Developer Workstation Setup Script

Welcome to your new ultimate development environment!

Enjoy the same software and desktop setup regardless of which Red Hat based distribution you choose.

Features

• Works with Fedora 36+ and RHEL 9 compatible distributions

You get to choose between cutting edge Fedora or stable RHEL.

To maintain parity with Fedora 36+, any RHEL package that's not available in a popular repository is:

1. Downloaded as a binary from GitHub or another trusted source
2. Rebuilt from a compatible SRC RPM and installed from ./el9-rebuilds
3. Downloaded as a flatpak from Flathub

• Great software out of the box, easy to customize and choose your own

• Improved Gnome desktop and font settings

Gnome has been tweaked along with optional subpixel font rendering for a better experience.

• Neovim 0.7.0 with plugins and custom keybindings

Setup out of the box with the latest Neovim 0.7.0 and plugins configured to use fzf, ripgrep, delta and bat with an attractive Visual Studio Code theme

• Uses stow to install and mange dotfiles

All the software dotfiles are managed using stow, this makes them easy to alter and version control on your computer.

Installation Guide

RHEL clones must be installed using the workstation option

This script is designed to be run immediately after installing the operating system. If you are using a RHEL clone you should select workstation from the software selection option during installation.

Use git to clone this repository

git clone https://github.com/David-Else/developer-workstation-setup-script
cd developer-workstation-setup-script

Customize the software selection before running the script

You will want to look at the installation script and modify it with your own preferences. This has been made as easy as possible, and should be self-explanatory.

The following arrays in install.sh contain all the packages that are common to Fedora and RHEL clones. They are set at the start of the script:

rpm_packages_to_remove=()
rpm_packages_to_install=()
flathub_packages_to_install=()
npm_global_packages_to_install=()

After that you can set packages to be added or removed for either RHEL clones or Fedora:

rhel_rpm_packages_to_remove=()
rhel_rpm_packages_to_install=()
rhel_flathub_packages_to_install=()

fedora_rpm_packages_to_remove=()
fedora_rpm_packages_to_install=()
fedora_flathub_packages_to_install=()

Repos can be added conditionally for all OSes, so if the package is not required then the repo is not installed:

    case " ${rpm_packages_to_install[*]} " in
    *' code '*)
        rpm --import https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc
        sh -c 'echo -e "[code]\nname=Visual Studio Code\nbaseurl=https://packages.microsoft.com/yumrepos/vscode\nenabled=1\ngpgcheck=1\ngpgkey=https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc" > /etc/yum.repos.d/vscode.repo'
        ;;&
    *' lazygit '*)
        dnf -y copr enable atim/lazygit
        ;;&
    *' gh '*)
        dnf -y config-manager --add-repo https://cli.github.com/packages/rpm/gh-cli.repo
        ;;
    esac

Run the scripts

sudo ./install.sh
./install-binaries.bash
./setup.sh

Now reboot before continuing.

Make any final changes

Hardware dependent

• If you have an Intel CPU with a built-in GPU then sudo dnf install libva-intel-driver, MPV will then use HW acceleration.

• If you have a 4k monitor and want to use 200% screen scaling then make it a default by creating the following file:

/usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/93_hidpi.gschema.override

[org.gnome.desktop.interface]
scaling-factor=2

And reinit schemas with sudo glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas

If you only use the GUI Settings/Displays it often forgets your choice.

Software dependent

• Deno: create/update shell completions:

deno completions bash > deno.sh
sudo mv deno.sh /etc/profile.d

• Vale: change the global .vale.ini file in your $HOME directory to point to an empty directory you want to store your styles, for example:

StylesPath = /home/username/Documents/styles

and run vale sync. You can create a new file at Config Generator

• Neovim:

When first run it will give errors as there are no plugins installed. Type :PaqInstall to install them, then :q and run again to finish installation. For VS Code icons that work in Neovim double click extras/codicon.ttf in Gnome Files.

Various

• Configure pipewire:

1. Find your sound card and available sample rates: cat /proc/asound/cards cat /proc/asound/card[number]/stream[number]
2. Create a user config file: cp /usr/share/pipewire/pipewire.conf ~/.config/pipewire/
3. Add your sound cards available sample rates, for example: default.clock.allowed-rates = [ 44100 48000 88200 96000 176400 192000 ]

• Install extra applications, for example: pip3 install --user yt-dlp gitlint

• Choose your default applications using the top right selection Settings > Default Applications

• Download any Gnome Extensions like Hide Top Bar from the Gnome Extensions Website

• Install Firefox extensions, I recommend copy/pasting:

firefox https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/privacy-badger17/ \
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/ \
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/surfingkeys_ff/

• Consider increasing inotify watchers for watching large numbers of files. See current use with: curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fatso83/dotfiles/master/utils/scripts/inotify-consumers | bash

echo fs.inotify.max_user_watches=524288 | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf && sudo sysctl -p

ENJOY! Please report any bugs you may encounter.

Neovim keybindings and plugins used

Neovim custom key mappings

General                                    LSP
-------                                    ---
       jk = escape                         gD        = jumps to the declaration
   ctrl-s = save                           gd        = jumps to the definition
 gh/gl/gs = goto line start/end/1st char   <space>k  = displays hover information
<space>p  = paste from 0 register          ctrl-k    = displays signature info
<space>ts = open terminal below            gi        = lists all implementations
<space>tv = open terminal to the right                 in the quickfix window
<space>qa = quit all                       gr        = list all symbol references
<space>c  = toggle colorcolumn             <space>wa = add workspace folder
<space>n  = toggle line numbers            <space>wr = remove workstation folder
<space>z  = toggle zen mode                <space>wl = list workstation folders
<space>d  = toggle diagnostics             <space>D  = jump to type definition
                                           <space>r  = rename all symbol references
fzf.vim                                    <space>a  = selects a code action
-------
<space>f  = open file explorer
<space>b  = open buffers                   Diagnostics
<space>h  = open file history              -----------
<space>/  = ripgrep search results         <space>e  = show diagnostics from line
                                           <space>l  = sets the location list
ctrl-/     = toggle preview window         [d        = move to previous diagnostic
ctrl-t/x/v = open in new tab/split/vert    ]d        = move to next diagnostic


Comment-nvim
------------
NORMAL                                      VISUAL

gcc = toggles line using linewise comment   gc  = Toggles the region using linewise comment
gbc = toggles line using blockwise comment  gb  = Toggles the region using blockwise comment

For all the Vim/Neovim built in shortcuts please check out https://www.elsewebdevelopment.com/ultimate-vim-keyboard-shortcuts/

Neovim plugins

This is a list of all the plugins used, please follow the links to read about how to operate them.

• nvim-treesitter - Nvim Treesitter configurations and abstraction layer

• nvim-lspconfig - Quickstart configurations for the Nvim LSP client

• nvim-cmp - Auto completion plugin for Nvim written in Lua

• nvim-lightbulb - Shows a lightbulb whenever a textDocument/codeAction is available at the current cursor position

• nvim-markdown-preview - Markdown preview in the browser using pandoc/live-server through Neovim's job-control API

• zen-mode.nvim - Distraction-free coding for Neovim

• null-ls.nvim - Use Neovim as a language server to inject LSP diagnostics, code actions, and more via Lua

• comment.nvim - Comment stuff out

• fzf.vim - fzf vim wrapper

FAQ

Q: How do I install Visual Studio Code?

A: Simply uncomment code from rpm-packages-to-install in install.sh before you run it.

If you would like to use Code for things that Neovim still struggles with (like debugging), and still use all the Vim keyboard shortcuts, I suggest installing asvetliakov.vscode-neovim and using these settings:

settings.json

{
  // font size
  "editor.fontSize": 15,
  "markdown.preview.fontSize": 15,
  "terminal.integrated.fontSize": 15,
  // asvetliakov.vscode-neovim
  "editor.scrollBeyondLastLine": false,
  "vscode-neovim.neovimExecutablePaths.linux": "/usr/local/bin/nvim", // for RHEL clones, or "/usr/bin/nvim" for Fedora
  "workbench.list.automaticKeyboardNavigation": false,
  // various
  "window.titleBarStyle": "custom", // adjust the appearance of the window title bar for linux
  "editor.minimap.enabled": false, // controls whether the minimap is shown
  "workbench.activityBar.visible": false, // controls the visibility of the activity bar in the workbench
  "window.menuBarVisibility": "hidden", // control the visibility of the menu bar
  "files.restoreUndoStack": false, // don't restore the undo stack when a file is reopened
  "editor.dragAndDrop": false, // controls whether the editor should allow moving selections via drag and drop
  "telemetry.enableTelemetry": false // disable diagnostic data collection
}

You might also like to install ms-vscode.live-server for live debugging in Code or the browser.

Q: Why is the script spit into multiple parts for install and setup?

A: Sudo privileges are needed for the installation, and they time out before the script can finish. This makes unattended installation impossible without running the installer as root.

The setup part is much easier to do as a user, so running it as the user avoids constant su - "$SUDO_USER" -c statements in the code. If a part of the setup needs sudo it will ask for your password.

Q: Does this script disable the caps lock key? I've noticed that it works during login but after that it stops working altogether.

A: It makes the caps lock into delete for touch typing purposes, to change it modify this line in the setup script:

 capslock_delete="false"