My debian laptop setup

I have been asked to give a tour / demonstration on how I have set up my laptop. I use it for everyday use... web devolpment, social networking, security... it's not powerful enough for gaming but will do pretty much everything else I want. I guess firstly the hardware:

The laptop is a Sony VAIO model VGN-TZ31VN (specs)
I brought it a few years ago, mostly for it's small form, but also because it has all the extras I wanted: webcam, wireless card that can go into monitor mode, bluetooth, 3G, DVD player... it's a nice little travel accessory, god to know can have internet wherever you are and get on with work etc.

It came with wondows vista, I quickly moved to ubuntu, and very recently a pure Debian OS... this gives pretty much full control of the laptop and is quick, small space... I highly recommend it. Heres a quick overview / tour before I get into the details on how you can have the same setup:

When I was creating this I wan't awear of the crunchbang distro, however if I had I probably would have gone that route, that being said creating it from just a debian install is a great way to learn the inner workings of linux.

After installing debian, I put on openbox, A tiny lightweight, highly customizable window manager. I wanted some kind of login screen so installed GDM with the Dusty v0.1 theme.
Then changed the openbox theme to TropicBomb (I think this is a default one)

Next, Tint2 and conky. Both are available in the debian repositorys. My configs are as follows:

# Tint2 config file
# Generated by tintwizard (http://code.google.com/p/tintwizard/)
# For information on manually configuring tint2 see http://code.google.com/p/tint2/wiki/Configure

# Background definitions
# ID 1
rounded = 7
border_width = 2
background_color = #000000 60
border_color = #FFFFFF 16

# ID 2
rounded = 5
border_width = 0
background_color = #FFFFFF 40
border_color = #FFFFFF 48

# ID 3
rounded = 5
border_width = 0
background_color = #FFFFFF 16
border_color = #FFFFFF 68

# Panel
panel_monitor = all
panel_position = bottom center horizontal
panel_size = 94% 30
panel_margin = 0 0
panel_padding = 7 0 7
panel_dock = 0
wm_menu = 0
panel_layer = top
panel_background_id = 1

# Panel Autohide
autohide = 0
autohide_show_timeout = 0.3
autohide_hide_timeout = 2
autohide_height = 2
strut_policy = follow_size

# Taskbar
taskbar_mode = single_desktop
taskbar_padding = 2 3 2
taskbar_background_id = 0
taskbar_active_background_id = 0

# Tasks
urgent_nb_of_blink = 8
task_icon = 1
task_text = 1
task_centered = 1
task_maximum_size = 140 35
task_padding = 6 2
task_background_id = 3
task_active_background_id = 2
task_urgent_background_id = 2
task_iconified_background_id = 3
task_tooltip = 0

# Task Icons
task_icon_asb = 70 0 0
task_active_icon_asb = 100 0 0
task_urgent_icon_asb = 100 0 0
task_iconified_icon_asb = 70 0 0

# Fonts
task_font = sans 7
task_font_color = #FFFFFF 68
task_active_font_color = #FFFFFF 83
task_urgent_font_color = #FFFFFF 83
task_iconified_font_color = #FFFFFF 68
font_shadow = 0

# System Tray
systray = 1
systray_padding = 0 4 5
systray_sort = ascending
systray_background_id = 0
systray_icon_size = 16
systray_icon_asb = 70 0 0

# Clock
time1_format = %H:%M
time1_font = sans 8
time2_format = %A %d %B
time2_font = sans 6
clock_font_color = #FFFFFF 74
clock_padding = 1 0
clock_background_id = 0
clock_rclick_command = orage

# Tooltips
tooltip_padding = 2 2
tooltip_show_timeout = 0.7
tooltip_hide_timeout = 0.3
tooltip_background_id = 1
tooltip_font = sans 10
tooltip_font_color = #000000 80

# Mouse
mouse_middle = none
mouse_right = close
mouse_scroll_up = toggle
mouse_scroll_down = iconify

# Battery
battery = 0
battery_low_status = 10
battery_low_cmd = notify-send "battery low"
battery_hide = 98
bat1_font = sans 8
bat2_font = sans 6
battery_font_color = #FFFFFF 74
battery_padding = 1 0
battery_background_id = 0

# End of config

(/etc/xdg/tint2/tint2rc)

# Use Xft?
use_xft yes
xftfont mono:size=9
xftalpha 0.8
text_buffer_size 2048

# Update interval in seconds
update_interval 1

# This is the number of times Conky will update before quitting.
# Set to zero to run forever.
total_run_times 0

# Create own window instead of using desktop (required in nautilus)
own_window yes
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_type desktop
own_window_hints undecorated,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager
background yes

# Use double buffering (reduces flicker, may not work for everyone)
double_buffer yes

# Minimum size of text area
minimum_size 1000 0

# Draw shades?
draw_shades yes

# Draw outlines?
draw_outline no

# Draw borders around text
draw_borders no

# Draw borders around graphs
draw_graph_borders yes

# Stippled borders?
stippled_borders 0

# border margins
border_margin 0

# border width
border_width 0

# Default colors and also border colors
default_color black
color2 1994D1
#default_shade_color black
#default_outline_color 3c3c3c
#own_window_colour 3c3c3c
own_window_colour 082103
own_window_argb_visual no

# Text alignment, other possible values are commented
#alignment top_left
#alignment top_right
#alignment bottom_left
#alignment bottom_right
alignment top_middle

# Gap between borders of screen and text
# same thing as passing -x at command line
gap_x -85
gap_y 0

# Subtract file system buffers from used memory?
no_buffers yes

# set to yes if you want all text to be in uppercase
uppercase no

# number of cpu samples to average
# set to 1 to disable averaging
cpu_avg_samples 2

# number of net samples to average
# set to 1 to disable averaging
net_avg_samples 2

# Force UTF8? note that UTF8 support required XFT
override_utf8_locale yes

# Add spaces to keep things from moving about?  This only affects certain objects.
#use_spacer right

TEXT
${offset 5}${color2}CPU1${color} ${cpu cpu1}% ${goto 80}${cpubar cpu1 9,30} 
${color2}CPU2${color} ${cpu cpu2}% ${goto 188}${cpubar cpu2 9,30} 
${color2} MEM${color} ${mem}/${memmax} ${membar 9,30} 
${color2} HDD${color} ${fs_used /}/${fs_size /} ${fs_bar 9,30 /} ${if_existing /media/Linux/Downloads}${color2}SDB1${color} 
${fs_used /media/Linux}/${fs_size /media/Linux} ${fs_bar 9,30 /media/Linux}${endif} 
${color2}DOWN${color} ${downspeedf eth0} KB/s ${downspeedgraph eth0 9,30} ${color2}UP${color} 
${upspeedf eth0} KB/s ${upspeedgraph eth0 9,30}

(/etc/conky/conky.conf)

I know it's a bad way of doing it but I auto start things through /etc/xdg/openbox/autostart. The file contains:

xcompmgr -fF -I-0.028 -O-0.003 -D3 -cC -t-5 -l-6 -r5 &
nitrogen --restore &
xfce4-power-manager &
volti &
checkgmail &
(sleep 5s && neap) &
update-notifier --force &
tint2 &
conky &
(sleep 2s && tilda) &

Lastly the start menu... this will also hopefully give you an idea of the programs I have installed.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<openbox_menu>
	<menu id="None-65332" label="New Menu">
		<item label="New Item">
			<action name="Execute">
				<execute>command</execute>
			</action>
		</item>
	</menu>
	<menu id="root-menu" label="OpenBox 3">
		<menu id="root-menu-903643" label="Development">
			<item label="Firefox">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						firefox
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Epiphany">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						epiphany-browser
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Filezilla">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						filezilla
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Notepad++">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>wine C:\\Program\ Files\\Notepad++\\notepad++.exe</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Gedit">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>gedit</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Xchat">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>xchat</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
		</menu>
		<menu id="18" label="Games">
			<item label="Steam">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>/root/scripts/debian_steam.sh</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Minecraft">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						minecraft
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Tileracer">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						TileRacer
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
		</menu>
		<menu id="6" label="Graphics">
			<item label="Photoshop CS5">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>wine C:\\Program\ Files\\PhotoshopPortable\\PhotoshopCS4Portable.exe</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Gimp">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>gimp</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Gpicview">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>gpicview</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
		</menu>
		<menu id="root-menu-913938" label="Security">
			<item label="EDB">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>edb</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="PuTTY">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						putty
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="VNC">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						gtkvncviewer
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Nmap">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						zenmap
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="NetworkMiner">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>/opt/networkminer/networkminer</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Wireshark">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						wireshark
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Ettercap">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						ettercap -G
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Wifite">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>gnome-terminal -e wifite</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Paros">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>paros</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Burp suite">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>java -jar /opt/burpsuite_free_v1.5.jar</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Vidalia">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						vidalia
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<menu id="root-menu-913938-811730" label="Metasploit">
				<item label="Armitage">
					<action name="Execute">
						<execute>armitage</execute>
					</action>
				</item>
				<item label="MSF-GUI">
					<action name="Execute">
						<execute>msfgui</execute>
					</action>
				</item>
				<item label="MSF-CLI">
					<action name="Execute">
						<execute>gnome-terminal -e msfconsole</execute>
					</action>
				</item>
				<item label="MSF-update">
					<action name="Execute">
						<execute>xterm -e &quot;msfupdate; read -p 'press any key to exit'&quot;</execute>
					</action>
				</item>
				<separator/>
				<item label="Start backend">
					<action name="Execute">
						<execute>xterm -e &quot;/opt/metasploit-4.4.0/ctlscript.sh start&quot;</execute>
					</action>
				</item>
				<item label="Stop backend">
					<action name="Execute">
						<execute>xterm -e &quot;/opt/metasploit-4.4.0/ctlscript.sh stop&quot;</execute>
					</action>
				</item>
				<item label="Check backend">
					<action name="Execute">
						<execute>xterm -e &quot;/opt/metasploit-4.4.0/ctlscript.sh status; read -p 'press any key to exit'&quot;</execute>
					</action>
				</item>
			</menu>
		</menu>
		<menu id="7" label="Multimedia">
			<item label="VLC">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						vlc
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Smplayer">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>smplayer</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="ALSA mixer">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						xterm -e alsamixer
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Brasero">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						brasero
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Skype">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>skype</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Cheese">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						cheese
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Ventrilo">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>mangler</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Record webcam">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>guvcview --verbose</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Record desktop">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>gtk-recordmydesktop</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Sound recorder">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>gnome-sound-recorder</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Video converter">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>winff</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Video editor">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>openshot</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
		</menu>
		<menu id="3" label="Office">
			<item label="Calc">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>galculator</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Evince">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						evince
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Evolution">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						evolution
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Bittorrent">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>qbittorrent</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Nixnote">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>nixnote</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Twitter client">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>hotot</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="RSS reader">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>liferea</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<menu id="3-25820" label="Libre office">
				<item label="Main">
					<action name="Execute">
						<execute>
							libreoffice3.6
						</execute>
					</action>
				</item>
				<item label="Writer">
					<action name="Execute">
						<execute>
							/opt/libreoffice3.6/program/swriter
						</execute>
					</action>
				</item>
				<item label="Presentation">
					<action name="Execute">
						<execute>
							/opt/libreoffice3.6/program/simpress
						</execute>
					</action>
				</item>
				<item label="Spreadsheet">
					<action name="Execute">
						<execute>
							/opt/libreoffice3.6/program/scalc
						</execute>
					</action>
				</item>
				<item label="Database">
					<action name="Execute">
						<execute>
							/opt/libreoffice3.6/program/sbase
						</execute>
					</action>
				</item>
				<item label="Draw">
					<action name="Execute">
						<execute>
							/opt/libreoffice3.6/program/sdraw
						</execute>
					</action>
				</item>
				<item label="Math">
					<action name="Execute">
						<execute>
							/opt/libreoffice3.6/program/smath
						</execute>
					</action>
				</item>
			</menu>
		</menu>
		<menu id="root-menu-423426" label="Cleaning">
			<item label="Disk space use">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>baobab</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Back in time">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>backintime-gnome</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="BleachBit">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						bleachbit
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Orphan">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>gtkorphan</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Update manager">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>update-manager</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<separator/>
			<item label="Update">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						xterm -e &quot;apt-get update; apt-get upgrade; apt-get dist-upgrade; read -p 'press any key to exit'&quot;
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Clean">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						xterm -e &quot;localepurge; apt-get autoremove; apt-get clean; read -p 'press any key to exit'&quot;
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Rootkits">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>xterm -e &quot;rkhunter --update; rkhunter --skip-keypress -c; chkrootkit; read -p 'press any key to exit'&quot;</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
		</menu>
		<menu id="19" label="Shells">
			<item label="Terminal">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						gnome-terminal
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Bash">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						xterm -e bash --login
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Dash">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						xterm -e dash -i
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="GIT">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						xterm -e git
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Python (v2.5)">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						xterm -e python2.5
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Root Terminal">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						gksu /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Sh">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						xterm -e sh --login
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Xterm">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						xterm
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
		</menu>
		<menu id="37" label="System">
			<menu id="36" label="Settings">
				<menu id="21" label="GNOME">
					<item label="Bluetooth">
						<action name="Execute">
							<execute>
								bluetooth-properties
							</execute>
						</action>
					</item>
					<item label="Email Settings">
						<action name="Execute">
							<execute>
								evolution-settings
							</execute>
						</action>
					</item>
					<item label="File Management">
						<action name="Execute">
							<execute>
								nautilus-file-management-properties
							</execute>
						</action>
					</item>
					<item label="Network Connections">
						<action name="Execute">
							<execute>
								nm-connection-editor
							</execute>
						</action>
					</item>
					<item label="Sound">
						<action name="Execute">
							<execute>
								gnome-volume-control
							</execute>
						</action>
					</item>
				</menu>
				<menu id="35" label="Xfce">
					<item label="Screensaver">
						<action name="Execute">
							<execute>
								xscreensaver-demo
							</execute>
						</action>
					</item>
				</menu>
				<item label="Openbox Configuration Manager">
					<action name="Execute">
						<execute>
							obconf
						</execute>
					</action>
				</item>
				<item label="Software Sources">
					<action name="Execute">
						<execute>
							su-to-root -X -c /usr/bin/software-properties-gtk
						</execute>
					</action>
				</item>
				<item label="Synaptic Package Manager">
					<action name="Execute">
						<execute>
							su-to-root -X -c /usr/sbin/synaptic
						</execute>
					</action>
				</item>
				<item label="Xfontsel">
					<action name="Execute">
						<execute>
							xfontsel
						</execute>
					</action>
				</item>
				<item label="Xvidtune">
					<action name="Execute">
						<execute>
							xvidtune
						</execute>
					</action>
				</item>
				<item label="Touchpad config">
					<action name="Execute">
						<execute>gpointing-device-settings</execute>
					</action>
				</item>
				<item label="Hardware info">
					<action name="Execute">
						<execute>hardinfo</execute>
					</action>
				</item>
			</menu>
			<item label="File Browser">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						nautilus --no-desktop
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Task manager">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						lxtask
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Wicd Network Manager">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						wicd-gtk --no-tray
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Nitrogen">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						nitrogen
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Aptitude (terminal)">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						xterm -e aptitude-curses
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Configuration Editor">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						gconf-editor
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Notification settings">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>xfce4-notifyd-config</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Truecrypt">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						truecrypt
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="GDM Setup">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						su-to-root -X -p root -c /usr/sbin/gdmsetup
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Screensaver preferences">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						xscreensaver-command -prefs
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Openbox Menu Editor">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						obmenu
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Synaptic Package Manager">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						synaptic
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
		</menu>
		<separator/>
		<menu id="40" label="OpenBox">
			<menu id="client-list-menu"/>
			<item label="Reconfigure">
				<action name="Reconfigure"/>
			</item>
			<separator/>
			<item label="Shutdown">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						shutdown -h now
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Restart">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>
						shutdown -r now
					</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
			<item label="Logout">
				<action name="Exit"/>
			</item>
			<item label="Lock">
				<action name="Execute">
					<execute>xtrlock</execute>
				</action>
			</item>
		</menu>
	</menu>
</openbox_menu>

The wall paper I use is here
Well That is the basic overview... here is some screenshots:

As always, I hope this post has helped in some way. Likes and shares are much appreciated. If you have any questions or advice then feel free to leave a comment.

2 thoughts on “My debian laptop setup”

qrosh on June 21, 2013 at 7:43 pm said:

how did you make the function keys work?

Reply ↓
- Ross Marks on June 21, 2013 at 8:00 pm said:
  
  there is a file that has all the keybinds, if I remember rightly it’s a file thats a part of openbox, simply add the missing ones in there
  
  Reply ↓

2 thoughts on “My debian laptop setup”

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