Linux Lite Forums

Development => Scripting and Bash => Topic started by: koli on February 27, 2021, 01:54:23 PM

Title: [SOLVED] Scripting installation from Lite Software and desktop panel settings
Post by: koli on February 27, 2021, 01:54:23 PM

Hi everyone! Hope you are all having a nice day  :)

I quite often reinstall my OS or install it on some older machines, so I thought it would be cool to automatize a lot of post installation stuff in a bash script(e.g. installing programs, customizing desktop). I'm relatively new to Linux, so it may be a stupid question, but there are 2 problems I don't know how to solve:

I found that installing software from Lite Software is easier and more convenient than downloading .deb files or adding repos manually. Can I somehow install software from Lite Software using only the terminal?

I usually customize the desktop panel, but I didn't found any resource about how to do that in terminal (e.g. setting panel size, font, adding new element, etc.).

Thank you for your replies in advance!

Title: Re: [SOLVED] Scripting installation from Lite Software and desktop panel settings
Post by: Moltke on February 27, 2021, 03:29:46 PM

Quote from: koli on February 27, 2021, 01:54:23 PM

Hi everyone! Hope you are all having a nice day  :)

I quite often reinstall my OS or install it on some older machines, so I thought it would be cool to automatize a lot of post installation stuff in a bash script(e.g. installing programs, customizing desktop). I'm relatively new to Linux, so it may be a stupid question, but there are 2 problems I don't know how to solve:

I found that installing software from Lite Software is easier and more convenient than downloading .deb files or adding repos manually. Can I somehow install software from Lite Software using only the terminal?

I usually customize the desktop panel, but I didn't found any resource about how to do that in terminal (e.g. setting panel size, font, adding new element, etc.).

Thank you for your replies in advance!

Hi! Welcome to the forum! :)
Most of the software listed on Lite Software tool is available in the repos, so you can install in by putting in your script something like

Code: [Select]

cat pkgs_to_install | xargs sudo apt-get install
Where pkgs_to_install is a .txt file with a list of the software/programs you want/need to install. So it's just a matter of check which pkgs are available to install from repos and which are not.
About customizations, save your dot files - the ones which name start with a ".", i.e. .bashrc, .local, .config and so on, since this is where all your personal settings are saved, then just copy/paste them in the new install. LL has timeshift which can take care of that for you. Alternatively, you can save them to .tar file and move it to a USB drive. 
Here's a nice and easy to follow tutorial on how to create a menu that runs in your terminal https://linuxhint.com/bash_select_command/ read it, play a bit with it and once you understand how it works, adapt it to your needs, i.e. display the options you need to perform in the new install; install software,copy/move files, rename files/directories...

Hope this helps! :)

Title: Re: [SOLVED] Scripting installation from Lite Software and desktop panel settings
Post by: koli on February 28, 2021, 11:37:15 AM

Hi!

Thanks for the fast response, I found everything I needed based on your answer :)