debian-dev-machine-setup | Debian 13

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Description

This repository contains Ansible playbooks to configure a system as a lightweight ephemeral development machine after a clean install.

The playbooks are designed for Debian-based systems with minimal modifications but have only been tested on:

• Debian 13/Trixie (stable)

What Gets Installed and Configured?

Below is a summary of the packages installed and configured, organized by roles:

• role: base
  • Sets the default system editor to Vim instead of Nano.
  • Enables the UFW firewall.
  • Tunes system swappiness to minimize swapping.
  • Upgrades all system packages.
  • Installs archiving tools like zip, rar, and others.
  • Installs LibreOffice.
  • Installs development tools such as httpie, xh, cargo, golang, poetry, and more.
  • Installs download tools like wget and aria2.
  • Installs image, audio, and video tools like vlc and imagemagick.
  • Enables fzf fuzzy finder in the Zsh terminal; see this YouTube video for usage instructions.
• role: terminal_customizations
  • Downloads and installs Nerd Fonts from ryanoasis/nerd-fonts, ideal for terminals and programming editors.
  • Copies and enables a sample Tilix configuration file with a configured Nerd Font.
  • Copies and enables a sample ~/.tmux.conf file with the Tmux Plugin Manager and several Tmux plugins if one does not exist.
• role: vim
  • Installs Vim packages.
  • Installs the amix/vimrc Vim distribution.
  • Creates a sample Vim customization file at ~/.vim_runtime/my_configs.vim.
    • Additional Vim settings are enabled in ~/.vim_runtime/my_configs.vim, which are not part of the Vim distribution. Edit this file as needed.
• role: zsh
  • Installs the Zsh package and sets it as the user’s default shell.
  • Installs the zinit Zsh plugin manager.
  • Copies and enables a sample ~/.zshrc file if one does not exist, including:
    • A function to prevent ssh-agent from repeatedly prompting for encrypted SSH key passwords when opening new terminals.
    • Additional shell aliases, functions, and variables in ~/.shell_aliases.sh, ~/.shell_functions.sh, and ~/.shell_variables.sh.
  • Installs ohmyzsh and enables select bundled plugins.
  • Enables the Pure Zsh theme (other themes like spaceship-promopt and bullet-train can also be configured).
• role: privacy
  • Installs Tor.
  • Configures Tor to run at boot and excludes certain countries as exit nodes.
    • Edit /etc/tor/torrc as needed.
  • Installs ProxyChains.
  • Configures ProxyChains to use Tor; see my Medium story for usage instructions.
    • Edit /etc/proxychains4.conf as needed.
  • Installs the Metadata Anonymization Toolkit.
• role: security
  • Installs ClamAV (antivirus) CLI tool.
  • Installs Firejail for sandboxing applications.

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Step 0 | Prerequisites for Running the Ansible Playbooks

On the system to be configured, perform the following steps.

Install ansible and git using apt:

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade -y
sudo apt install ansible git -y

Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/FazleArefin/debian-dev-machine-setup.git
cd debian-dev-machine-setup

Step 1 | Running the Playbooks to Configure Your System

Run the following command as the primary user of the system, not as root:

ansible-playbook main.yml -vv --ask-become-pass

Enter the sudo password when prompted for BECOME password:.

The main.yml playbook may take 10 minutes to an hour to complete depending on your system and internet connection speed.

After completion, reboot your system to apply all changes.

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Known Issues

• If the Ansible playbook halts after completing some tasks, rerun it. Most tasks are idempotent, so running the playbook multiple times will not cause issues.
• If your terminal displays garbled characters due to a Zsh theme, change the terminal font to a suitable Nerd Font in the terminal settings.
• To disable fuzzy finder completions, comment out or remove the #fzf lines in ~/.zshrc (this is a feature, not an issue).

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Pull Requests and Forks

Pull requests are welcome, but this repository is tailored to my needs. For personalization, consider forking the repository to suit your requirements.