debian-dev-machine-setup | Debian 12

Description

This repository contains Ansible playbooks to configure a system as a development machine after a clean install.

The playbooks are designed for Debian-based systems with minimal modifications but have only been tested on:

• Debian 12/Bookworm (stable)

The screenshot below shows the p10k zsh theme with tmux:

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What Gets Installed and Configured?

As a DevSecOps Engineer, I work daily with tools like AWS, Docker, Ansible, and Terraform. If you’re in a similar profession, this setup will likely meet your needs. The system is also easily extensible using Ansible roles.

Below is a summary of the packages installed and configured, organized by roles:

• role: base
  • Mounts /tmp on tmpfs to reduce SSD read/write operations and extend SSD lifespan, with no leftover files on system shutdown.
  • Sets the default system editor to Vim instead of Nano.
  • Enables the UFW firewall and installs the GUFW graphical frontend.
  • Tunes system swappiness to minimize swapping.
  • Upgrades all system packages.
  • Installs archiving tools like zip, rar, and others.
  • Installs LibreOffice.
  • Installs Foliate (an e-book reader) and markdown viewers/editors like Glow, Apostrophe, and Obsidian.
  • Installs power management tools like TLP.
  • Installs development tools such as android-tools, awscli, httpie, clusterssh, docker, filezilla, golang, poetry, and more.
  • Installs Nala, an alternative package management tool to apt/apt-get.
  • Installs code formatters and linters like black, ruff, and ansible-lint.
  • Sets up Go programming language directories.
  • Installs download tools like axel, transmission, wget, and aria2.
  • Installs image, audio, and video tools like vlc, totem, gimp, and imagemagick.
  • Installs virtualization tools like VirtualBox, Docker, and Docker Compose.
  • Optionally enables night light settings for eye comfort (set base_permanent_night_light.night_light_enabled to True).
  • Enables fzf fuzzy finder in the Zsh terminal; see this YouTube video for usage instructions.
• role: hashicorp
  • Installs Vagrant, Terraform, and Packer.
• role: terminal_customizations
  • Downloads and installs Nerd Fonts from ryanoasis/nerd-fonts, ideal for terminals and programming editors.
  • Copies and enables a sample Tilix configuration file with a configured Nerd Font.
  • Copies and enables a sample ~/.tmux.conf file with the Tmux Plugin Manager and several Tmux plugins if one does not exist.
    • Open Tilix and run the tmux command, or enable the custom command option in Tilix.
    • Edit ~/.tmux.conf as needed.
• role: vim
  • Installs Vim packages.
  • Installs the amix/vimrc Vim distribution.
  • Creates a sample Vim customization file at ~/.vim_runtime/my_configs.vim.
    • Additional Vim settings are enabled in ~/.vim_runtime/my_configs.vim, which are not part of the Vim distribution. Edit this file as needed.
• role: zsh
  • Installs the Zsh package and sets it as the user’s default shell.
  • Installs the Antigen Zsh plugin manager.
  • Copies and enables a sample ~/.zshrc file if one does not exist, including:
    • A function to prevent ssh-agent from repeatedly prompting for encrypted SSH key passwords when opening new terminals.
    • Additional shell aliases, functions, and variables in ~/.shell_aliases.sh, ~/.shell_functions.sh, and ~/.shell_variables.sh.
  • Installs ohmyzsh and enables select bundled plugins.
  • Enables the Bullet Train Zsh theme (other themes like Powerlevel10k can also be configured).
• role: firefox
  • Adds the Mozilla Firefox APT repository.
  • Installs the latest version of Firefox (the bundled ESR version in Debian is outdated).
    • Use the command apt-cache policy firefox firefox-esr to verify which repository is used for updates.
• role: googlechrome
  • Adds the Google Chrome APT repository.
  • Installs Google Chrome.
• role: vscode
  • Adds the Visual Studio Code APT repository.
  • Installs Visual Studio Code.
  • Installs popular Visual Studio Code extensions.
• role: privacy
  • Installs Tor.
  • Configures Tor to run at boot and excludes certain countries as exit nodes.
    • Edit /etc/tor/torrc as needed.
  • Installs ProxyChains.
  • Configures ProxyChains to use Tor; see my Medium story for usage instructions.
    • Edit /etc/proxychains4.conf as needed.
  • Installs the Metadata Anonymization Toolkit.
• role: security
  • Installs ClamAV (antivirus) and its GNOME interface. Perform manual scans from Nautilus or the CLI using clamscan (clamd is not installed due to its high memory usage).
  • Installs Firejail for sandboxing applications.
  • Enables additional AppArmor profiles.

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Step 0 | Prerequisites for Running the Ansible Playbooks

On the system to be configured, perform the following steps.

Install ansible and git using either pip or apt:

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade -y
sudo apt install ansible git -y

Clone this repository (avoid cloning into /tmp, as it is cleaned and mounted on tmpfs):

git clone https://github.com/fazlearefin/debian-dev-machine-setup.git
cd debian-dev-machine-setup

Step 1 | Running the Playbooks to Configure Your System

Run the following command as the primary user of the system, not as root:

ansible-playbook main.yml -vv -e "{ laptop_mode: True }" -e "local_username=$(id -un)" -K

Enter the sudo password when prompted for BECOME password:.

The main.yml playbook may take 15 minutes to an hour to complete.

After completion, reboot your system to apply all changes.

What is laptop_mode?

Setting laptop_mode to True

• Installs battery-saving packages like TLP.

Setting laptop_mode to False

• Skips battery-saving packages like TLP.

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Known Issues

• If the Ansible playbook halts after completing some tasks, rerun it. Most tasks are idempotent, so running the playbook multiple times will not cause issues.
• If your terminal displays garbled characters due to a Zsh theme, change the terminal font to a suitable Nerd Font in the terminal settings.
• To disable fuzzy finder completions, comment out or remove the #fzf lines in ~/.zshrc (this is a feature, not an issue).
• Enabling certain ohmyzsh plugins, like docker, may result in an error: tee: <snip> No such file or directory. Fix this by creating the missing directory: mkdir -p ~/.antigen/bundles/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/cache/completions.

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Pull Requests and Forks

Pull requests are welcome, but this repository is tailored to my development needs. For personalization, consider forking the repository to suit your requirements.

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Donations

If this project saves you time and effort, feel free to make a donation. The code is completely free with no strings attached.

Bitcoin (BTC): bc1qzlhpm94vtk2ht67etdutzcy2g5an5v6g36tp0m