ubuntu-rice

One-click Ubuntu GNOME desktop beautification toolkit.

Transform your Ubuntu desktop with a single command. Interactive TUI for selective component installation.

Screenshots

Features

Component	Description	20.04	22.04	24.04
Kitty	GPU-accelerated terminal emulator	yes	yes	yes
Nerd Fonts	MesloLGS NF font family	yes	yes	yes
Zsh	Oh-My-Zsh + Powerlevel10k + plugins	yes	yes	yes
Fcitx5	Chinese input method (pinyin)	PPA	yes	yes
Orchis	GTK theme	yes	yes	yes
Tela	Icon theme (blue variant)	yes	yes	yes
Bibata	Cursor theme (Modern Ice)	yes	yes	yes
GNOME Extensions	Extension Manager + recommended extensions	yes	yes	yes
GNOME Settings	Appearance, fonts, and scaling	yes	yes	yes

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/limx/ubuntu-rice.git
cd ubuntu-rice
./install.sh

The interactive TUI lets you select which components to install.

Project Structure

ubuntu-rice/
├── install.sh          # Main installer (TUI-based)
├── uninstall.sh        # Component uninstaller
├── backup.sh           # Back up current configs
├── restore.sh          # Restore configs from backup
├── lib/
│   ├── utils.sh        # Logging, config resolution, helpers
│   ├── distro.sh       # Ubuntu/GNOME version detection
│   └── tui.sh          # Whiptail TUI wrappers
├── modules/
│   ├── kitty.sh        # Kitty terminal
│   ├── fonts.sh        # Nerd Fonts
│   ├── zsh.sh          # Zsh + Oh-My-Zsh + p10k
│   ├── fcitx5.sh       # Fcitx5 input method
│   ├── theme.sh        # Orchis GTK + Tela icons + Bibata cursor
│   ├── gnome-extensions.sh  # GNOME Shell extensions
│   └── gnome-settings.sh   # Desktop appearance settings
└── configs/
    ├── default/        # Default configs shipped with the project
    │   ├── kitty/
    │   ├── zsh/
    │   ├── fcitx5/
    │   ├── gnome_settings/
    │   └── gnome_extensions/
    └── custom/         # User overrides (gitignored)

Custom Configuration

Place your config files in configs/custom/ to override defaults. The installer automatically prefers configs/custom/<module>/ over configs/default/<module>/.

configs/custom/
├── kitty/kitty.conf
├── zsh/zshrc
├── fcitx5/classicui.conf
└── gnome/interface.dconf

Backup & Restore

# Back up current desktop configs
./backup.sh

# Restore from ~/ubuntu-rice-configs/
./restore.sh

# Restore from a specific archive
./restore.sh ~/ubuntu-rice-backup-20260209_120000.tar.gz

The backup script saves Kitty, Zsh, Fcitx5, and GNOME settings into a timestamped .tar.gz archive.

Uninstall

./uninstall.sh

The TUI lets you select which components to remove.

Module Development

Each module is a standalone shell script in modules/ that follows a naming convention. The installer discovers and loads modules automatically.

# modules/example.sh

# Required: human-readable name (variable, not function)
example_name="Example Module"

# Required: short description (variable, not function)
example_desc="Does something useful"

# Optional: return 0 if supported, 1 otherwise
example_check() { command -v example &>/dev/null; }

# Required: install the component
example_install() {
    local ver="$1"  # Ubuntu version (20.04, 22.04, 24.04)
    sudo apt-get install -y example-pkg
}

# Required: uninstall the component
example_uninstall() {
    sudo apt-get remove -y example-pkg
}

# Optional: apply config files from configs/{custom,default}/example/
example_apply_config() {
    local config_src="$1"  # resolved config directory
    cp "$config_src/example.conf" ~/.config/example/
}

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a module in modules/ following the template above
3. Add default configs in configs/default/<module>/
4. Submit a pull request

License

MIT