Oh-my-zsh on QubesOS

User Support General
1

Hello,

Does anybody use oh-my-zsh? I have used this zsh setup tool in the past and tried to set it up in my working qube as well. For those who are not familiar with that. zsh needs to be installed in advance and should be the default shell. I tried to apply that by running a custom command instead of the default shell because using chsh failed for some reason. I applied the zsh in the /etc/passwd file as well for root and user.

oh-my-zsh places his tools (couple of shell scripts) in ~/.oh-my-sh. Now, when launching a terminal the tools tell me that they cannot find those directories and the contained scripts even they are in place…

Thanks for any hints on that issue :pray:

2

Did you install it in a template?
First install it in a template and check that it works in a template.

3

Yes. In the template it works :+1:

4

So it’s not working in the app qube based on this template?
If the oh-my-zsh is installed in the user directory in template (that is stored in its own private storage) then it’s not copied to the user directory of the app qube:
Templates | Qubes OS

First you need to find out which files are created in the home directory in the template.
Then you can copy these files in the /etc/ skel directory in the template.
The files in the /etc/ skel directory in the template will be copied to the user home directory when new qube is created.
For already existing qubes you’ll need to copy these files to the user home directory manueally.

2 Likes
5

Whereas, I still have this issue. The files are present in the app qube but still won’t be seen somehow. When I launch the terminal I am getting the error message that it can’t find the directory ~/.oh-my-zsh/... but after that I see the directory and all necessary files when checking it manually by using ls.

There must be another issue. Originally, I tried to install it directly in the app qube, resulting in this error described above. I also tried out to create another app qube after installing it in the template. That app qube doesn’t launch the terminal :man_shrugging:

6

You need to run chsh -s $(which zsh) in user terminal in your template to change the default shell from bash to zsh for user.

7

I tried that in the beginning, but I could not authenticate as user :see_no_evil: I tried my regular password and no password, but neither worked. It only worked with sudo but then, of course, the default shell is only changed for the sudo user…

8

What template do you use?
How do you open the terminal in the template?