Building useful HomeStation from ugly Debian

Now, Debian list of available packages can be updated by command:

sudo apt-get update

The following command will upgrade all installed packages to newer version:

sudo apt-get upgrade

More information about repositories in Debian: https://wiki.debian.org/SourcesList

7. Installing ALSA

There are several types of sound systems that run on Linux. Main of them are ALSA and PulseAudio. PulseAudio serves as a proxy to sound applications using existing kernel sound components, but PulseAudio does not work correct in many cases on Debian. Therefore, PulseAudio is not necessary and I prefer ALSA. For installing ALSA from Debian repository run the command:

sudo apt-get install alsa-base alsa-utils

After ALSA was installed sound card should be initialized by command:

sudo alsactl init

Command aplay can be a standard test for speakers:

aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/*

More information about Advanced Linux Sound Architecture in Debian: https://wiki.debian.org/ALSA

8. Installing X Window System

Before installing MATE Desktop Environment, the X Window System should be installed and configured. The X Window System (or X11) draws and moves windows on the display and interacts with a mouse and keyboard. Installation of X Window System can be done by command:

sudo apt-get install xorg

Be careful, because installation of X Window System contains approximately 140Mb-150Mb and most of packages can be taken from Debian DVD instead of downloading them from Internet. After the X Window System has installed, the font visualization should be configured by following command:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig-config

To improve Debian looks should be selected following answers: Autohinter, Always and No (this step is very important, especially for LCD monitors):

More information about fonts file in Debian: https://wiki.debian.org/Fonts.

9. Installing MATE

Now we are ready to install the MATE Desktop Environment. The mate-core package installs minimal MATE Desktop Environment. MATE uses the PulseAudio by default. To prevent it, additional two packages should be installed together with mate-core package. These packages are mate-media-gstreamer and mate-settings-daemon-gstreamer:

sudo apt-get install mate-core mate-media-gstreamer mate-settings-daemon-gstreamer

At least 550Mb of software will be installed. Please remember that Debian DVD contains most of them.

The MATE Desktop Environment in minimal installation is not useful. Installation of these packages adds more functionality:

mate-utils - the tools bundled as MATE utilities
mate-system-tools - a set of administration tools
mate-system-monitor - system monitor allows to view and manipulate the running processes
mate-notification-daemon - displays passive pop-up notifications
mate-power-manager - a power manager
mate-screensaver - screen saver and locker
mozo - an menu editor for MATE that can add and edit new entries and menus
caja-open-terminal - caja extensions which allows to open a terminal
caja-gksu - caja extensions which allows to open files with administration privileges
qt4-qtconfig - configuration program allows to configure the look and behaviour of any Qt4 application
cpufrequtils - two utilities for inspecting and setting the CPU frequency
ntp - Internet clock synchronization
synaptic - a graphical package management tool

The command to install is:

sudo apt-get install mate-utils mate-system-tools mate-system-monitor mate-notification-daemon mate-power-manager mate-screensaver mozo caja-open-terminal caja-gksu qt4-qtconfig cpufrequtils ntp synaptic

These packages are necessary to improve the appearance:

clearlooks-phenix-theme - a GTK2 and GTK3 themes which is a port of Clearlooks
chameleon-cursor-theme - different mouse themes with colours
mate-icon-theme-faenza - the Faenza icon theme provided with the MATE desktop
ttf-mscorefonts-installer - Microsoft fonts improve LibreOffice, web surfing and compatibility

The command to install is:

sudo apt-get install clearlooks-phenix-theme chameleon-cursor-theme mate-icon-theme-faenza ttf-mscorefonts-installer

After the chameleon-cursor-theme package has installed, the system mouse cursor can be chosen by following command:

sudo update-alternatives --config x-cursor-theme

I prefer the Chameleon-SkyBlue-Regular, but you are free to choose yours theme.

The GStreamer plugins are necessary for listen to music and watching media. Most important GStreamer plugins (gstreamer0.10-plugins-base, gstreamer1.0-plugins-base, gstreamer0.10-plugins-good and gstreamer1.0-plugins-good) were probability installed. Also, set of bad and ugly plugins can be installed. Installation coomand is:

sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly

These packages is not necessary and depends by user favourites:

wicd - a system network service that manages network devices and connections, can be replaced by network-manager-gnome or by each other preferred network manager
galculator - calculator
eom - is a simple graphics viewer for the MATE desktop
atril - a simple multi-page document viewer
mousepad - a graphical text editor for Xfce, but is so a good for MATE also, can be replaced by each other preferred text editor, for example pluma or geany
gimp - an advanced picture editor
engrampa - an archive manager for the MATE environment
transmission-gtk - lightweight BitTorrent clients
gmusicbrowser - a lightweight media player, mostly used for play audio files and songs, can be replaced by each other preferred audio player, but remember that ALSA was installed instead of PulseAudio
soundconverter - a simple sound converter application, especially for preparing songs for different mobile devices, it is not strictly necessary
easytag - an utility for viewing, editing and writing the tags of different audio files, it is not strictly necessary
smplayer - simple video player, can be replaced by vlc or by each other video player
brasero - a simple application to burn, copy and erase CD and DVD media, it is not strictly necessary

The command to install is:

sudo apt-get install wicd galculator eom atril mousepad gimp engrampa transmission-gtk gmusicbrowser smplayer soundconverter easytag brasero

Also, there is the apt-xapian-index package - a tool to maintain Debian package information and allows the synaptic using a quick search panel. Usually this package is not necessary because it makes so many writing to SSD and Installation command is:

sudo apt-get install apt-xapian-index

Internet browser

Iceweasel is the default Internet browser in Debian that is re-branded Firefox for Debian. Next command will install Iceweasel:

sudo apt-get install iceweasel

The default browser can be replaced by native Firefox, Chromium or each other preferred Internet browser. The Debian Mozilla team provides related packages for use on Debian systems and I prefer native Firefox. To install this browser from vendor repository, the archive key of Debian Mozilla team repository should be added to the Debian list of trusted keys by following command:

wget -q http://mozilla.debian.net/archive.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Second step, Debian Mozilla team repository should be added to the /etc/apt/sources.list file (see above) by following line:

deb http://mozilla.debian.net/ jessie-backports firefox-release

After that, the native Firefox can be installed by command:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install firefox

Instead of Firefox, the Chromium browser is the open source project behind Google Chrome and this browser can be installed by following command:

sudo apt-get install chromium chromium-l10n

If the Opera browser is prefered, then instruction for installing can be found here: https://wiki.debian.org/Opera

In addition, the Adobe Flash is situated in the flashplugin-nonfree package that is from the nonfree components of Debian repository. It can be installed by command:

sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

The Adobe Flash is often released and can be updated in Debian by command:

sudo update-flashplugin-nonfree --install

LibreOffice and language tools

Home users need at least a word processor and a spreadsheet program. The LibreOffice has all of them:

libreoffice-writer - a word processing and desktop publishing tool
libreoffice-calc - a spreadsheet program
libreoffice-gtk - plugin for drawing LibreOffices widgets
libreoffice-style-sifr - an adaption of the Gnome symbolic theme, nice and pretty looks

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends libreoffice-writer libreoffice-calc libreoffice-gtk libreoffice-style-sifr

Also, if you are interested in presentations and databases, then following packages can help you:

libreoffice-base - full-featured desktop database front end
libreoffice-impress - tool for creating multimedia presentations

sudo apt-get install libreoffice-base libreoffice-impress

Next command will install all LibreOffice packages and a little more:

sudo apt-get install libreoffice

Debian has a lot of language tools. Remember, language tools, thesaurus, and dictionaries may are used by different Debian software, for example LibreOffice and Firefox use it to check spelling. You must want to install all languages that you can write.

hyphen-en-us - contains the English (USA) hyphenation patterns, also additional patterns can be installed by user preferences (for example hyphen-fr)
hunspell-en-us - American English dictionary for hunspell spellchecker, also additional dictionaries can be installed by user preferences (for example hunspell-en-ca)
aspell-en - support for English language to the GNU Aspell spell checker, also additional languages can be installed by user preferences (for example aspell-fr)
mythes-en-us - contains an English thesaurus, also additional thesauruses can be installed by user preferences (for example aspell-fr)

Following example may be helpful for users who live in Canada and writing Russian (American English, Canadian English and Russian language tools):

sudo apt-get install hyphen-en-us hyphen-ru hunspell-en-us hunspell-en-ca hunspell-ru aspell-en aspell-ru mythes-en-us mythes-ru

Oracle VirtualBox

I believe that Oracle VirtualBox is the best virtualization solution for home users on Debian. Unfortunately, Debian repository contains the very oldest version of VirtualBox. If you are interested in newest version of VirtualBox, then add next two archive keys to the Debian list of trusted keys by commands:

wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox_2016.asc -O- --no-check-certificate | sudo apt-key add -

wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox.asc -O- --no-check-certificate | sudo apt-key add -

After that, add the Oracle repository to the /etc/apt/sources.list file:

deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian jessie contrib

If Oracle repository was added to /etc/apt/sources.list file (see above the step number 6) then newest Oracle VirtualBox version 5.1 can be installed by command (be aware, version 5.1 uses Qt5 libraries):

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-5.1

Alternatively, you can install VirtualBox 5.0 which do not use Qt5 libraries.To install Oracle VirtualBox version 5.0 use command:

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-5.0

To install Oracle VirtualBox from Debian repository (version 4.3.18):

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-qt

Installing a display manager

The X Window System should have a display manager. It is a graphical login manager which presents a login screen and starts a session after an user enters a valid combination of username and password. I prefer the SLiM, because it aims to be light and completely configurable, but the LightDM is good also and has more functionality. Anyway, display manager is only for starting X Window System and run a desktop environment. Therefore, extended functionality is not necessary in this step. To install SLiM display manager use the following command:

sudo apt-get install slim

The SLiM display manager can be configured to prevent log and automatically starts user session (auto login) in /etc/slim.conf file. Next command will open /etc/slim.conf file for editing:

sudo nano /etc/slim.conf

Necessary changes can be done in following sections:

default_user    yes
logfile         ^__b class="highlight">/dev/null

To install the LightDM display manager (if you are prefer it instead of SLiM) use the following command:

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends lightdm

The LightDM recommends installing a lot of packages that usually are not necessary. The configuration file for LightDM display manager is /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf and this file can be edit by command:

sudo nano /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

Automatically starts user session can be configured in [SeatDefaults] section:

[SeatDefaults]
...
autologin-user=
autologin-user-timeout=^__b class="highlight">0

Now we can reboot our PC by command:

sudo reboot

After that instead of console we will start working with MATE Desktop Environment, but Debian continues to be uncomfortable:

10. Setting up MATE

Time to make Debian beautiful and useful and we have installed all packages for it.

Fontconfig

Fontconfig uses XML format for its configuration files. User preferences should be setting up in ~/.fonts.conf file that is places in each user home folder. This is a link file, real data are stored in /home/<username>/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf file. Debian provides link file for back compatibility. Bellow is an example of my ~/.fonts.conf file:

nano ~/.fonts.conf

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
 <match target="font">
  <edit mode="assign" name="hinting">
   <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font">
  <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle">
   <const>hintslight</const>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font">
  <edit mode="assign" name="rgba">
   <const>rgb</const>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font">
  <edit mode="assign" name="antialias">
   <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font">
   <edit mode="assign" name="lcdfilter">
   <const>lcddefault</const>
   </edit>
 </match>
</fontconfig>

Same practices should be done for ~/.Xdefaults file in each user home folder. Bellow is an example of my ~/.Xdefaults file:

nano ~/.Xdefaults

Xft.autohint: 0
Xft.lcdfilter: lcddefault
Xft.hintstyle: hintslight
Xft.hinting: 1
Xft.antialias: 1
Xft.rgba: rgb

After that, run the command for each user:

xrdb -merge ~/.Xdefaults

And at the end, following command will regenerating fonts cache:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig

More information about fonts file in Debian: https://www.freedesktop.org/software/fontconfig/fontconfig-user.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontconfig

Appearance preferences

Here are the biggest things that should be done. We will setting up visualization theme. This is a set of rules that MATE will use when windows and controls are drawing on display. These rules can be setup from main MATE menu: System > Preferences > Appearance. Select the Clearlooks-Phenix theme from the Theme tab. This theme works perfect in GTK 2 and GTK 3 environments, also QT-based applications will look the similar as GTK-based applications:

After that theme was selected, press the Customize... button for setting up some details. First, select the MATE-Faenza icon theme on the Icons tab:

Second, select favourite mouse cursor theme on the Pointer tab. For example Chameleon-SkyBlue-Regular:

After that, back to the Appearance Preferences form and setting up fonts on Fonts tab. We installed the Noto Sans fonts before. These fonts are so good for user interface:

Moreover, Smoothing and Hinting can be set after press the Details... button. I prefer Subpixel (LCDs) and Slight, but you are free to decide yours favourites:

And at the end, we will setup Qt Configuration. It can be done from main MATE menu: System > Preferences > Qt 4 Settings. You have to select the GTK+ value from drop-down GUI Style list that on Appearance tab:

After that, all Qt-based applications will look similar as GTK-based applications, for example Oracle VirtualBox.

Preferred Applications

If gmusicbrowser or easytag was installed, then you have to correct a few problems. First, remove comment symbol from #MimeType= line for gmusicbrowser in /usr/share/applications/gmusicbrowser.desktop file. Next command will open this file for editing in terminal:

sudo nano /usr/share/applications/gmusicbrowser.desktop

...
StartupNotify=true
Comment[fr]=Jukebox pour de grandes collections de mp3/ogg/flac/mpc
#MimeType=audio/x-musepack;application/x-musepack;audio/musepack;application/mu...

After /usr/share/applications/gmusicbrowser.desktop file was changed run following command:

sudo update-desktop-database

Next step can be done from main MATE menu: System > Preferences > Preferred Applications. You have to select your favourites, especially on Multimedia and System tabs:

Be aware, that sometimes easytag puts itself in File Manager drop-down list on System tab. Check this problem and change the easytag to the Caja in the File Manager drop-down list:

Also, you may want that standard text editor (for example Mousepad) should be used instead of LibreOffice Writer. It can be setup in Text Editor drop-down list on System tab.

Clock indicator

Set your locations is important, because Debian synchronizes date and time from Internet. Also, Debian shows the weather conditions at your location. Mouse click on the Clock indicator on MATE panel will open calendar. Locations can be set up by click on Edit button:

Volume Control Indicator

If you prefer to see the sound icon like in Microsoft Windows, then you should add the Volume Control Indicator by right-click on MATE panel.

This indicator allows to change volume control by mouse wheel and to mute sound by double click. Also, it provides pop-up sound control panel by left-click.

LibreOffice User Interface

LibreOffice User Interface can be set up from menu of anything LibreOffice program: Tools > Options > View. We have installed libreoffice-style-sifr package before. This package provides greyed style and can be selected in Icon size and style drop-down list.

After Sifr style has selected, LibreOffice will look a little more elegant:

MATE panel

Many users find that dual panels is convenient. But there are users who prefer Microsoft Windows layout with a single panel. To make MATE with a single panel, existing bottom panel should be deleted and orientation of top panel should be Bottom in the Properties menu. And at the end, add Windows List to the MATE panel.

Keyboard indicator

To show the keyboard flag in the taskbar run command in MATE:

gsettings set org.mate.peripherals-keyboard-xkb.indicator show-flags true

Flag icons can be stored in /usr/share/icons/flags folder. If this folder does not exist, run following command for creating it:

sudo mkdir /usr/share/icons/flags

Lubuntu has such the pretty nice flag icons. You can get these flag icons from Lubuntu Live DVD or download they from archive: https://pkgs.org/download/lubuntu-lxpanel-icons. In both cases, the icons should be copied from /usr/share/lxpanel/images/xkb-flags-cust/ folder in Lubuntu live CD or archive to the /usr/share/icons/flags/ folder in your desktop. For example:

Ubuntu fonts and Mint icons

I would like to propose the fonts from Ubuntu and the icons from Mint. These things is much better than default fonts and icons in Debian. But be aware, that the Ubuntu-M.ttf and Ubuntu-MI.ttf fonts are not working in the Debian, therefore do not install it. These fonts can destruct the view of KDE applications.

Now, the Debian 8 will "shine bright like a diamond in the sky"...

Credits

I would like to thank Mr. Ralph Neelands, my LINC Teacher who advised and helped me to revise this article.