DebianDesktopHowTo
This is a community maintained list of things to do in order to get an appealing DebianDesktop. Your should keep this page up to date and integrate things into debian to shorten the list.
Selecting the Debian Version
Refer to DebianReleases for information about the Debian versions. Choose DebianStable, if you want the Computer to just work for a prolonged period of time, without the risk of new packages breaking your habbits or workflow. You may still install selected packages from [1] and [2] to get newer versions of specific programms and always use a current web browser. However, if it is really important to you to always have recent versions of all the software you installed, and you are fine with constantly downloading and installing updates that may stir up a bug every once in a while, you may choose DebianTesting (see that page for more info).
Selecting a Desktop Environment
To select the desktop environment that the debian-installer installs, enter "Advanced options" on the boot screen and scroll down to "Alternative desktop environments". Otherwise, debian-installer will choose Gnome. KDE is of course a renown heavy alternative. Xfce is a fast and light alternative, and especially suited if you were using Gnome 2 and find Gnome 3 disappointing. For older computers consider using LXDE or Xfce, because they are less resource hungry then Gnome or KDE.
Installing
System
Leave the root password empty, to use sudo with your regular password for system administration. Consider setting RAMRUN and RAMLOCK to "yes" in /etc/default/rcS. bug 653760 The audio group must not have any members, otherwise consolekit won't adjust audio permissions (ACLs) when switching between users. Until bug 646692 is fixed, you need to configure umask adaption in /etc/pam.d/common-session:
echo "session optional pam_umask.so usergroups" >> /etc/pam.d/common-session
to get the correct umask that leverages the private user groups (see group dirs below). With "green" harddisk models or on laptops, install laptop-mode-tools and set CONTROL_HD_POWERMGMT=1 in /etc/laptop-mode.conf, to stop them from parking/unparking the heads every 8 seconds (clicking noise). (On NON-mobile devices you may even consider using a tool like idle3ctl to prevent load cycling alltogether.) See 'smartctl -a /dev/sdX' for your current Load_Cycle_Count.
If you need a specific program that is not in the repositories, or installed stable and need a more recent version of a program, refer to DebianSoftware. Set up checking of the local /var/mail/<user> mailbox (e.g. add a mail notification icon to the panel). Consider enableing single-click file opening in the file browser preferences. If you want to adjust system wide defaults for all users, refer to DesktopDefaultSettings.
Web Browser
With squeeze, you will need to enable the backports repository to have an extended support release (ESR) version of the mozilla browser on your system. (Follow the instructions on http://mozilla.debian.net) For secure and sane browsing, install the following extensions with the debian package manager: xul-ext-noscript (clean companies from default whitelist), xul-ext-adblock-plus (disable its default whitelist), xul-ext-cookie-monster, xul-ext-https-everywhere, xul-ext-useragentswitcher(set genericly), and xul-ext-refcontrol(set to block). The squeeze packages of these add-ons are too old for the ESR browser versions, so you need to install these add-ons through the mozilla Add-ons tool (menu entry). Disable third-party cookies, enable deletion of cookies when closing the browser (or disable all cookies), and delete the all cookies you where already fed with against your independence. The add-ons HTTPS-Finder and RequestPolicy (remove the companies it sneaks into your whitelist) may only be available through the Add-ons download. If you need to use the flashplugin-nonfree, it is in the non-free repository, and consider installing the betterprivacy extension. Stop the browser from sending a hash of every Site you visit to google (ready to be added to your hashed browsing track) by disabling the options flagged as "block reported forgery and attack sites" in the security properties. Disable the search engine "support" and of course the custom google startpage, to prevent the browser from connecting there everytime you start the browser or search something and identifying you reliably in the process. See [3] to find out how generic your fingerprint on the web really is, and monitor your firewall logs to even get to know the strange places your computer connects to.
Install samba (if not present already), then "sudo adduser <username> sambashare" to allow <username> to create file shares. To avoid that samba creates files as the reserved user "nobody" (who should never own any files on the system), create a "sambaguest" user and add the following to the global section of /etc/samba/smb.conf:
guest account = sambaguest
To ensure that files created by samba guests are locally accessible, add this to the global section of /etc/samba/smb.conf:
inherit permissions = yes
Also remember to "chmod g+s" the directories of writable shares to be setguid dirs and set their read/write permissions according to the allowed samba users (i.e. publicly to enable guest access). (bug 678834) The "inherit permissions = yes" option lets samba create files with the permissions of the containing directory (x bits are still mapped to the windows' archive,hidden,system flags). In squeeze, you also still need to add the following to /etc/samba/smb.conf to be able to allow guest access to shares:
usershare allow guests = yes
to the global section, and
map to guest = bad user
below the line "; security = user". If your router does not resolve local hostnames correctly, and your ISPs DNS servers respond with false IPs instead of returning "unknown", also enable the "name resolve order" line (remove the ";") and move "host" to the end of the list.
The umask correction from above plus some default skeleton dirs could easily provide a really nice out of the box user collaboration experience: [4] The UserPrivateGroups (UPG) page explains how to do ease shared work on files, pictures, documents, etc. on a multi-user system (e.g. family PCs, servers etc.), and presents an example on to how to set it up.
There is another (more complicated) way to do this as well using Access Control Lists (ACLs). Check here and here for more information.
In a nutshell: apt-get install acl sarge kernels: filesystems supported -> ext2,ext3,jfs,xfs etch kernels support: ext2,ext3,reiserfs,jfs,xfs,nfs (with module nfs_acl) change /etc/fstab options for drive you want to use acls on ie /dev/hda5 /pub ext3 defaults,acl 0 0 cd /pub mkdir family setfacl -m d:u::rwx,d:g:family:rw,d:m:rw,d:o:--- family this will set the umask of the family directory such that all files created will be -rw-rw----+ and all directories created will be drwxrwS---+. This might not be entirely correct. At the very least, NFS has to be configured for ACLs, or an NFS server on Sarge and NFS Client in Etch can't handle ACLs. "getfacl family" will show you the permissions.
- Good information James. Maybe move ACL stuff to a separtate page like FilesystemAccessControlLists and reference it from this how to? MultiUserManagement translation may also be of interest for you. Have you subscribed this page? -----------
Additional packages you may want to install
Use apt-get install <packagename>, or the synaptic package manager to find, select and install the following packages:
- firmware-linux* (from non-free repository may be needed even to install with certain hardware) * apt-get install -t squeeze-backports libreoffice (apt-get required as long as synaptic won't handle backports dependencies) * synaptic (not included with the Xfce desktop) * preload (will preload often used programms into ram) * mc (midnight commander, a console filemanager) * a ssh-askpass package (lets ssh use a graphical password prompt window when run under X) * geeqie (fast picture viewer) * vlc, browser-plugin-vlc, freetuxtv (video player) * parcellite (clipboard manager) * autokey (keyboard shortcuts) * zim (mangaging notes) + scrot (for screenshot plugin) Put "zim --plugin trayicon" in autostart. * goldendict-worldnet (english dictionary, and trans-de-en current selection with hotkey) * ding + trans-de-en + agrep (translations) == Desktop Specific Adaptions ==
Gnome
To create network shares with Gnome's nautilus, install package "nautilus-share". To enable the greyed "Password: not asked at login" option for users in System > Administration > Users and Groups (Needed for (guest) account switching in addition to auto login.): Create the nopasswdlogin group,
sudo addgroup --system nopasswdlogin
and add the following to gdm's pam config in /etc/pam.d/gdm:
auth sufficient pam_succeed_if.so user ingroup nopasswdlogin
Make sure this line goes right before the "@include common-auth" line. You can use 'sudo adduser <user> nopasswdlogin' to add a user to the group.
Xfce
For network browsing, install gvfs-backends and gvfs-fuse and add your users to the 'fuse' group (sudo adduser <user> fuse). In squeeze, you also need to install and use gigolo, because the thunar file browser version in squeeze is not yet able to browse network shares (windows/cifs) directly. This plugin is needed to create network shares with Xfce's thunar. Workaround: define custom actions (adjust the permissions (setguid) according to the samba section above). Install catfish to be able to search for files. In wheezy, you can get rid of the space consuming "dock" thing by adding the desired starters to Pannel 1 and deleting Panel 2 in the Pannel settings. You can move the panel to another location on the desktop while it is unlocked it in the settings. For passwordless user swiching, you may create and enable a nopasswdlogin group as described for gnome, if you are using gdm (the default). With debian squeeze on laptops with touchpads, you may want to add an autostart item that configures tap-clicking:
/usr/bin/synclient TapButton1=1 PalmDetect=1
If you want gui configuration tools, you may install gnome-disk-utility (palimpsest) and 'apt-get --no-install-recommends install gnome-system-tools'. As photo manager maybe shotwell.
Finally
...have fun! And if you encounter bugs search the net, if the bug is not already filed, find the appropriate package and file a bug against it. If it concerns Debian you can use the "reportbug" utility for that. Starting with wheezy, you can save your systems installation state with apt-clone.