managers

• Debian: apt / snap / flatpak / linuxbrew / cargo
• Windows: winget
• Mac: brew

Apps / Tools

	Deb	Win	Mac	Notes
Chezmoi	✅	✅	✅
Git	✅	✅	✅
Double Commander	✅	✅	❓
KeePassXC	✅	✅	❓	No Chezmoi integration yet
Neovim	✅	✅	❓	NVChad and nvimconf
Vim	✅	✅	❓
Nano	✅	❓	✅
Oh-My-Posh	✅	✅	❓
Zinit	✅	✅	❓
Oh-My-Zsh	✅	✅	❓	Via Zinit
Ripgrep	✅	✅	❓
zoxide	✅	✅	❓
fzf	✅	✅	❓
pyenv	✅	✅	❓	Windows uses pyenv-win
VLC	✅	✅	❓
Firefox	✅	✅	❓
Opera	✅	✅	❓
Notion	✅	✅	❓
JetBrains IDEs	✅	✅	❓
Visual Studio Code	✅	✅	❓
F.lux	✅	✅	❓	Linux uses Redshift
Notepad++	🚫	✅	🚫
MSYS2	🚫	✅	🚫

Other Notes

Windows

• To get zsh working on Windows:
  • Install MSYS2; pacman -S zsh
  • Modified C:\msys64\etc\nsswitch.conf (see below)
• Initial attempt to use zsh did not go well
  • terminal was very sluggish
  • tried in Alacritty, MSYS2, MSYS (Git Bash) and Windows Terminal
  • issues accessing Windows tooling
  • difficult working with Windows paths
  • Decided to use PowerShell on Windows

# Begin /etc/nsswitch.conf

passwd: files db
group: files db

db_enum: cache builtin

db_shell: /usr/bin/zsh
db_home: /c/Users/USERNAME
db_env: windows
#db_home: cygwin desc
#db_shell: cygwin desc
#db_gecos: cygwin desc

# End /etc/nsswitch.conf

💡 Inspirations

• renemarc/dotfiles
• felipecrs/dotfiles
• dreamsofcode
• dreamsofautonomy
• KevinSilvester/wezterm-config
• Phantas0s/.dotfiles