I lasted 9 days with Arch linux on my laptop, and I have now switched it back to Debian. I've still got Arch on my 'household' computer that we use to watch TV on though -- it's a fine distro, just like debian is a fine distro -- but it's not suitable for the particular work I use my laptop for.
The reasons for switching back aren't that dramatic -- I use my laptop for work.
In particular, I use it to do
* (computationally) light work at home (editing papers, generating figures, analyzing data) and
* I use it to give seminar talks at other universities.
I got a bit frustrated with the number of packages I had to get via AUR, and even more frustrated over the quality of some of the PKGBUILDS. Not frustrated in a terribly bad way -- I appreciate the time and effort that some of the maintainers put it (e.g. gdis and gcc-gcj) -- but frustrated enough that I appreciate the quality and availability of the packages in the debian repos. I needed to sort out a few quick things before sending off a manuscript:
* generate a structure with avogadro, then generate a pov file in gdis, then render it in povray
* I also needed to extract a couple of pages from a pdf using pdftk and send them to a collaborator
That took all evening. Avogadro installs fine via the repos, as did povray. There's a small issue with upstreams version of povray 3.7 in that it doesn't create any conf file in ~/.povray/3.7/, and there's no actual help when running povray --help, but even worse was that it rendered incredibly slow. I've compiled 3.7 myself before and my experience using the Arch packages were very different in terms of performance.
I had some issues with building gdis using the AUR PKGBUILD (the maintainer was extremely responsive to feedback and kudos to him/her), and that added an extra 20-30 minutes.
There are two AUR pdftk versions -- I first tried pdftk, which relies on gcc-gcj which is another AUR package. gcc-gcj wouldn't build, but someone beat me to submitting feedback. Again, the maintainer of gcc-gcj is extremely responsive and the issue has already been resolved, less than a day after reporting it.
I ended up giving and installing pdftk-bin and it's dependency (a re-tooled debian package!) which went fine.
All this is really in line with the stated nature of Arch - Arch is bleeding edge and will give you the newest, shiniest stuff. Debian is focused on stability and reliability (all your bugs will remain constant) but offers a middle-ground between Arch and Debian Stable in Debian Testing. And while the shiniest, newest stuff is what I'm looking for in a household computer or a desktop box, I need to go for reliability on my work computer.
So that's why I'm going back on my laptop -- I want to make sure that if I need to pull in a package in an emergency it should go fast and without issue. I also don't want to risk doing a -Syu and ending up with a borked system the morning of a talk.
It's pretty similar to some of the reasons one finds in this remarkably civilised thread: http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=61004
Like a lot of the respondents, I have to agree that the Arch wiki is amazing. In contrast, I've taken to never using the debian guides since they feel horribly out of date (probably because I'm on testing), and may not be that well-written.
Interesting observation: Debian Testing starts (from grub menu to log in prompt) in 9-10 s (SSD), while a fresh Arch install with systemd takes 25s.
-- to here --
Anyway. I Installed debian again on my laptop hdd (using this post: http://verahill.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/361-installing-debian-on-usb-stick-from.html) and these are some of the first steps I went through:
0. What I installed in the chroot step
The basics:
sudo apt-get install locales sudo vim aide grub-pc linux-base linux-image-3.2.0-4-amd64 wicd-curses mutt mcabber elinks rcconf gnome firmware-atheros firmware-iwlwifi firmware-ralink firmware-realtek locate dkms openssh-server wicd-gtk screen less conky nautilus-open-terminal lm-sensors acpi gawk
I also used adduser to create the new user to get proper .profile and .bashrc generated.
Post-chroot:
1. Disable services
Run rcconf to disable network-manager, bluetooth, speech-dispatcher
Do
sudo service network-manager stop
if it's running or you won't be able to use it to configure wicd-curses
First time you run wicd-curses, make sure to set Preferences and pick the right interfaces. Note that wicd only handles one wired and one wireless interface. For anything a bit more challenging, use /etc/network/interfaces directly.
2. ssh, .gnupg, BankID, conky
SSH
Copy .ssh/id_[dr]sa and id_[dr]sa.pub from old installation to ~/.ssh on new installation. Make sure to
chmod 700 ~/.ssh
GPG
mkdir ~/.gnupg
chmod og-rwx ~/.gnupg -R
Copy gpa.conf, gpg.conf, pubring.gpg, pubring.kbx, random_seed, secring.gpg, trustdb.gpg
BankID
mkdir .personal
chmod 700 ~/.personal
copy ~/.personal/config/Personal.cfg and ~/.personal/store/*.npg
Conky
copy /etc/conky/conky.conf
3. apt-file and bash completion
sudo apt-get install apt-file bash-completion
sudo apt-file update
4. Data analysis
sudo apt-get install gnuplot octave maxima
5. Chemistry
sudo apt-get install gdis pymol povray bkchem avogadro
6. TeX
texmake texlive-science texlive-publishers texlive-bibtex-extra texlive-fonts-recommended latex-cjk-common latex-cjk-chinese
7. Internet/Network
sudo apt-get install chromium gajim filezilla flashplugin-nonfree
8. Misc
sudo apt-get install gnucash kate pdftk inkscape gimp keepassx sinfo saidar guake
9. multiarch
sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt-get update
10. GNOME
sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool
Icons
mkdir ~/tmp/faenza -p
cd ~/tmp/faenza
wget https://faenza-icon-theme.googlecode.com/files/faenza-icon-theme_1.3.zip
unzip faenza-sources_1.3.tar.gz
sudo cp Faenza -R /usr/share/icons
frippery extensions
cd ~
wget http://intgat.tigress.co.uk/rmy/extensions/gnome-shell-frippery-0.4.1.tgz
tar xvf gnome-shell-frippery-0.4.1.tgz
Do alt+f2, r
then use gnome-tweak-tool
select e.g. bottom panel, move clock, applications menu.
Change default browser:
System/Details/Default Applications -> Chromium
autostart guake-- create ~/.config/autostart/guake.desktop
[Desktop Entry] Type=Application Exec=/usr/bin/guake Hidden=false X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true Name=guake Comment=guakeStart guake in gnome, open preferences, and disable "Enable popup notification on startup"
autostart conky -- create ~/.config/autostart/conky.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Exec=conky
Hidden=false
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true
Name=conky
Comment=conky
11. Dropbox
cd ~/Downloads
sudo apt-get install python-gpgme
wget https://linux.dropbox.com/packages/debian/dropbox_1.6.0_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i dropbox_1.6.0_amd64.deb
11. Truecrypt
cd ~/Downloads
wget http://www.truecrypt.org/download/truecrypt-7.1a-linux-x64.tar.gz
tar xvf truecrypt-7.1a-linux-x64.tar.gz
sudo sh truecrypt-7.1a-setup-x64
12. Keyboard
Go to keyboard in system setttings, click on the shortcuts tab.
Under Launchers, click on Explorer next to Home Folder so that it says New Accelerator...
Do shift+ctrl+left arrow
Do the same for web browser, with ctrl+shift+down arrow
Click on the plus (+), and set
Name: gnome terminal
Command: gnome-terminal
Click on Apply. Click on Disabled and set the shortcut to ctrl+shift+arrow up.
Do the same for gEdit, with ctrl+shift+arrow right.
Go to System settings, Region and Language. Click on the Layout tab, then on the Options button in the bottom right corner. Expand Compose Key Options. Tick Right+Alt.
13. BankID
See http://verahill.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/341-upgradinginstalling-bankid-on-64.html
12. Virtualbox
sudo apt-get install virtualbox virtualbox-dkms virtualbox-guest-dkms
14. Thunderbird
http://verahill.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/326-compiling-thunderbird-1702-on.html
Install the following addons: enigmail, lightning, provider for google calendar
Go to File, new, new calendar, and paste the ICAL string for google calendar
To look up the ical string, go to gmail in a web browser, click on calendar, select your calendar, click on the ICAL button for the private calendar.
15. Firefox
http://verahill.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/365-compile-firefox-19-on-debian.html
16. screenrc and vimrc
Add to /etc/vim/vimrc:
set number
set pastetoggle=<F3>
set spell
set wrap
Add to /etc/screenrc:
termcapinfo xterm|xterms|xs|rxvt ti@:te@
caption always "%{+b rk}%H%{gk} |%c %{yk}%d.%m.%Y | %72=Load: %l %{wk}"
hardstatus alwayslastline "%?%{yk}%-Lw%?%{wb}%n*%f %t%?(%u)%?%?%{yk}%+Lw%"
17. Skype
sudo apt-get install pulseaudio
Edit ~/.asoundrc:
pcm.!default.type pulse
ctl.!default.type pulse
Go to skype.com, download and get skype for debian 7.0 (multiarch)
sudo dpkg -i skype-debian_4.1.0.20-1_i386.deb
It will fail
sudo apt-get install -f
and now everything works.
18. wine
sudo apt-get install wine clamav
19. Tools for chroot
sudo apt-get install debootstrap x11-xserver-utils
http://verahill.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/316-briefly-automated-chrootsandbox.html
20. Tools for Kernel compile
sudo apt-get install kernel-package fakeroot build-essential ncurses-binhttp://verahill.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/342-compiling-kernel-38-on-debian.html
21. Java support in browsers
Install the icedtea-plugin
22. Install apt-listbugs
If you're running testing you'll want to be aware of critical bugs before upgrading each time. Luckily apt-listbugs does that for you if installed -- it's run during each apt-get update if it is installed:
sudo apt-get install apt-listbugs
Links to this post:
http://schultkl.blogspot.fr/2013/06/configuring-debian-gnulinux-7-wheezy.html
