Set up my Linux Box

Linux is an open-source operating system that is widely used for programming and development. Being open-source, there are several versions available called distributions (distros); this guide will focus on Debian, which is the base for many popular distros such as Ubuntu and Raspberry Pi OS. If you use a different Linux distro, the steps may differ slightly.

In this guide, we will walk through the steps to install the necessary Applications and Tools that you will need to code in C# and C++ with SplashKit. To simplify things, we have an automated script for fresh installs that will install all the required tools and applications for you, or you can follow the manual steps.

How do I open the Terminal?

To open the Terminal on Debian, click activities in the top left of the screen and type “Terminal” in the search bar, then click on the Terminal icon.

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Do you sudo?

sudo is a command that allows you to run a program with superuser privileges and is often required for installing software. Debian does not add the main user to the sudoers file by default.

The following commands will let you check if your user is in the suders group and add it if required. To take effect, you must reboot your computer after adding your user to the sudoers group.

You will need to know your root user password (replace username with your username):

groups username
su
sudo usermod -aG sudo username
exit
groups username

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Do you have git and curl installed?

A number of the commands in the setup require git, curl, and clang to be installed to function correctly. To check if they are installed on your system, type curl, clang++, then git into the terminal and press enter after each.

If you see the following error messages you will need to install the missing programs.

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To install curl, git, and clang run the following commands in the Terminal (if only one is required, you can delete the other from the command):

sudo apt update
sudo apt install curl git clang -y

1. Automated Setup

This script will install the following applications and tools:

• Visual Studio Code
  • C/C++ Extensions
  • C# Extensions
• .NET SDK
• SplashKit
  • SplashKit Global
• wget
• git
• curl
• clang

Open the Terminal and run the following command:

curl -s "https://programmers.guide/resources/Linux_InstallScript.sh" | bash /dev/stdin

Note

This script will take a while to run (approx. 12-15 mins).

Once the automated script has finished running, close and reopen the Terminal.

Run the command skm to check SplashKit is installed correctly.

Using options with the script

The linux_pi_install script supports several options that can be used to customise the installation; these can be added to the end of the command.

The example below will display the help menu, which lists the available options (scroll the command across to see the end):

curl -s "https://programmers.guide/resources/Linux_InstallScript.sh"| bash /dev/stdin --help

2. Manual Setup Steps

If you choose not to use the automated setup above or are experiencing issues, you can follow these steps below:

1. Install the SplashKit SDK

SplashKit is a beginner’s all-purpose software toolkit that will allow you to create fun and exciting programs more easily, especially for Graphical User Interface (GUI) programs.

Copy and paste the following command into your Terminal window to download and run the SplashKit installer:

bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/splashkit/skm/master/install-scripts/skm-install.sh)

Troubleshooting tip:

If you have issues installing the SplashKit SDK, go to the No response when running SplashKit installation command section in the Installation Troubleshooting page for an alternative installation process.

Close and reopen the Terminal, then run the command below to build SplashKit:

skm linux install

Note

If prompted, enter your password, type y, and press enter to confirm the installation.

This may take a while (approx. 10 mins).

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2. Install SplashKit Globally

Finally, you will need to install the SplashKit Global Libraries. This will install the SplashKit libraries and library include files into the system’s default global locations so that the compiler can find these files when building (compiling) programs created with SplashKit.

To install SplashKit globally, copy and paste the following command into your Terminal window:

skm global install

What does this command do specifically?

The command above will add the SplashKit libraries into the /usr/local/lib/ folder, and the required SplashKit library include files into the /usr/local/include folder.

3. Install Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code, also commonly known as VS Code or just Code, is a powerful and versatile code editor that enables efficient coding, debugging, and collaboration for your SplashKit projects!

VS Code has it all!

Once you have your code project set up, Visual Studio Code will be the main program you will use to write, build, run, and debug your code.

On Debian, running the following commands will download and then install Visual Studio Code:

wget -O vscode.deb https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=760868
sudo dpkg -i vscode.deb
sudo apt-get install -f
rm vscode.deb

Open Code from Terminal

You can open Visual Studio Code from the Terminal by typing code and pressing enter. code . will open the current folder in Visual Studio Code.

Recommended Extensions

The final step to complete the setup of VS Code is to install a few Extensions in VS Code:

Set up my VS Code Extensions

Go to the page linked above, follow the steps to install both the C# and C/C++ recommended extensions, and then come back here and continue to the next step. You can use the “Back button” in your browser to return to this page.

4. Install Language Specific Tools

Some coding languages require specific tools/frameworks to be installed to be able to build and run your code files.
As you will be coding in C# and C++ in this book, let’s look at the tools needed for these languages:

C# Tools

For coding in C#, you will need to install the .NET SDK which will allow you to use the dotnet terminal command to create, build, and run your C# project code.

Download the latest version of the .NET SDK using the following command:

curl -sSL https://dot.net/v1/dotnet-install.sh | bash /dev/stdin

You will also need to add the .dotnet folder to your PATH environment variable with the following commands:

echo 'export DOTNET_ROOT=$HOME/.dotnet' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.dotnet' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Test dotnet is installed correctly by running dotnet --version in the Terminal.

For more details on the process, refer to this article Deploy .NET apps on ARM single-board computers

C++ Tools

For coding in C++, you will need to have a C++ compiler installed to build your C++ code into a file you can use to run your program. Commonly used compilers are g++ and clang++.

g++ is installed by default.

To install clang++ run the following command:

sudo apt install clang -y

3. Optional Steps

Setup zsh shell

When using the terminal, you are actually interacting with a shell, where the default is bash, but other shells are available.

Here, we will install zsh and oh-my-zsh to customise the terminal. These will give you a more user-friendly terminal experience with themes and plugin support.

To install zsh, run the following command in your Terminal:

sudo apt install zsh -y

To install oh-my-zsh, run the following command in your Terminal:

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

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Answer y to the question Do you want to change your default shell to zsh?

Add SplashKit and dotnet to the PATHs to zsh

echo 'export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.dotnet' >> ~/.zshrc
echo 'export DOTNET_ROOT=$HOME/.dotnet' >> ~/.zshrc
echo 'export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.splashkit' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

You may need to restart the system for the terminal to update

Plugins

What is nano?

Nano is a command line text editor that is already installed on Debian. As a quick start, these are the most important commands

• To edit a file in nano use nano [filename]
• navigate the cursor using the arrow keys
• Ctrl + O to save the file
• Ctrl + X to exit the editor

Several plugins are available for oh-my-zsh that add additional functionality to the terminal.
This article has a list of pre-installed plugins, although there are others available as well.

To install a plugin, add it to the plugin list in the ~/.zshrc file.

Using autojump as an example:

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First, you will install it with:

sudo apt install autojump -y

Then add it to the plugins list in ~/.zshrc

nano ~/.zshrc

Navigate to the plugins line and add autojump to the list. git will be listed already.
Use a space to separate the plugins as shown below:

plugins=(git autojump)

Save and close the file. Then run the following command to update the terminal:

source ~/.zshrc

Add Shortcut for the Programmers Field Guide

To add the Programmers Field Guide to the menu, run the following commands in the Terminal:

    echo "Adding Programers Feild guide to Menu"
    sudo curl -s "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/splashkit/the-programmers-field-guide/main/public/favicon.svg" -o /usr/share/pixmaps/feildguide.svg

    touch ~/programmers-field-guide.desktop
    echo "[Desktop Entry]" >> ~/programmers-field-guide.desktop
    echo "Type=Application" >> ~/programmers-field-guide.desktop
    echo "Name=Programmers Field Guide" >> ~/programmers-field-guide.desktop
    echo "TryExec=/usr/bin/x-www-browser" >> ~/programmers-field-guide.desktop
    echo "Exec=/usr/bin/x-www-browser https://programmers.guide/" >> ~/programmers-field-guide.desktop
    echo "Icon=/usr/share/pixmaps/feildguide.svg" >> ~/programmers-field-guide.desktop
    echo "Categories=Development;" >> ~/programmers-field-guide.desktop
    sudo mv ~/programmers-field-guide.desktop /usr/share/applications/programmers-field-guide.desktop

Desktop Background

To customise the desktop background, right-click anywhere on the desktop and select Change Background (Properties on the Raspberry Pi). Then, select the image or theme you want to use as your background.

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You can toggle dark mode by clicking on the icon in the top right of the screen and selecting the mode you want to use.

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