linux-desktop-ansible

My Ansible configuration for a Linux Mint Desktop

Setup Base Linux Mint 17 Cinnamon System

In VMWare Fusion, Pick Linux > Ubuntu with LinuxMint 17 ISO

Choose "Customize Settings" button:

    Set Memory to something bigger than default

Boot into Linux.

Double-click on "Install Linux Mint" DVD image on Desktop to install.

During install steps, you may want to choose the option to encrypt your hard-drive, or when you create your user you can choose to encrypt just your home folder.

Restart when prompted.

Install VMWare Tools via menu:

Extract file, then run install script. Accept all default parameters.
Restart virtual machine

In Menu > System Settings:

Choose Themes and pick Cinnamon. Then pick a nice background image.

Ansible Setup

Setup local ssh key:

    ssh-keygen -t rsa

Upload public key (~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub) to Github to clone private repos. Upload public key (~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub) to Bitbucket to clone private repos.

Bootstrap system with:

    cd ~
    wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/briangershon/linux-desktop-ansible/master/install.sh
    chmod u+x install.sh
    ./install.sh

Add your secret Ansible Vault password which should never be checked into source control:

    vim ~/workspace/linux-desktop-private/vaultpass.txt
    sudo chmod 600 ~/workspace/linux-desktop-private/vaultpass.txt

It's just a one-line text file with a password in it, so you don't have to re-enter password each time you run Ansible.

Then you can encrypt a file of secrets and include that with include_vars to feed your templates.

To run ansible-vault commands, call the ./ansible-vault script in ~/workspace/linux-desktop-ansible. e.g. ansible-vault edit <file>

Run Ansible for Realz

    cd ~/workspace/linux-desktop-ansible

    # if running for first time use which runs with "ask sudo password" option
    ./up-first-time.sh

    # on subsequent times, use this (since we've added our user to sudo and don't need to prompt anymore)
    ./up.sh

VMWare Fusion OSX Key Mappings for Linux Mint (Ubuntu)

These are mappings in VMWare Fusion Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse.

I started with using "Default" profile (not Mac profile), then added in these key mappings:

To support Apple-Tab to move between applications:

I wasn't able to get this to work via enabling Apple-T and changing mapping to Ctrl-Alt-Tab. Even after also turning off "Enable Mac OS Host Shortcuts".
Though Option-Tab by default does the equivalent. And still allows you to use the Mac OS Host shortcuts.

Map Apple to Ctrl to support Apple-[ and Apple-] for outdenting/indenting in Atom editor.

To support Atom editor (and begin/end line in Terminal) move to home/end of line and disable Cinnamon "Push Tile Left/Right"

Apple-Right -> End
Apple-Left -> Home
Shift-Apple-Left -> Shift-Home # supports select to beginning of line
Shift-Apple-Right -> Shift-End # supports select to end of a line

I discovered that Apple key by itself will bring up Mint Menu.

Inspiration

Concept of running Ansible locally for installing desktop machines and some nice recipes: http://www.compoundtheory.com/provision-your-local-machines/ and install.sh and up.sh
Ansible desktop recipes: https://github.com/kalos/ansible-desktop

briangershon / linux-desktop-ansible