This is my main computer. I will document here how I use it.
Tested on february 18th, 2026
Installation
Debian stable
Based on https://web.archive.org/web/20241208114712/https://bunqueer.jaquerespeis.org/t/instalando-debian-en-mi-laptop-dell-xps-13/2758 (in Spanish).
Download the .iso file of the Debain stable installer:
$ wget https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-cd/debian-13.3.0-amd64-netinst.iso)
Verify the integrity of the file:
$ wget https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-cd/SHA256SUMS
$ shasum --check --ignore-missing SHA256SUMS
Verify the signature:
$ wget https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-cd/SHA256SUMS.sign
$ gpg --recv-key --keyserver keyring.debian.org DF9B9C49EAA9298432589D76DA87E80D6294BE9B
$ gpg --verify SHA256SUMS.sign SHA256SUMS
Copy the image to a USB memory:
$ sudo dd if=debian-13.3.0-amd64-netinst.iso of=<device> bs=16M status=progress oflag=sync
Boot the computer with the USB memory inserted. Press F12 until the menu with boot options appears.
Install Debian…
Reboot.
Set up the colemak keyboard layout for the encrypted drive password:
$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration
$ sudo update-initramfs -u -k all
Upgrade to unstable
Open the file with the list of sources:
$ sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
Update these line to point to unstable instead of trixie:
deb http://mirrors.ucr.ac.cr/debian/ unstable main non-free-firmware
deb-src http://mirrors.ucr.ac.cr/debian/ unstable main non-free-firmware
Leave all the other lines commented out.
Update the package manager:
$ sudo apt update
Upgrade:
$ sudo apt full-upgrade
In the following upgrades, use sudo apt upgrade to not remove packages that might be in use.
Install the helpers to show upgrade information:
$ sudo apt install apt-listbugs apt-listchanges
Generate the ssh key:
$ ssh-keygen -t ed25519
Install software
From the archive:
$ sudo apt install curl git emacs-nox syncthing mosh fish keepassxc yazi
Install fish, a shell:
$ sudo apt install fish
Activate it as default:
$ chsh -s /usr/bin/fish
Install sway, a window manager:
$ sudo apt install sway swaylock wl-clipboard
Copy the default configuration:
$ mkdir -p ~/.config/sway
$ cp /etc/sway/config ~/.config/sway/
Edit the configuration to scale my two monitors:
output DP-1 scale 2
output eDP-1 scale 4
and to use the colemak keyboard layout:
input * {
xkb_layout "us"
xkb_variant "colemak"
}
and edit the default terminal:
set $term ghostty
Unofficial free software
Install ghostty, a terminal:
$ sudo curl -fsSL https://debian.griffo.io/EA0F721D231FDD3A0A17B9AC7808B4DD62C41256.asc \
| sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/debian.griffo.io.gpg
$ echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/debian.griffo.io.gpg] \
https://debian.griffo.io/apt $(lsb_release -sc) main" \
| sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.griffo.io.list
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install ghostty fonts-firacode
Edit the configuration file ~.config/ghostty/config to add:
theme = Solarized Dark Patched
font-family = Fira Code
Press ctrl+shift+, to reload the configuration.
Install signal, a chat:
$ wget -O- https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt/keys.asc | gpg --dearmor > signal-desktop-keyring.gpg;
cat signal-desktop-keyring.gpg | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg > /dev/null
$ wget -O signal-desktop.sources https://updates.signal.org/static/desktop/apt/signal-desktop.sources;
cat signal-desktop.sources | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-desktop.sources > /dev/null
$ sudo apt update && sudo apt install signal-desktop
Install keybase, for cloud storage:
$ curl --remote-name https://prerelease.keybase.io/keybase_amd64.deb
$ sudo apt install ./keybase_amd64.deb
$ run_keybase
Install browsh, a web browser for the terminal:
$ wget https://github.com/browsh-org/browsh/releases/download/v1.8.0/browsh_1.8.0_linux_amd64.deb
$ sudo dpkd --install browsh_1.8.0_linux_amd64.deb
### Privative software
Install slack:
sudo apt install snapd
sudo snap install snapd
$ sudo snap install slack
---
Sources:
- https://github.com/swaywm/sway/wiki#configuration
- https://github.com/dariogriffo/ghostty-debian
- https://signal.org/es/download/linux/
- https://keybase.io/docs/the_app/install_linux
- https://ghostty.org/docs/features/theme