Rebuild Macbook Air - Fall 2020

[scottmuc]

Things to do with the existing build

• [x] Create USB stick with latest macOS
• [x] Create credentials for the rebuild
• [x] Backup anything worth keeping

Rebuild steps

• [x] Reboot to load installer
• [x] Use Disk Utility to wipe existing partition and make a new one (new name, new encryption key)
• [x] Install the OS

Post OS install steps

• [x] Install git and clone this repo
• [x] Run coalesce_this_machine
• [x] Launch and configure 1 Password
• [x] Initialise 1 Password CLI

Done When

• [x] Make a tiny DNS change and run terraform
• [x] Make a signed commit mentioning this issue (exercises gpg_op)
• [x] Be able to push the commit (exercises ssh_op_agent)
• [x] Log into GitHub in Brave (exercises 1 Password browser extension)

[scottmuc]

Getting the latest macos: https://osxdaily.com/2020/07/14/how-make-bootable-macos-catalina-install-drive/

Doing this so that there's little software updating to do once the machine is paved. This does take a while because it has to download 8GB and turns a USB stick into a boot device. I believe I only have USB2 at the moment and that definitely will slow things down.

I've run create-repave-secrets to get new keys and passwords.

Lastly, there doesn't appear to be any noteworthy things to save on this machine so I should be able to wipe it without much issue.

[scottmuc]

Debating on whether or not to create an account for Brave. Alternatively, I can figure out how to script my configuration settings.

Another thought is around home directory scoped homebrew. Rather than repaving the OS, I may try frequent repaving of the home directory itself.

[scottmuc]

Going to keep this issue open to to document any leftover tasks that come up.

[scottmuc]

Been using the machine for a few days and everything seems fine.