Introduction
Fedora Silverblue is a Fedora spin that offers an immutable base managed by rpm-ostree. Here I will present my Siverblue set-up, with the main layered packages I have on top of the base image and some other modifications I have needed both for work and other projects. While this is mainly for my own records, I figured someone could benefit from it, so here we go!
Layered Packages
- Visual Studio Code: While a Flatpak version exists, layering VS Code results in a better integrated application and doesn’t require of certain workarounds.
- Gnome-tweaks: A MUST HAVE for customizing the GNOME desktop environment. The Extension Manager flatpak pairs with it greatly.
- gstreamer1-plugin-openh264: Adding media playback codecs for seamless multimedia experiences.
- Onedrive: OneDrive Client for Linux project, which to my experience has been the most reliable FOSS Onedrive client in Linux.
- Setup synclist. Config file can remain unset since defaults work.
- ZSH: Current shell of choice.
- Openssl: This would be the least important one. Mainly used as a dependency by GSConnect (GNOME extension implementing KDEConnect)
Shell Configuration
- Install ZSH using
rpm-ostreeand set it as the default shell with the following command:sudo lchsh $USER. - Oh My Zsh to manage zsh. I like to go with the Powerlevel10k theme and the patched Meslo font.
- Don’t forget to set the it as the default font in your terminals
- Customize the theme by modifying the
P10k.zshfile.
- Micromamba is also a great drop-in replacement for conda. Much faster and easier to deploy (install) in cloud environments too!
Containers with Toolbox and Podman
General notes:
- Utilize Toolbox containers for isolated development environments and easy management of software dependencies.
- Consider using Podman instead of Docker for running containers within Toolbox.
MacOS Virtual Machine: I really wished I didn’t have to it, but in my research group we use mac-specific vector editing software for figure making so it’s a necessary evil. Note though that, for non collab projets, I have fully moved to SVG files and Inkscape as the editor (and haven’t really found any major issues except some tiny quirks).
- Explore the alternative of running macOS applications using the GitHub project OSX-KVM or running Docker-based solutions within a Toolbox container.
- OSX-KVM seemed like the best fit.
- Follow the optimization guide provided by Sick Codes on GitHub to optimize your virtual machine for Big Sur or other macOS versions.
- Create a general Fedora Toolbox container, install Zsh and Oh-My-Zsh, and set up KVM and associated virtual machine dependencies.
Misc.
Dropbox: Setup up with the flatpak app. Sadly there is no smart sync functionality so beware of disk usage!
Also installed (Dropbox nautilus integration)[https://www.dropbox.com/install-linux].