Debian 10 Setup Instructions (post install)
By: Matthew_Moore
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How to get grub2 to remember last choice?
Put the following in /etc/default/grub (command line: gedit admin:///etc/default/grub):
GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true
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Enable Sudo
Enter root using SU command
apt-get install sudo
Navigate to sudoers file /etc/sudoers and add user to list
EXAMPLE:
# Allow members of group sudo to execute any command
%sudo ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
matt ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
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Enable 32bit Architecture:
(required for installing 32 bit packages such as Steam )
sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
Refresh package index:
sudo apt-get update
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Find fastest mirrors. ( Optional )
install netselect-apt
sudo apt-get install netselect-apt
Run command:
netselect-apt
A list of mirrors ranked by speed will be places in your home directory
Copy this list to /etc/apt/sources.list
Refresh package index:
sudo apt-get update
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Enable Contrib and Non-Free packages.
Open Synaptic Package manager, Select settings / repositories
select each item and at the bottom of the Window under "Sections"
Add contrib non-free. EXAMPLE:
| main contrib non-free |
Repeat for each item. When finished press OK and then refresh
the package index by pressing the Reload button in the top left
of synaptic package manager.
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Adding Backports Repository.
add the following to your /etc/apt/sources.list file.
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ buster-backports main contrib non-free
run sudo apt-get udpate to refresh package index.
To install an application from the backport repository specify the repo using the following command.
sudo apt-get -t buster-backports install
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Install non-free codecs and other media components. ( Optional )
NOTE: These must be installed seperatly to avoid errors / conflicts.
sudo apt-get install ffmpeg
sudo apt-get install ffmpeg:i386
sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer
sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2
sudo apt-get install libdvd-pkg
sudo dpkg-reconfigure libdvd-pkg
sudo apt-get install ffmpegthumbnailer
sudo apt-get install gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad
sudo apt-get install gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly
sudo apt-get install gstreamer1.0-libav
sudo apt-get install tumbler-plugins-extra
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Install Linux Firmware and base packages:
sudo apt-get install gdebi firmware-linux firmware-linux-nonfree
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Install Microcode for Intel Proscessors. ( Optional )
sudo apt-get install intel-microcode
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Utility Applications:
sudo apt-get install file-roller rar unrar
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Fix QT Themeing on GTK based Desktops.
sudo apt-get install qt4-qtconfig
sudo apt-get install qt5-style-plugins
Open the QT 4 settings application, Under the Appearance tab
change the GUI Style to GTK +. You will be prompted to save
changes upon closing the application.
For QT 5 based applications run the following command to set the
environment variable.
Enter Root Environment using SU.
sudo echo "QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=gtk2" >> /etc/environment
NOTE: Due to a bug involving a segmentation fault, this dose not work with QT 5.7.0, Upgrade to 5.7.1 or wait for the update to come from upstream.
Log out and back in, or reboot your machine for changes to take effect.
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Install Nvidia Drivers
sudo apt-get install nvidia-detect
Run command:
nvidia-detect
Install the recommended driver shown
Example:
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r) nvidia-legacy-340xx-driver
Create an Xorg configuration for your gpu
mkdir /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d
nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf
Now add below contents to the file and save
Section "Device"
Identifier "My GPU"
Driver "nvidia"
EndSection
Reboot...
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Install and enable "ALL" Wifi Functions for Broadcom WiFi.
The default non-free firmware only gives you basic functionality. To get the most out of your Brodcom WiFi chip, install the following firmware packages.
Install broadcom packages.
sudo apt-get install broadcom-sta-dkms broadcom-sta-common firmware-brcm80211
Reboot system for changes to take effect.
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Install Bluetooth packages for XFCE.
sudo apt-get install bluetooth blueman bluez bluez-firmware bluez-cups bluez-tools
Reboot system for changes to take effect.
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Enable Notifications for XFCE Mail-Watcher Extention. ( XCFE Only )
Run on click: thunderbird
Run on New Messages: notify-send "New mail" "You have new messages in your inbox" -i xfce-newmail
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To give yourself permissions so virtualbox can access Shared folders and USB devices use this command,
sudo gpasswd -a $USER vboxusers
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Improve font rendering in Debian.
Show hidden files in file manager.
Create file /home/user/.fonts.conf
Copy and paste the following text into file
Reboot system for changes to take effect.
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Hide Partitions on Boot: ( Optional )
Create a new file /etc/udev/rules.d/99-hide-partitions.rules and add one line per partition you want to hide like so:
( change "sda*" to match the partition you wish to hide )
KERNEL=="sda1",ENV{UDISKS_IGNORE}="1"
KERNEL=="sda2",ENV{UDISKS_IGNORE}="1"
You should be able to dynamically activate it as root:
# udevadm trigger --verbose
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Backup / Restore installed APT packages
# Backup your packages list to your home directory
# Get a packages list
dpkg --get-selections > ~/Package.list
# Copy list of repositories to your home directory
sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list ~/sources.list
# Export repo keys to your home directory
sudo apt-key exportall > ~/Repo.keys
# Restore packages from your home directory
sudo apt-key add ~/Repo.keys
sudo cp ~/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install dselect
sudo apt-get install $(cat ~/Package.list | awk '{print $1}')
#NOTE: if SUDO is not configured, Simply use root terminal or SU.
#CRITICAL: Any packages installed using a .DEB file or other source not
included in your repositories/sources.list, must be removed from Package.list before restoring to avoid errors. These packages will need to be reinstalled manually.