Setting Up an Ubuntu Desktop 20.04 Install
This note was updated on 15 Apr, 2023 at 12:29.
For reference, I’m currently using an Intel NUC10i7FNH with 32 GB of RAM.
Operating system installation and the first five minutes
When installing Ubuntu on a machine that uses Secure Boot, do not skip the key enrolment step on the initial reboot. I have accidentally pressed Continue without completing this step far too many times.
After going through the welcome screen bumf, I tend to run the Software Updater and go through Settings. (I am cursed with being incapable of using any new thing unless I’ve thoroughly scoured its options and settings.)
Set up and run the provisioning Ansible playbook available from my Ansible gubbins.
Post-Ansible checklist and tasks
While most of my machine provisioning is handled by Ansible, I haven’t managed to automate everything:
Fix a bug in the Dash to Dock GNOME Shell extension that causes icons to take ages to update when you start with an empty dock by manually applying a fix available on GitHub to .
In Firefox: install the 1Password extension, change the default search engine to DuckDuckGo, and hide all the junk from the new tab screen. I also sign in to my Firefox account to get my bookmarks and whatnot.
To be able to use Terraform secrets, find and copy over any existing GnuPG bits-and-pieces (as far as I can tell, all you need is pubring.gpg, secring.gpg, and trustdb.gpg).
Set the terminal font to Iosevka Term (which should be already installed by the provisioning Ansible playbook).
Install JetBrains Toolbox and use it to install GoLand, DataGrip, and PhpStorm.
Install Steam.
Connect to any network drives.
Set up Livepatch, Syncthing, and Obsidian.
Set up some Windows 10 VMs in VirtualBox for cross-browser testing and light Visual Studio usage.
- While I’ve got a valid Windows 10 licence kicking about, Microsoft provide evaluation development environment virtual machines that are perfect for how often I need to use Windows. (Microsoft also provide virtual machines for testing websites in Internet Explorer 11 and Edge Legacy.)
- Remember to update the hosts file () to access websites and other network services on the host.