Syncopated OS

An exercise in using Ansible for Workstation Provisioning & Configuration Management

Objectives

• Organize Environments: Centralize system and user configuration (dotfiles) for clarity and maintainability.

• Reproducible Setups: Effortlessly replicate a preferred setup on new machines or restore it after changes.

• Efficiency in Workflow: Automate tasks within audio and software development workflows.

Core Components

• Ansible (Automation Engine): Manages system-level configurations including:

  • Audio:

    • Installation and updates of DAWs, plugins, virtual instruments, and development tools.
    • Low-latency system performance optimization (kernel, JACK, PulseAudio, ALSA).
    • Configuration of audio interfaces, MIDI controllers, and external hardware.
    • Setup and synchronization of networked audio environments (if applicable).

  • Development:

    • Installation of IDEs, programming libraries (Ruby, Python, etc.),
    • Configuration of virtualization/containerization platforms, package managers, and essential tools.
    • Integration with network shares, remote systems, and collaboration platforms.

Use Cases

Media Production

• Workflow Optimization: Automate common media production tasks:
  • Batch processing audio files for format conversion, normalization, and applying effects.
  • Streamline project backups, file syncing, and remote transfers for seamless collaboration.
  • Script the deployment of audio processing jobs to distributed render farms.

Data-Driven Creativity

• Explore the intersection of programming and audio:
  • Analyze audio files to extract key, tempo, or rhythmic patterns to drive visual aids, automatic adjustments, or generative music elements.
  • Build custom audio synthesis and processing tools for unique sound design elements.
  • Control MIDI instruments, effects, or visualizers with analyzed audio data for dynamic performances or installations.

Collaboration

Contributions from audio professionals, software developers, and Linux enthusiasts are welcome. Let's collaborate to build a versatile solution for managing Linux audio and development environments!

demo playbook run

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Ok

Directory Index

Path	Content
assets	media files
bin	utiliy scripts
group_vars	Variables for Host Groups
host_vars	Variables for Hosts
playbooks	Playbooks
plugins	Plugins and Modules
roles	Roles
vars	Variables to include in playbooks and tasks
ansible.cfg	Ansible configuration file
inventory.ini	Host inventory

Commonly Used Options

--tags: Specify which tasks to run (e.g., network, desktop).

--limit: Target specific groups or hosts (e.g., soundbot, workstation).

--skip-tags: Exclude specific tasks.

-e: Extra variables passed to the playbook (e.g., update_mirrors=true, distribution=Archlinux).

--start-at-task: Specify the starting task within the playbook.

Using Tags

ansible-playbook -i inventory.ini playbooks/full.yml --tags $TAGS --limit $HOSTNAME

For example

• The audio tag is used to install and configure audio packages on a system.
• When the audio tag is used, Ansible will run the following tasks:
  • The alsa role is used to install and configure the ALSA sound system.
  • The pipewire role is used to install and configure the PipeWire audio server.
  • The jack role is used to install and configure the JACK audio connection kit.
  • The pulseaudio role is used to install and configure the PulseAudio sound server.

testing

ansible-inventory-grapher -i inventory.ini all -o "{}.dot" -a \
  "rankdir=LR; splines=ortho; ranksep=2;\
  node [ width=5 style=filled fillcolor=orange background=black ];\
  edge [ dir=back arrowtail=empty style="dashed" ];\
  bgcolor="darkgray";"

installing

wget -O bootstrap.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/b08x/SyncopatedOS/development/bootstrap.sh && \
chmod +x bootstrap.sh && \
./bootstrap.sh