Dotfiles

This repository contains all packages, (symlinked) configuration files and more to automate linux desktop installations for me. I only use Debian or Arch based distros. This repository supports both. At this moment, I only use Xorg on Debian and Wayland on Arch (which is the reason that Wayland related packages will only be installed on Arch). If I need a fresh Linux desktop install, I only need to add environment variables and run one command, to replicate my favourite setup. That makes my life a whole lot easier!

You can do whatever you want with my code, since it's licensed under MIT. Use it as inspiration for your own automation setup.

Installation

Summary

Follow these three steps to start the installer:

1. Run cp .env.example .env.
2. Add relevant variables to .env
3. Run ./install.sh .env (optional: --keep-env, --skip-bitwarden)

Requirements

To make installing as easy as possible, I have created an install script. This script first makes sure all requirements that are listed in requirements.txt are installed. It requires sudo privileges to add a NOPASSWD sudoers rule for Yay and Pacman and for installing the requirements.

The script will install python3 and ansible, in order to run the Ansible playbook.

Bitwarden

To securely install my SSH keys, I am using Bitwarden as my secrets manager. I know that Ansible Vault exists, but I don't want my secrets to be publicly on Github, even though they are encrypted, since this will give anyone the chance to brute force them. And maybe in the future, quantum computers can do that in seconds :)

In Bitwarden, I created a folder called SSH. The Ansible role ssh will loop through each item in that folder and add the ssh public and private keys to the ~/.ssh folder. It will also add each item to the ~/.ssh/config file.

Each SSH item in Bitwarden consists of the following:

• username: SSH username
• password: SSH private key
• website: SSH host/ip address
• custom fields:
  • host: SSH alias/host for config file (to be able to run ssh alias_here)
  • public_key: SSH public key
  • port: custom SSH port (optional)

The private key should be stored with literal \n characters. In order to do this, you can use the following command to copy it to your clipboard (or modify to your liking). Make sure you run this in bash:

awk -v ORS='\n' '1' ~/.ssh.bak/gitea | xclip -selection clipboard # for X11
awk -v ORS='\n' '1' ~/.ssh.bak/gitea | wl-copy # for Wayland

If you don't want to make use of Bitwarden, add the option --skip-bitwarden to the install command. This will skip the installation and initialization of Bitwarden. Also make sure the role ssh has been commented out in main.yml, since it requires bitwarden.

Environment variables

In order to properly run the commands which need sudo access (such as installing packages), the environment variable BECOME_PASSWORD needs to be set. Also, to unlock the Bitwarden Vault, the environment variables BITWARDEN_EMAIL and BITWARDEN_PASSWORD need to be set. If you have enabled 2FA, the environment variable BITWARDEN_SECRET also needs to be set. To generate a 2FA token, oathtool is used in the script.

• BITWARDEN_EMAIL: the email of your Bitwarden account
• BITWARDEN_PASSWORD: the password of your Bitwarden account
• BITWARDEN_SECRET: the 2FA secret that's used to generate tokens
• BECOME_PASSWORD: the sudo password for your linux user account

Because these environment variables are sensitive and could lead to a security breach if they are stored in plain text on your system, the install script will automatically delete the provided env file. If you don't want this, you can provide the optional --keep-env flag to the install script. Also, .env files are added to the .gitignore file.

Home directory

In some config files (like those for Fish and nvim), my user directory is hardcoded. If you want to replicate my config files, make sure you search and replace gerwin with your Linux account username.

Install command

Run ./install.sh .env where .env is the file with environment variables you have set. Optionally, you can pass the flags --keep-env (to not remove your env file after installation) and --skip-bitwarden (to skip the installation and initialization of bitwarden -> disable the ssh role because this requires Bitwarden.)

If you want to enable or disable certain roles, (un)comment them in main.yml in the root directory of this repository.

Configuration

If you want to add a package to the installation process, create a folder in the roles directory and add a main.yml file, which will be automatically executed by Ansible. If you need to add support for multiple Linux distributions, you can add the following to your main.yml file:

- name: "{{ role_name }} | Checking for Distribution Config: {{ ansible_distribution }}"
  ansible.builtin.stat:
    path: "{{ role_path }}/tasks/{{ ansible_distribution }}.yml"
  register: distribution_config

- name: "{{ role_name }} | Run Tasks: {{ ansible_distribution }}"
  ansible.builtin.include_tasks: "{{ ansible_distribution }}.yml"
  when: distribution_config.stat.exists

These tasks will check if you have specified custom Linux distribution tasks. If that is the case, they will be executed. For example, if you want to add support for Debian and Arch, add two files: Archlinux.yml and Debian.yml with their specific tasks inside.

Then, if you need to execute tasks for all Linux distributions, just add them to the main.yml file in the role directory.

Adding app installation

You can add packages several ways, depending on the Linux distribution. Choose the one that suit your needs.

Arch (Pacman)

- name: Install Name
  become: true
  pacman:
    name: "name"
    state: present

Arch (AUR/Yay)

- name: Install Name
  yay: name=name state=present

Debian

- name: Install name
  become: true
  apt:
    name: "name"
    state: present

Flatpak

- name: Install name (flatpak)
  community.general.flatpak:
    name: com.company.packagename
    state: present
    method: user

Adding config files

Often, you can define configuration files (dotfiles) for your apps. Almost all apps follow the convention of placing config files in ~/.config/{app_name}. To install those config files automatically, add all config files under roles/{name}/files/config. Then link them with the following Ansible task in /roles/{name}/main.yml.

- name: Symlink {name} dotfiles
  ansible.builtin.file:
    src: "{{ role_path }}/files/config"
    dest: "{{ XDG_CONFIG_HOME }}/{name}"
    state: link
    force: no

Keep in mind that these are symlinks, which means that the original files are in this repository. So clone this repository in a convenient place, where it can stay persistent.

Adding custom tasks

For custom tasks, add them to your role’s main.yml file. These could include setups beyond package installation, such as additional configuration or post-install tasks.

Feedback

If you have any feedback or questions, feel free to reach out! I'm always eager to learn and improve.