Devbox

This project aims at making it easy to bootstrap my custom development box into VirtualBox. The intent here is not to have a full blown desktop environment, but rather a simple VM that can host a confortable (at least for me) software development experience (editing, compiling, testing...). I do mostly C/C++, python, and the occasional javascript and go. Here is a small overview:

Component	Choice	Reason
Distro	Ubuntu 18.04.01 server	easy to install, well documented, familiar
Desktop	custom fork of i3 with bumblebee-status and custom config	minimalistic, configurable, keyboard based
Launcher	rofi	keyboard based, prettier that dmenu
Terminal	rxvt-unicode with custom config	minimalistic, configurable
Dev. Editor (1)	Visual Studio Code with some custom extensions	user friendly, extensible, multi-language
Dev. Editor (2)	NeoVIM with custom vimrc	not user friendly, extensible, multi-language
Browser	Google Chrome	chrome dev tools
Shell	oh-my-zsh with bullet-train	theming, improved tab completion over bash
Display Manager	slim with some custom themes	tiny footprint, easy to configure
File Manager	Thunar	user friendly, familiar
Extra	custom configs, autologin, samba share, fzf	familiar

Thanks to Luke Smith and Code Path for inspiring this!

Install

1. install virtual box (tested with v5.2)

2. download Ubuntu 18.04.01 server iso image

3. create a VM:

   1. At least 2Gb Ram
   2. At least 16Gb Disk
   3. Video memory 128Mb
   4. Two network adatper:
      1. NAT - guest can go online
      2. Host-Only - host only can connect to guest
   5. load the Ubuntu 18.04.01 server iso in the CDROM drive

4. boot the VM and follow the Ubuntu installer's instruction

   • When configuring the network:
     • select static IP for the second (Host-Only) adapter
     • configure 192.168.56. (assuming the VBox Host Network Manager is configured on 192.168.56.xx, which is the default - adapt otherwise)
     • configure netmask 192.168.56.0/24 (same assumption, adapt otherwise)

5. reboot the VM

6. select "devices> install guest additions..." in virtualbox menu to load in the guest addition ISO.

7. clone the project and run the main install script:

   git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/meuter/devbox ~/.devbox/
   cd ~/.devbox/install/
   ./install_dev_box.sh
   

   The script will prompt you to enter your password and then proceed with the installation and configuration of all the necessary packages. When finished, the VM will reboot automatically at the end.

8. Start coding 🤓

9. [optional] if you want to autologin on boot, run the following script:

   cd ~/.devbox/install/
   ./config_autologin.sh
   

Usage

i3 Keyboard Shortcut:

key	function
f11	full screen focussed window
ctrl+f11	toggle status bar visibility
alt+<arrow>	move focus
alt+shift+<arrow>	move window
alt+<num>	select worspace
control+shift+<arrow>	select next/prev workspace
control+space	select window using rofi
alt+space	run command using rofi
alt+pause s	shutdown
alt+pause r	reboot
alt+pause e	logout
alt+enter	open terminal
alt+shift+enter	open terminal in same working directory
ctrl+shift+g	open chrome
ctrl+shift+o	open vscode
ctrl+shift+t	open thunar
ctrl+alt+c	edit devbox in vim
alt+n	rename current workspace

Network:

From the guest machine only, you can ssh into the box.

ssh <user>@<ip>

You can also mount your home directory from a Windows host machine. For that, open the file explorer, go to "Computer> Map Network Drive..." and use the following address:

\\<ip>\<username>

Use your user name and password.

git alias and shortcuts:

Git is configured with the following git aliase:

Git Alias	Meaning	Command	Console Alias(1)
diff	diff against HEAD	diff --no-pager	d
wtf	short status	status -s	w
recent	recent change current branch	log -5 --color --pretty=tformat:'%C(yellow)%h%Creset [%><(18)%cr] %C(white)%<(70,trunc)%s%Creset (%cn)'	r
in	incoming commits(2)	!git remote update -p; git log --color --pretty=tformat:'%C(yellow)%h%Creset [%><(18)%cr] %Cred%<(70,trunc)%s%Creset (%cn)' ..@{u}	i
out	outgoing commits(2)	log --color --pretty=tformat:'%C(yellow)%h%Creset [%><(18)%cr] %Cred%<(70,trunc)%s%Creset (%cn)' @{u}..	o
lol	pretty log current branch	log --decorate --pretty=oneline --abbrev-commit --color	l
lolg	pretty log all branches	log --graph --decorate --pretty=oneline --abbrev-commit --all --color
update	update workspace	!git stash; git pull --rebase; git stash pop
wipe	go back to HEAD	!git reset --hard HEAD; git clean -fd
progress	add currently tracked changes to last commit	commit -a --amend --reuse-message HEAD"
meld	compare using meld	difftool -d(3)
revin	review incoming changes without merging them	"!git remote update -p; git difftool -d @{u}"

Notes:

• (1) you can type this in the terminal instead of "git <alias>"
• (2) needs the current branch to track some remote branch
• (3) meld is configured as the default git difftool.

Screenshots

Login Screen

Empty Desktop

Terminal & NeoVIM

Visual Studio Code & Google Chrome