Technotes

Technical Notes by Afzal | https://afzalex.com

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Ubuntu Development Environment Setup Guide

Table of Contents

  1. Essential Tools
  2. Development Environment
  3. Programming Languages
  4. Media Tools
  5. Additional Software

1. Essential Tools

Basic Utilities

  1. Install basic tools: 
    sudo apt-get install vim vlc -y
  2. If you experience issues with VLC, add this environment variable to your ~/.bashrc: 
    echo 'export LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6' >> ~/.bashrc

  3. Setup SSH keys:

    ssh-keygen
ssh-add
  4. Configure Git: 
    git config --global user.email "afzalex.store@gmail.com"
git config --global user.name "Afzal Sheikh"

2. Development Environment

Docker

  1. Install Docker Engine

  2. Add your user to the docker group:

    sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker
  3. Optional: Install Docker Desktop

  4. Docker Desktop Issue Fix

    If you are unable to run Docker commands without Docker Desktop being opened, run the following command:

    echo 'export DOCKER_HOST=unix:///var/run/docker.sock' >> ~/.bashrc

    This will set the DOCKER_HOST environment variable to use the Unix socket directly.

    This happens because of different context of docker, that could be seen by running docker context ls.

    If you don’t want to change back the DOCKER_HOST, you will have to start docker desktop on login. Which could be done by following:

    1. Open Startup Applications (gnome-session-properties)
    2. Click Add
    3. Enter: 
      Name: Docker Desktop
Command: /usr/bin/docker-desktop
Comment: Start Docker Desktop on boot
    4. Save and reboot

IDEs and Editors

Visual Studio Code

  1. Download VS Code from https://code.visualstudio.com/download
  2. Install recommended extensions for your development needs

IntelliJ IDEA

  1. Download Community Edition from https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/download/?section=linux

  2. Extract and install: 
    tar -xzvf <idea.tar.gz file>
sudo mv idea-IC* /opt/idea
/opt/idea/bin/idea
  3. Create desktop entry through IDE: Tools > Create Desktop Entry

Cursor IDE

  1. Download Cursor from https://www.cursor.com/

  2. Install the AppImage: 
    chmod +x cursor-*.AppImage
./cursor-*.AppImage --appimage-extract
sudo mv squashfs-root /opt/cursor
  3. Create desktop entry: 
    sudo bash -c 'cat << EOF > /usr/share/applications/cursor.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Cursor
Exec=/opt/cursor/AppRun
Icon=/opt/cursor/usr/share/icons/hicolor/256x256/apps/cursor.png
Type=Application
Categories=Development;Utility;
Terminal=false
EOF'
sudo chmod +x /usr/share/applications/cursor.desktop
sudo update-desktop-database
  4. Fix sandbox issues if needed: 
    sudo chown root /opt/cursor/chrome-sandbox
sudo chmod 4755 /opt/cursor/chrome-sandbox

Android Development

Android Studio

  1. Download and install Android Studio
  2. Set environment variables: 
    cat << EOF >> ~/.bashrc
# Android SDK environment variables
export ANDROID_HOME=\$HOME/Android/Sdk
export PATH=\$PATH:\$ANDROID_HOME/emulator
export PATH=\$PATH:\$ANDROID_HOME/tools
export PATH=\$PATH:\$ANDROID_HOME/tools/bin
export PATH=\$PATH:\$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools
EOF
  3. Create desktop entry through IDE: Tools > Create Desktop Entry

Flutter

  1. Install required dependencies: 
    sudo apt update && sudo apt install clang cmake ninja-build pkg-config libgtk-3-dev -y
  2. Set environment variables: 
    cat << EOF >> ~/.bashrc
# Flutter SDK path
export PATH=\$PATH:/home/afzal/Android/flutter/bin
export PATH=\$PATH:/home/afzal/Android/
EOF
  3. Verify the installation: 
    flutter doctor

Postman

  1. Download from https://www.postman.com/downloads/

  2. Extract and install: 
    tar -xzvf postman-linux-x64.tar.gz
sudo mv Postman/app /opt/postman
  3. Create desktop entry: 
    sudo bash -c 'cat << EOF > /usr/share/applications/postman.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Postman
Exec=/opt/postman/Postman
Icon=/opt/postman/icons/icon_128x128.png
Type=Application
Categories=Development;Utility;
Terminal=false
EOF'
sudo chmod +x /usr/share/applications/postman.desktop
sudo update-desktop-database

3. Programming Languages

Node.js and NPM

  1. First of all install nvm for managing multiple versions from https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm 
    curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.1/install.sh | bash
  2. Restart terminal and then run following command to install the latest Node.js version: 
    nvm install node

Java

  1. Check available OpenJDK versions: 
    apt-cache search openjdk | grep openjdk
  2. Install JDK 17 and configure alternatives: 
    sudo apt-get install openjdk-17-jdk -y
sudo update-alternatives --config java

Python (Miniconda)

  1. Download Miniconda from https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/
  2. Install Miniconda: 
    chmod +x Miniconda3-py310_*.sh
./Miniconda3-py310_*.sh

4. Media Tools

Graphics Applications

Blender

  1. Download Blender from https://www.blender.org/download/

  2. Extract and install: 
    sudo mv blender-* /opt/blender
  3. Create desktop entry: 
    sudo bash -c 'cat << EOF > /usr/share/applications/blender.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Blender
Icon=/opt/blender/blender.svg
Exec=/opt/blender/blender %f
Comment=3D Creation Suite
Categories=Graphics;3DGraphics;
Terminal=false
EOF'
sudo chmod +x /usr/share/applications/blender.desktop
sudo update-desktop-database

GIMP

  1. Download GIMP flatpakref from https://www.gimp.org/downloads/

  2. Install Flatpak and GIMP: 
    sudo apt-get install flatpak
flatpak install org.gimp.GIMP.flatpakref
  3. Create desktop entry: 
    sudo bash -c 'cat << EOF > /usr/share/applications/gimp.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Name=GIMP
Comment=GNU Image Manipulation Program
Exec=flatpak run org.gimp.GIMP
Icon=/var/lib/flatpak/exports/share/icons/hicolor/256x256/apps/org.gimp.GIMP.png
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Graphics;
EOF'
sudo chmod +x /usr/share/applications/gimp.desktop
sudo update-desktop-database
  4. Optional: Enable terminal command access 
    sudo ln -s /var/lib/flatpak/exports/bin/org.gimp.GIMP /usr/local/bin/gimp
# Add this line if you see IBus warnings and don't need IBus input methods
echo 'export GTK_IM_MODULE=xim' >> ~/.bashrc

    This allows you to launch GIMP by typing gimp in terminal. The second command prevents GTK warnings by switching to XIM input method, but skip it if you use IBus for typing in other languages.

Video Tools

OBS Studio

  1. For detailed installation instructions, visit https://obsproject.com/download

  2. Install OBS Studio and dependencies:

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:obsproject/obs-studio
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ffmpeg obs-studio

Note: These commands are for Ubuntu 24.04 and newer. For other installation methods, including Flatpak, visit the official download page.

Utilities

qBittorrent

  1. Download AppImage from https://www.qbittorrent.org/download

  2. Install the AppImage: 
    chmod +x qbittorrent-*.AppImage
./qbittorrent-*.AppImage --appimage-extract
sudo mv squashfs-root /opt/qbittorrent
  3. Create desktop entry: 
    sudo bash -c 'cat << EOF > /usr/share/applications/qbittorrent.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=qBittorrent
Exec=/opt/qbittorrent/AppRun
Icon=/opt/qbittorrent/qbittorrent.svg
Type=Application
Categories=Network;FileTransfer;P2P;Utility;
Terminal=false
EOF'
sudo chmod +x /usr/share/applications/qbittorrent.desktop
sudo update-desktop-database

5. Additional Software

Web Browsers

Document Tools

Development Tools

Media

Notes