Ubuntu Developer Workstation Setup (Ansible Playbook)

This repository contains an Ansible playbook (dev-setup.yml) designed to automate the setup of a powerful developer workstation based on Ubuntu Desktop. It aims to install and configure a range of essential development tools and services.

Purpose

The dev-setup.yml playbook automates the installation and configuration of various software components required for a modern development workflow. By running this playbook, you can quickly set up a consistent environment including language version managers, containerization tools, databases, and IDEs.

Prerequisites

• A machine running Ubuntu Desktop (or a compatible Debian-based distribution).
• git installed on the target machine to clone this repository.
• ansible installed on the target machine. You can typically install it using sudo apt update && sudo apt install ansible.
• Sudo privileges for the user running the playbook, as some tasks require root access (handled by become: yes in the playbook).
• An active internet connection to download packages, tools, and container images.

How to Run the Setup

This repository includes a simple bash script, install-dev.sh, to facilitate running the Ansible playbook with the necessary options.

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/jsbhullar/dev-setup.git
   cd dev-setup

2. Make the script executable:

   chmod +x install-dev.sh

3. Run the installation script:

   ./install-dev.sh

The script will:

• Print introductory messages.
• Prompt you if you want to enable verbose output for the Ansible run (you can enter -v, -vv, -vvv, or just press Enter for no verbosity).
• Execute the ansible-playbook dev-setup.yml -K [verbosity] command. The -K flag will prompt you for your user's password for sudo (privilege escalation) when the playbook requires it.
• The Ansible playbook will then run, prompting you interactively for each optional component you wish to install (Go, Rust, Ollama, etc.). Respond with yes or no.

What the Playbook Does

The dev-setup.yml playbook performs the following actions:

• Base System Setup:

  • Updates the system's package list (apt update).
  • Installs essential build tools and common packages (build-essential, curl, git, unzip, zip, software-properties-common, apt-transport-https, ca-certificates, gnupg, and various development libraries like libssl-dev, zlib1g-dev, libreadline-dev, libffi-dev, etc., along with python3-pip).

• Python Stack (via pyenv):

  • Installs pyenv by cloning its repository into ~/.pyenv.
  • Adds pyenv initialization lines to the user's ~/.bashrc file to configure the shell environment.
  • Installs Python version 3.12.3 using pyenv.
  • Sets Python 3.12.3 as the global default Python version for the user using pyenv.
  • Installs pipx using the newly installed Python version.
  • Installs uv (a fast Python package installer and resolver) using pipx.

• Node.js (via nvm):

  • Installs nvm (Node Version Manager) using its official install script into ~/.nvm.
  • Adds nvm initialization lines to the user's ~/.bashrc file.
  • Installs the latest LTS (Long Term Support) version of Node.js using nvm.

• Rust (Optional):

  • If you choose to install Rust: Downloads and runs the rustup.rs script to install Rust and the Cargo package manager.
  • Adds Cargo's binary directory (~/.cargo/bin) to the user's PATH in ~/.bashrc.

• Go (Optional):

  • If you choose to install Go: Downloads the Go 1.22.3 binary release for Linux AMD64.
  • Extracts the Go archive to /usr/local.
  • Adds the Go binary directory (/usr/local/go/bin) to the user's PATH in ~/.bashrc.

• Docker (Optional):

  • If you choose to install Docker: Downloads and runs the official get-docker.sh convenience script.
  • Adds the current user to the docker group, allowing non-root execution of Docker commands (requires logging out and back in or restarting the system to take effect).
  • Ensures the Docker systemd service is enabled and started.

• Portainer (Optional, Docker GUI):

  • If you choose to install Portainer and Docker: Creates a Docker volume named portainer_data.
  • Runs the portainer/portainer-ce:latest Docker container, configured to start automatically, expose ports 8000 (edge agent) and 9443 (web UI), and use the portainer_data volume. Access the UI at https://localhost:9443.

• Ollama (Optional, Local LLM Runner):

  • If you choose to install Ollama: Downloads and runs the official ollama.com/install.sh script to install Ollama, a tool for running large language models locally.

• Open WebUI (Optional, Ollama Frontend):

  • If you choose to install Open WebUI and Ollama: Creates a directory ~/.open-webui for data persistence.
  • Runs the ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui Docker container, configured to restart unless stopped, map host port 3002 to container port 3000, mount the data directory, and set the OLLAMA_BASE_URL to connect to the locally installed Ollama instance. Access the UI at http://localhost:3002.

• PostgreSQL (in Docker):

  • Runs a postgres:16 Docker container named dev-postgres, configured to restart unless stopped.
  • Maps host port 5432 to the container's port 5432.
  • Sets environment variables for the default user (devuser), password (devpass), and database (devdb). Connect to this instance at localhost:5432.

• Visual Studio Code (Optional):

  • If you choose to install VS Code: Downloads and installs the latest stable code_*.deb package from Microsoft. This typically also adds the VS Code repository for future updates via apt. Launch using code in the terminal or via the application menu.

• pgAdmin 4 Desktop (Optional, PostgreSQL GUI):

  • If you choose to install pgAdmin: Downloads the pgAdmin public key and adds it to the system's keyrings.
  • Adds the official pgAdmin 4 APT repository to your system's software sources.
  • Updates the APT cache and installs the pgadmin4-desktop package. Launch via the application menu. Connect to the dev-postgres container at localhost:5432 using the defined credentials.

Port Map Summary (for Docker services)

Service	Access URL/Port	Notes
Portainer	https://localhost:9443	Docker GUI
Open WebUI	http://localhost:3002	Frontend for local Ollama instance
PostgreSQL	localhost:5432	Development database instance (devdb)

Note: The Dokploy service mentioned in previous README versions is not included in the current dev-setup.yml playbook provided.

Contributing

Feel free to fork this repository and modify the dev-setup.yml playbook to fit your specific development needs. If you identify improvements to the playbook structure or find issues, consider opening a pull request.

License

MIT License

Copyright (c) [2025] [Meharsoft Technologies Pvt.Ltd.]

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.