Kumaran's DOTFILES and Terminal Setup

OS=Linux SHELL=zsh TERM=xterm-256color

ZSH using Prezto configuration

Breakdown of zsh dotfiles

There are five basic starup files which get sourced whenever a new shell is instantiated (excluding prezto config). These are all located in $HOME, i.e ~/.

• .zshenv - This file gets sourced in all shells. Environment variables which are updated frequently should be set here. ($PATH, $EDITOR, $PAGER)

• .zprofile - Similar to .zlogin and run in login shells. NOT meant to be used together with .zlogin

• .zshrc - This file gets sourced in all interactive shells ([[ -o interactive ]] is true). It should contain commands for interactive usage. Aliases, functions, options, key bindings, command completion, prompt, coloring are defined and configured here.

  Prezto dotfiles

  • .zpreztorc - Gets sourced after .zshrc. This file configures Prezto. .zshrc sources .zprezto/init.zsh. .zprezto/init.zsh sources .zpreztorc.

• .zlogin - This file gets sourced in all login shells ([[ -o login ]] is true). It should not modify the shell environment at all. Rather, it should be used to run external commands (fortune, msgs, etc).

• .zlogout - Gets sourced when login shells exit. Used to clear and reset the terminal.

  Prezto's execution order

  According to zsh documentation,

  You may wonder why there are both .zprofile and .zlogin, when they are both for login shells: the answer is the obvious one, that one is run before, one after .zshrc. This is historical; Bourne-type shells run /etc/profile, and csh-type shells run ~/.login, and zsh tries to cover the bases with its own startup files.

  1. ~/.zshenv
  2. ~/.zprofile - Prezto source this file for non-login and level 1 shells. ([[ ( "$SHLVL" -eq 1 && ! -o LOGIN ) ]])
  3. ~/.zshrc
  4. ~/.zpreztorc
  5. ~/.zlogin - Only for login shells
  6. ~/.zlogout - Only for login shells

How I manage my dotfiles?

Simple, using git. I have git repository, ~/.dotfiles. All necessary files should be symlinked to $HOME In the near future, the files will be renamed to filename.symlink, and a new init.sh script will be created which will recursively symlink the files.

My filesystem

I tweaked XDG base directory specification to suit my needs.

• $HOME/.config is now $HOME/.dotfiles
• $HOME/.local/bin is now $HOME/.dotfiles/local/bin
• $HOME/.local/share is now $HOME/.dotfiles/local/share

Why? Because symlinking is a tedious process and it's way more easier to add $HOME/.dotfiles/local/bin to $PATH

Monitor

To view external screen only

1. generate config file using command
2. place it in /etc/X11/xorg.conf To view laptop screen only
3. backup and then delete /etc/X11/xorg.conf

sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup__2025_july_21                                                                                                                                                 01:48:25 PM •10
sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup__2025_july_21 /etc/X11/xorg.conf

See more info in the Display section below

Filesystem Partition

1. /home is in different partition
2. / is in different partition

use these commands to free up space in root partition

pacman -Qdtq | pacman -Rns -

See this https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman/Tips_and_tricks#Removing_unused_packages_(orphans) and this https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman#Cleaning_the_package_cache

sometimes / in filelight shows different from what df -h or dolphin shows for the /dev/nvme1n1p3 disk partition, however, it can be due to deleted file having open file descriptors which says disk is used. Often, it is due to docker process. run docker system prune -a to free up space. Note: Filelight always shows correct usage. Go by that.

Prompt

Spaceship prompt, using nodejs package. Have a look at zsh/prompt.zsh for prompt configuration

Packages installed through AUR (pacman and yay)

386 packages

Packages installed through PIP

81 packages

Vim

Vim like bindings in chrome using vim extension, ideavim in Idea products (Clion) and vscodevim in vscode

~/.vimrc is symlinked, and vim plugins are installed through vim-plug in ~/.vim/plugged

Vscode

use intellij shortcuts via extension

Display

Know that in your and most laptop with integrated graphics (Intel) and dedicated graphics card, the HDMI is directly connected to the graphics card. So you need the graphics card to be active if you want to connect to a external monitor

Nvidia

Easier to use mhwd to manage drivers than following arch wiki. Had trouble with open source drivers to connect to external display, installed official proprietary drivers.

backup files for x11 config is in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup actual config is in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup

note: i have manually backed up files in ~/.dotfiles/x11/

Readline vi mode

Enabled by adding set -o vi in .zprofile use ESC to trigger command mode to edit commands inline use Ctrl-x followed by ctrl-e to open command in $VISUAL editor and edit and execute checkout https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22655587/how-to-use-vi-to-edit-a-command-in-terminal-on-linux

SSH

If you see permission denied public key when pushing to kumaran-14 github account repos, do the following

ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_github_aug_2024 ssh -T git@github.com

if final step did not work, execute this ssh -T kumaran-14@github.com

Windows & Manjaro Dual Boot

Press f2 for acer bios settings, bios passworrd is in bitwarden

1. Disable secure boot
2. in boot priority order, choose EFI first and windows boot loader second, this allows your grub to pop up and choose which os to boot into
3. if you get WINDOWS BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH (BSOD), with inaccessible boot error, then choose VHCI as the disk driver

Grub Screen

Inspiration

Holman's dotfiles.