My Ubuntu machine was not working properly so I reinstalled the operating system. This most is mostly my notes for when I do it next time.

Because I use Finder Zero it was relatively simple but still took a while.

Prep

First, I properly did a backup.

One of the hard drives in the machine is a backup drive anyway (to the extent that I normally don’t bother to mount it). I’ve got it backed up to an external drive anyway but I don’t intend to touch it for this format/install (It was nvme1n1, but it became nvme0n1 during this process, which worried me a bit because I thought those were constant identifiers.

I also have a script called ‘blackbox’ that I wrote in November 2023. It gathers a bunch of configuration files from all over the system and copies them into a folder that gets securely backed up. I run it every so often and I made sure it was up to date. I put it on a different usb stick. (I should probably do something much neater with symbolic links)

Install device

Next I made a install device. I have a 250GB USB stick and I’ll use these commands to make it happen:

wget https://releases.ubuntu.com/24.04.1/ubuntu-24.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso?_ga=2.80555220.278495081.1736263692-463090378.1736150188
sudo dd if=/path/to/ubuntu.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M && sync

(I did this from inside Ubuntu)

Installing

I changed the boot order in BIOS and started the install.

Choosing to Install

Remembering to choose the correct drive.
Remembering to choose the correct drive

The actual installation took less than 20 minutes.

Setting up

Setting up took a while, but part of that was writing better notes. The rest of this post is mostly so I can refer to it later.

Basics

setxkbmap us # For my particular keyboard
sudo vim /etc/default/keyboard  # Change default keyboard (I probably don't need both these commands)

Check to see if the large backup drive is okay

lsblk
mkdir bigdisk
sudo mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 bigdisk/
ls bigdisk/

Install Git

sudo apt install git
mkdir git
cd git/

Getting ssh working

sudo apt install openssh-server
sudo systemctl start ssh
sudo systemctl enable ssh

Next: sshing from laptop requires removing the existing key; the next connection will ask to add the new key.

Blackbox

I copied blackbox over via USB Stick - I could probably do scp in future.

cp .git-credentials ../../
git config --global credential.helper store
ln -s thegitconfigfile ~/.gitconfig
cd

Install Vim

cd 
cd git
sudo apt install vim
sudo apt install vim-gtk3 # Existing vim doesn't come with +clipboard
vim --version | grep clipboard
git clone --depth 10 https://github.com/joereddington/dotvimdirectory 
cd dotvimdirectory/
more setup.sh  # reminding myself what this does
echo $HOME # Checking
./setup.sh  
vim  # Some testing
cd

Remember to add a symbolic link to the .bashrc and .bash_profile

cd
ln -s ~/.vim/bashrc .bashrc
ln -s ~/.vim/bash_profile .bash_profile
cd

i3

Installed from this website’s instructions.

/usr/lib/apt/apt-helper download-file https://debian.sur5r.net/i3/pool/main/s/sur5r-keyring/sur5r-keyring_2024.03.04_all.deb keyring.deb SHA256:f9bb4340b5ce0ded29b7e014ee9ce788006e9bbfe31e96c09b2118ab91fca734
sudo apt install ./keyring.deb # This gives a strange message because it recognizes the keyring.deb as another file
echo "deb http://debian.sur5r.net/i3/ $(grep '^DISTRIB_CODENAME=' /etc/lsb-release | cut -f2 -d=) universe" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sur5r-i3.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install i3
cd git
git clone --depth 5 https://github.com/joereddington/i3config # But there isn't a config file to put it in until you relaunch
sudo apt install rofi # The i3 config specifies rofi as the launcher, so you have to install it
cd
  • Now log out and log in again. Accept the “generate a config” option or you will get confused with controls.
  • At this point, I plugged in the other monitor and rebooted.

Not command line stuff

  • Firefox and other logins
  • Install Spotify and Darktable from Snap

Setup personal blog

cd git
git clone --depth 5 https://github.com/joereddington/joereddington.github.io
cd

Audio

I start by playing an audio video in YouTube.

sudo apt install pulseaudio
pactl list short sinks
pactl load-module module-alsa-sink device=hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
pactl set-card-profile alsa_card.pci-0000_01_00.1 output:hdmi-stereo-extra1
pactl list short sinks
pactl set-default-sink 123A #music starts coming from youtube
paplay --device=alsa_output.hdmi_CARD_NVidia_DEV_0 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav

My todo:

git clone --depth 10 https://github.com/joereddington/todo.txt/
git clone --depth 10 https://github.com/joereddington/igor
cd igor
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip3 install numpy
pip3 install matplotlib
deactivate 
cd ..
./deploytodo.sh

Public History

git clone --depth 10 https://github.com/joereddington/historycode
cd historycode/
git submodule update --init --recursive
cd site/
git status
git branch
git checkout main #it checks out headless by default
mkdir databases #needs this directory to exist
vim localdeploy.sh #you need to change the location of the database to whatever firefox is using
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip3 install matplotlib
pip3 install pandas
pip3 install pytz
./deploy.sh

Extra

sudo apt install xclip # for pasting images into posts
sudo apt install texlive-full
sudo apt install universal-ctags

Things I fixed during this process

  • i3config now includes the shortcut for copyq
  • My ‘blackbox’ script is significantly upgraded
  • I believe I’ve fixed the ongoing audio issue
  • Xmodmap is now working in the correct place.
  • I started using proper python virtual environments (I think I was forced into this a little)
  • My jekyll serve commands are working again, so that’s cool.

Next time

  • Put all the sudo apt install and git clone --depth commands and put them in a little script in blackbox. Some of them take a while.
  • Keep a stronger eye on which system config files I edit.