atxtechbro / atxtechbro/dotfiles

feat(tools): Automate Balena Etcher installation

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#301 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
automation enhancement
Dominant language
Shell
Stars
27
Forks
2
PR merge metrics
No merged PRs in 30d

Description

## Description
Add an automated installation script for Balena Etcher to follow the "spilled coffee" principle - making it easy to set up a fully operational environment quickly.

## Proposed Solution
Create a script in `utils/install-balena-etcher.sh` that:

1. Downloads the latest portable version of Balena Etcher from GitHub releases
2. Extracts it to an appropriate location (e.g., `~/ppv/tools/balena-etcher/`)
3. Creates a desktop entry file in `~/.local/share/applications/`
4. Makes the application executable
5. Updates the desktop database

## Implementation Details
- Use GitHub API to fetch the latest release information
- Download the Linux x64 zip file
- Extract to a consistent location
- Create desktop entry with proper paths
- Follow the same pattern as other installation scripts (e.g., `install-go.sh`)
- Include detection for existing installations to avoid duplicates
- Add proper error handling and user feedback

## Benefits
- Consistent with dotfiles philosophy of automation
- Follows "spilled coffee" principle for quick setup
- Avoids dependency issues with older .deb packages
- Ensures users always get the latest version

## Additional Notes
- Should detect OS and architecture to download appropriate version
- Consider adding to the main setup.sh script as an optional tool
- Document the installation process in README.md

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

Research direction

Start by comparing the proposed utils/install-balena-etcher.sh with install-go.sh, then review setup.sh and README.md for integration points. Verify the GitHub release lookup, Linux x64 download and extraction paths, desktop entry creation, executable permissions, desktop database update, and existing-installation handling. Done means the script installs the latest supported Etcher without duplicates and provides appropriate feedback.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
shell
Domain
tooling
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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