Ansible playbook to configure my laptops

This playbook is my laptop's configuration for both private and work, running Debian or Ubuntu distributions. It is based on:

• i3
• fish shell
• development for:
  • Python
  • Golang
  • Rust
  • Terraform, Consul, Nomad, Vault

Command shortcuts are available with a Taskfile, see task to list them all.

Its goal is to keep all my configurations and system state under this playbook in order to restore a working laptop within less than 1 hour.

See status of todos in the issues.

Run the installation

You should install the base OS with a SSH server and run the playbook from another host initially which will create the user. After the 1st run, you can run the update.sh script from the user home.

task local

Test on vagrant box

task vagrant

Get current host facts

task facts

LUKFS & LVM

To customize the LUKFS and LVM setup, the disk should be laid out using a live CD before performing the installation. After booting on the live CD:

1. Partition the disk for:
   • EFI volume (~500MB) + bootable flag. If there is an existing partition, it must be first deleted to avoid an error message.
   • /boot (~700MB) using ext2 (no need for journaled FS) without the bootable flag
   • a single partition with the rest to crypt
2. Create the LUKS container: cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/nvmen0p3 (see to change defaults)
3. Open the container: cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/nvmen0p3 cryptlvm
4. Create a physical volume on top of the opened LUKFS container: pvcreate /dev/mapper/cryptlvm
5. Create a volume group: vgcreate vglaptop /dev/mapper/cryptlvm
6. Create the logical volumes for /root, /home...:
   • lvcreate -L 70G vglaptop -n root
   • lvcreate -L 16G vglaptop -n swap (A little extra than the physical memory)
   • lvcreate -l 100%FREE vglaptop -n home
7. Format the filesystems:
   • mkfs.ext4 /dev/vglaptop/root
   • mkfs.ext4 /dev/vglaptop/home
   • mkswap /dev/vglaptop/swap
8. Install the system on the corresponding mount points
9. Perform those operations to configure the LUKS opening from the live CD:
   • mount /dev/vglaptop/root /mnt
   • mount /dev/vglaptop/home /mnt/home
   • mount /dev/nvmen0p2 /mnt/boot
   • mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
   • mount --bind /run/lvm /mnt/run/lvm
   • mount /dev/nvmen0p1 /mnt/boot/efi (EFI partition)
   • chroot /mnt
10. From inside the chroot partition:
    • mount -t proc proc /proc
    • mount -t sysfs sys /sys
    • mount -t devpts devpts /dev/pts
11. Setup crypttab (grep uuid from blkid | grep LUKS): echo "cryptlvm `blkid| grep LUK | awk -F '"' '{printf "UUID=" $2}'`none luks" > /etc/crypttab
12. Rebuild boot files:
    • update-initramfs -c -k all
    • update-grub or grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

In case there's some info on Archlinux - LVM on LUKS.

VPN connection

WireGuard

To create the set of keys:

wg genkey | tee vpn-client-private.key | wg pubkey > vpn-client-public.key

To import connection in the NetworkManager:

nmcli connection import type wireguard file <file.conf>

AWS IP ranges in routes

To add the AWS network ranges to go through the VPN, download the latest file at https://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/aws-ip-ranges.html. Insert them in the VPN entry with:

# IPv4
curl --silent https://ip-ranges.amazonaws.com/ip-ranges.json \
  | jq -r '.prefixes | .[].ip_prefix' \
  | tr '\n' ',' \
  | sed 's/,$//' \
  | xargs nmcli connection modify <vpn-name> ipv4.routes

# IPv6
curl --silent https://ip-ranges.amazonaws.com/ip-ranges.json \
  | jq -r '.ipv6_prefixes | .[].ipv6_prefix' \
  | tr '\n' ',' \
  | sed 's/,$//' \
  | xargs nmcli connection modify <vpn-name> ipv6.routes

Alternatives

Desktop

The default desktop is i3, but if it seems too raw, there's an alternative easier to use: https://regolith-linux.org/.

Bluetooth pairing

To pair with a device:

bluetoothctl
devices
pair A8:5B:78:A0:37:48
<confirm the code>
trust A8:5B:78:A0:37:48

To pair with the MX Ergo, don't open the BT manager but do everything from the command line.

Tips

• For Debian codename changes, run once sudo apt-get update --allow-releaseinfo-change to accept the change to the next version.

Notes

Dell XPS 15

• https://github.com/cloudxabide/Dell_XPS15_9520_Linux
• https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers
• https://github.com/bayasdev/envycontrol
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Bumblebee#Installation
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/NVIDIA_Optimus
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dell_XPS_15