My Ubuntu dev setup
Simon Scholzcreated 2023-08-23updated 2025-01-167 min readComments /Feedback / Requests?

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Here I'd like to share how I'd setup my freshly installed OS, namely Ubuntu, for development.

Backup data in advance

You might want to maintain a list of files or folders to backup.

folders-to-backup.txt
Documents/
Pictures/
Videos/
.config/
.ssh/
hosts
.ansible.cfg
.gitconfig

Once the folders-to-backup.txt file is in place we can use rsync to copy the files to an usb stick or different hard drive. But first do this using the --dry-run flag to test it without actually copying anything.

rsync -ar --dry-run --stats --info=progress2 --exclude='.cache' --files-from=folders-to-backup.txt ~ /media/{your-username}/{hard-drive-name}/backup/
  • -a is a shortcut for -rlptgoD, which will ensure that all settings of files and folders remain as is.
  • -r has to be added explicitly due to using the --files-from flag
  • --info=progress2 will also show a nice progress bar for the overall sync process.
  • --dry-run to do a test run first to check the config and paths
  • --stats to see file sizes and amount of files being sent

For the actual backup sync --dry-run needs to be removed:

rsync -ar --stats --info=progress2 --exclude='.cache' --files-from=folders-to-backup.txt ~ /media/{your-username}/{hard-drive-name}/backup/

Please note the ~ so everything is relative to your user home folder.

List installed applications

dpkg --get-selections > package_list.txt

Snap packages

snap list > snap-list.txt

Check for dirty git repositories

Before reinstalling the OS you might want to check for dirty git repositories, which are not committed yet.

In order to do so you can have a look in my git tutorial: Find dirty git repositories

So that you can commit all changes before reinstalling the OS.

Ubuntu

You can go to https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop to get the latest version of Ubuntu.

Once the download button has been pressed you'll also see a link about how to create a bootable usb stick to install Ubuntu.

Nala as apt alternative

Nala is a nice tool for installing and updating like apt does, but with a better UI, which gives better insights on what is happening. And it offers a history, which can be undone. This can be helpful especially in cases when an update broke your system.

Fun fact, Nala can be installed using apt ;-)

sudo apt update && sudo apt install nala

Also see https://gitlab.com/volian/nala

Curl

Curl is a really helpful cli tool for sending network requests.

sudo apt install curl
# or using nala
sudo nala install curl

KeePassXC

One of the first things to do is installing KeePassXC where I usually store the majority of my passwords in a secure manner.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:phoerious/keepassxc
sudo apt update
sudo apt install keepassxc

Also see: https://keepassxc.org/download/#linux

Git

Nowadays almost every developer uses Git as distributed version control system (DVCS). More details on Git can be found here: https://simonscholz.dev/tutorials/git

Lazy Git

Easy to use git client within the terminal.

LAZYGIT_VERSION=$(curl -s "https://api.github.com/repos/jesseduffield/lazygit/releases/latest" | grep -Po '"tag_name": "v\K[^"]*')
curl -Lo lazygit.tar.gz "https://github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/releases/latest/download/lazygit_${LAZYGIT_VERSION}_Linux_x86_64.tar.gz"
tar xf lazygit.tar.gz lazygit
sudo install lazygit /usr/local/bin

Also see https://github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit

SDKMan!

SDKMan! is a really easy to use tool to maintain an overview of SDKs being installed on your system.

To install SDKMan! simply run:

curl -s "https://get.sdkman.io" | bash

Also see https://sdkman.io/install

SDKs (https://sdkman.io/sdks) I usually install are:

  • sdk install java
  • sdk install Kotlin
  • sdk install jbang
  • sdk install gradle
  • sdk install maven
  • sdk install quarkus
  • sdk install asciidoctorj

And of course there are several different JDKs to choose from: https://sdkman.io/jdks

# show different JDK vendors and versions
sdk list java

# Install specific Java version from the list
sdk install java 20.0.1-tem

# Install latest Java version
sdk install java

Also see https://sdkman.io/usage for the usage of SDKMan!

Docker + Docker Compose

Here I will only refer to the excellent articles of Digital Ocean:

In these tutorials you can even choose your Operating System / Linux Distro, where you intend to install docker + docker compose.

Postman

A great tool to call different rest or graphql APIs with a nice user interface.

snap install postman

The following link also describes how to create a proper [Desktop Entry] for Postman. https://learning.postman.com/docs/getting-started/installation-and-updates/#installing-postman-on-linux

VS Code

Great Code editor from Microsoft, which I do use for coding this homepage using Gatsby and TypeScript + coding Flutter Apps.

Steps to install VS Code can be found here: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/setup/linux

VS Code itself offers a large variety of extensions and plug-ins. Let me list the ones I'd currently use:

IntelliJ

IntelliJ is a powerful IDE for using Java and/or Kotlin.

# Use ultimate
sudo snap install intellij-idea-ultimate --classic
# or community
sudo snap install intellij-idea-community --classic

Node JS + NPM

To run Node and NPM you can follow the steps from my other tutorial:

https://simonscholz.dev/tutorials/node-npm-updates

Flameshot

Even though Ubuntu 22.04 ships with an improved good to use Screenshot tool out of the box, I'd still prefer using Flameshot.

# using apt
sudo apt install flameshot

# using nala
sudo nala install flameshot

Also see: https://flameshot.org/docs/installation/installation-linux/

When having issues with Wayland, you might want to turn it off.

sudo nano /etc/gdm3/custom.conf

In the custom.conf file set:

custom.conf
WaylandEnable=false

Then restart GDM:

sudo systemctl restart gdm3

And verify it works:

echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE

This should output x11 now.

Kubernetes

kubectl

In order to interact with Kubernetes kubectl is a must have.

Follow steps from https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/tools/install-kubectl-linux/ to install kubectl.

For me on Ubuntu it works like this:

curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl"

sudo install -o root -g root -m 0755 kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl

kubectl version

The usage of kubectl is nicely depicted by the kubectl cheatsheet: https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/kubectl/cheatsheet/

k9s

K9s provides a terminal UI to interact with your Kubernetes clusters.

The easiest way to install k9s is via Webi

curl -sS https://webinstall.dev/k9s | bash

For other options also see https://github.com/derailed/k9s#installation

Sqlite browser

convenient tool to view data of a Sqlite database.

snap install sqlitebrowser

--> https://sqlitebrowser.org/dl/

Dropbox

Dropbox offers a really convenient way to store data in the cloud by integrating a dropbox client into the system file explorer.

Also see: https://www.dropbox.com/install-linux

You might also need to install, which is required by the dropbox client.

sudo apt install libpango
# or using nala
sudo nala install libpango

Chrome

One of the most popular browsers can be found here: https://www.google.com/chrome/de/download-chrome/

Fish Shell

Using the default terminal of Ubuntu is usually sufficient, but there are alternatives like Fish Shell, which offers powerful features like a command history with auto completion and much more.

Also see my dedicated tutorial about the fish shell: https://simonscholz.dev/tutorials/fishshell

Messenger

Telegram

A nice alternative to WhatsApp, which is pretty popular and also has a desktop client.

# using apt
sudo apt install telegram-desktop

# using nala
sudo nala install telegram-desktop

Also see https://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/Telegram/

Teams for Linux

curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/teams-for-linux/packages/setup.deb.sh' | sudo -E bash

# using apt
sudo apt update
sudo apt install teams-for-linux

# using nala
sudo nala update
sudo nala install teams-for-linux

Also see https://github.com/IsmaelMartinez/teams-for-linux

OBS Studio

OBS Studio is a free and open-source, cross-platform screencasting and streaming app, which I use for recording tutorials.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:obsproject/obs-studio

sudo apt install obs-studio

# using nala
sudo nala install obs-studio

Scanner

sudo apt install simple-scan

# using nala
sudo nala install simple-scan

upx

Upx is a tool to compress executables, which can be helpful in case you want to distribute your application as a single executable. You can download the latest version from GitHub: UPX Releases

For ubuntu you'll most likely want to use upx-{latest-upx-version}-amd64_linux.tar.xz.

You can simply move the upx executable to /usr/local/bin:

tar -xf upx-{latest-upx-version}-amd64_linux.tar.xz upx

sudo mv upx /usr/local/bin

Useful aliases and functions

Update your applications and packages with one command:

~/.bashrc

alias uAll='sudo snap refresh && sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y && sudo apt autoremove -y'

# alternatively use nala

alias uAll='sudo snap refresh && sudo nala update && sudo nala upgrade -y'

# including auto remove and clean

alias uAll='sudo snap refresh && sudo nala update && sudo nala upgrade -y && sudo nala autoremove -y'

This updates all apt packages, upgrades them and also refreshes the snap installations.

In case you're working with kubernetes and the gcloud cli then this tutorial is for you: Easily switch gcloud config and kubectl context