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Boykisser Linux

First steps after installing

You’re in. On first login the welcome checklist pops up once. It covers most of this page, and you can reopen it any time with boykisser welcome.

1. Update

Section titled “1. Update”
Terminal window
boykisser update

This refreshes apt, upgrades everything, updates your Flatpak apps, checks for firmware updates, and updates the Boykisser tools themselves. It asks for your password because system updates need admin rights.

Security updates also install by themselves in the background (via unattended-upgrades), so a forgotten machine still gets patched.

2. Turn on Timeshift snapshots

Section titled “2. Turn on Timeshift snapshots”

Timeshift takes system snapshots you can roll back to if an update or experiment breaks something. Open Timeshift from the menu and run the setup wizard once:

  • Snapshot type: RSYNC works on every filesystem. Pick BTRFS only if you installed onto Btrfs.
  • Location: any drive with some free space.
  • Schedule: daily or weekly is plenty.

Once it’s configured, boykisser update also takes a snapshot before every update.

Timeshift covers the system. For your own files (photos, documents) use Backups (Déjà Dup) in the menu, ideally to an external drive.

3. Graphics drivers

Section titled “3. Graphics drivers”

AMD and Intel graphics work out of the box. For NVIDIA cards, the open-source Nouveau driver gets you a desktop, but for games or CUDA you want the proprietary one:

Terminal window
boykisser nvidia

It checks your card, installs the driver plus the 32-bit libraries Steam needs, and asks you to reboot. With Secure Boot on, it also asks you to set a one-time password. On the next boot a blue MOK management screen appears: choose Enroll MOK, Continue, Yes, type that password, and reboot. That lets your firmware trust the driver.

4. Check your system

Section titled “4. Check your system”
Terminal window
boykisser doctor

A read-only health check: disk space, broken packages, failed services, firewall, swap, network, GPU driver and whether the first-boot setup finished. It never changes anything, it just tells you what to look at.

5. Get your apps

Section titled “5. Get your apps”
  • Flatpak apps: open Software and browse Flathub, or use app presets for whole groups at once.
  • Pick a browser: Firefox ESR is installed. boykisser browser offers LibreWolf, Brave or Chromium.
  • Don’t want something? boykisser debloat removes app groups like Steam or OBS.

More in Apps.

6. Optional bits

Section titled “6. Optional bits”
  • Log in without a password: boykisser autologin on. Only do this on a machine nobody else touches.
  • Newer kernel for very new hardware: boykisser kernel --install (from Debian backports).
  • Night light is on: the screen warms up in the evening. Click the redshift icon in the tray to pause it.
  • Printing: most network printers show up on their own. Otherwise open Print Settings and click Add.
  • Firewall: ufw is on and blocks incoming connections. If you run something that needs to be reachable, open its port, for example sudo ufw allow 25565/tcp.