• Ansible playbook for your DevOps/SysOps Linux Mint 20.x based workstation
  • Prerequisites
    • Ansible 2.10 and higher reminder
  • Assumptions
  • In-place upgraded OS warning
    • Python2 removal
  • Usage
  • Variables
    • variables for tasks
  • Custom variables, custom variable files
    • Custom file content
    • Custom file example
  • Repositories
    • Repositories: Basic
    • Repositories: Optional
  • Packages
    • Packages: Essential
    • Packages: Basic not complete list
    • Packages: Optional not complete list
    • Packages: Flatpak
    • Packages: npm
  • Tasks
  • Startup applications
    • OS Tweaks
  • Q&A
  • To Do
  • Known issues

• installed Linux Mint 20.0/20.1/20.2/20.3 - all 64-bit, standard options with extra codecs (available as selection during install)

• for previous versions of Mint - last release supporting Linux Mint 19 was 2.1.6

• access to internet

• openssh-server installed and running

• ansible in version 2.10 or higher

• sudo ansible-galaxy install -r requirements.yml

  sudo apt install openssh-server;sudo systemctl enable ssh && sudo systemctl start ssh

• PermitRootLogin in /etc/ssh/sshd_config if you're using root account

• sudo ansible-galaxy install -r requirements.yml --roles-path /etc/ansible/roles

• 20 GB free space on OS drive
• ssh private key or password method
• user specified in group_vars or passed in variable ansible_ssh_user
• by default, extra binaries (outside packages) will be installed in /usr/local/bin (adjustable by bin_path variable) If you prefer to keep them in cloud (sync between computers), down below I'll attach info how to replace binaries with proper -ymlinks (work in progress)
• adds repositories with codename and filename
• adds missing pgp keys for repositories
• installs essential packages
• installs main packages
• installs extra/optional packages
• downloads 3rd party software and puts it in proper path - /usr/local/bin by default (adjustable by bin_path variable)
• changes startup settings for specific user (that's why you should not run this as root)
• changes in ansible.cfg
• changes in dconf settings
• changes in sysctl system settings

Role of this playbook is to work on clean or cleanly-upgraded system. I haven't tested it properly in case of in-place upgrade systems, so both 18=>19 and 19=>20 upgrades and playbook usage, are risky and experimental. Make sure all apt repositories (except system ones) are removed from /etc/apt - playbook works best when this list is empty.

Warning - systems after upgrade will require: ansible_python_interpreter=/usr/bin/python3 setting.

Be aware several packages (virtualbox-6.1, zenmap) will install python2 and remove python-is-python3 package.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install python-is-python3
sudo apt update
sudo apt remove python2 --simulate
sudo apt remove python2

ansible-playbook ./linux_mint.yaml -i myhost.lst

or change user you're using (startup related stuff will be done for that specific user user)

ansible-playbook ./linux_mint.yaml -i myhost.lst --extra-vars "active_user=myuser"

in case you'd like to run as root with password or ssh key, you can do desktop related changes for user bob

ansible-playbook ./linux_mint.yaml -i myhost.lst --extra-vars "active_user=bob"

or start at specific step

ansible-playbook ../linux_mint.yaml -i myhost.lst --start-at-task="taskname"

or with specific tags

ansible-playbook ../linux_mint.yaml -i myhost.lst --tags "base"

or passing true/false as JSON

ansible-playbook ./linux_mint.yaml -i myhost.lst --extra-vars '{"install_optional": "true"}'

Most variables are stored in mint19|20.yaml file. If you need extra settings, instead of modyfing it, use custom variable files.

Are stored in mint20_tasks.yaml

If you don't want to track changes or change main variable file content with every pull, create your own custom variable files. By default playbook will look for files: mint[ansible_distribution_major_version]*.yaml This means - if your distro is Linux Mint 19, place a file in a playbook folder witha name: mint19_custom.yaml If your distro is Linux Mint 20, place a file in a playbook folder with a name: mint20_custom.yaml These filters are added to .gitignore to not override your changes Be careful not to add multiple matching files with corresponding names

custom_repositories: []
custom_keys: []
custom_packages: []

mint20_custom.yaml

custom_repositories:
- repo: ppa:videolan/master-daily
  filename: videolan
custom_keys:
- https://somekeyfile/key.pgp
custom_packages:
- vlc

• alexx2000 - Double Commander
• ansible - Ansible - removed in Linux Mint 20
• azure-cli - Azure CLI SDK
• docker - Docker-CE
• gcsfuse - Google Storage gcsfuse - Mount a GCS bucket locally`
• gezakovacs - UNetbootin
• git-lfs - Git Large File System - removed in Linux Mint 20
• googlechrome - Google Chrome Browser
• google-cloud-sdk - Google Cloud Tools SDK
• kubernetes - Google Kubernetes kubeadm & kubectl
• microsoft-prod - Microsoft .Net Core
• mozilla-team - Stable Firefox and Mozilla Software
• palemoon - Chromium based Java+Flash browser
• remmina - Connection manager - RDP/SSH/VNC
• shutter - screenshoot, manipulate, publish
• synapse-core - Synaptic Launcher
• ubuntu-mozilla-security - Firefox and Thunderbird Security
• virtualbox - Virtualization Software
• vscode - Microsoft Visual Studio Code
• y-ppa-manager - Manage your PPA as human being

• brave browser - Chromium-based secure browsing alternative
• dockbarx - DockBarX is a lightweight taskbar
• enpass - Password Manager
• grub-customizer - customize black screen to something useful
• insync - Googledrive & Onedrive Linux Client
• linuxuprising - Extra Ubuntu / Linux Mint Applications
• neofetch - A command-line system information tool written in bash 3.2+
• noobslab/icons - Extra icons pack
• noobslab/themes - Extra themes pack
• puppet5 - Puppet5 and PDK for easy module writing
• skype - Microsoft's communicator
• spotify - Music streaming service
• sublime text 3 - Alternative text editor
• teams - Microsoft Teams Linux Client
• trivy - Container security scanner
• veeam - Veeam Agent for Linux
• veracrypt - Device encryption utility
• wepupd8 - packages from webupd8 team

Some applications are copied to autostart folder

• Remmina
• Diodon
• DockbarX
• Dropbox
• Synapse
• Redshift
• Shutter

• handle *.local domain with avahi
• changes timezone and ntpd settings
• handle mDNS with .local domains
• modifies sysctl settings to start use tcp_congestion_control set to bbr
• modifies sysctl settings to decrease default swappiness
• changes alternatives for EDITOR
• initial Timeshift launch
• change fstrim schedule to hourly
• installs popular Microsoft Visual Studio Code extensions
• change dconf settings

• Q: Will it work with specific version WSL/Ubuntu/PidgeonOS?

• A: Don't know, don't care. Do your own variables.yml and check

• Q: What will happen if I'll run it multiple times?

• A: I hope - your applications will be upgraded, same for repos and keys. But, due to DEB/APT dependency you have to look for possible downgrade related errors. See Known Issues for it.

• Q: Can i check this in Ubuntu

• A: Yes, but be prepared to create your own variables.yml and pass it as a parameter

• Q: Can I participate?

• A: Yes, but please create your own branch and do PR. Do not merge to master. Please keep master branch clean.

• Q: I don't know how to do the above

• A: Then don't do it ;)

• Q: Why there is so many Ubuntu:Bionic/Xenial, not so many LinuxMint:Tara repositories?

• A: Tara is built over Bionic packages, so rarely it requires to have specific repo.

• better download file versioning (switch to latest where possible, separate version from URL, use separate folder for downloads)
• better docs
• add Vagrant plugins
• manual handle 3rd party deb files - pre-download and re-usage on demand
• configure neofetch
• add cloud-tools section, for people to choose cloud they are using
• better archive handle
• services handling part (by default in Ubuntu/Debian, installed service is set to enabled/started)
• more idempotency
• fix Bionic's broken apps like Asbru-CM
• more OS tweaks (i/o scheduler)
• add AWS/GCE repositories for their tools
• add Visual Studio Code extra extensions
• continue to use tagging
• add Flatpak packages handling
• convert single sysctl values into whole section
• better grub defaults handing

• Due to how deb packages are treated by apt, we should find a way to install always 'latest' version not specific version. If (after initial run) we'll upgrade package outside this script, next time deb part will fail trying to 'downgrade' package.

• Downloading & installing all packages can be time consuming, depending on your Internet connection speed (aprox 40-60 minut)

• pip - no module named _internal

  sudo curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py -o get-pip.py && sudo python2.7 get-pip.py --force-reinstall

• Playbook exits with a message Could not import python modules: apt, apt_pkg. Please install python3-apt package

  • Resolution: set ansible_python_interpreter=/usr/bin/python3