For general information about this repo and related ones, please see Provision Lightweight Development Environments.
From: No operating system installed.
To: Ubuntu Server 16.04 LTS configured to receive provisioning to customize it for software development.
Download iso from https://www.ubuntu.com/download/server.
Install Ubuntu Server as a VM (any hypervisor).
Ubuntu distros are intentionally configured with no root password as a way to encourage us to avoid logging in directly as root. To enable root login, create a root password as follows.
sudo passwd When prompted, enter the dev password, 'developer'.
When prompted for a new root password, enter 'admin'.
When prompted, re-type the root password.
This will install enough software on the instance to enable it to be used as a template for building software development environments tailored to different programming languages and development/testing tools.
The provisioning scripts are on Github. The instance needs git support to clone the repository and complete the configuration.
sudo apt install -y git or
su -
[enter root password]
apt install -y git
exit
Login as root. Clone the repository for Ubuntu Server 16.04:
cd
git clone git://github.com/neopragma/bootstrap-ubuntu-server-16.04-dev-baseIf you want your template to be configured differently than the default, make the necessary changes to bash scripts, Chef recipes, and configuration files.
In particular, look at:
- ubuntu_prep/recipes/install_neovim.rb - the
pip2 --installcommand will probably not work if you are running this with ssh. When testing, I had to run it while logged into the target instance as root. Even if run locally, people have reported problems with it on Ubuntu 16.04. - openbox/autostart - this contains xrandr commands corresponding to the monitor I used when testing the script. There were problems with Ubuntu 16.04 getting Xorg configuration to work as documented. Including xrandr settings in the autostart file is a brute-force workaround. You might want to try configuring X the usual way on your instance, and it might work.
The directory structure of the provisioning repository looks like this:
bootstrap-ubuntu-server-16.04-dev-base/
bootstrap Bash script to prepare the instance to run Chef
and kick off the Chef cookbook that completes
the provisioning.
scripts/ ```bootstrap``` copies these files to /usr/local/bin.
cli Escape from OpenBox to command line from terminal
provision Run the Chef cookbook to provision the instance
cook Run one Chef cookbook or cookbook::recipe
recipes List the available Chef recipes for provisioning
runchefspec Run `bundle exec rake` to run rspec on Chef recipes
ubuntu_prep/ ```bootstrap``` copies these files to prepare Chef
Gemfile => /root/chef-repo/cookbooks/ubuntu_prep/
Rakefile => /root/chef-repo/cookbooks/ubuntu_prep/
recipes/ => /root/chef-repo/cookbooks/ubuntu_prep/
spec/
spec_helper.rb => /root/chef-repo/cookbooks/ubuntu_prep/spec
unit/recipes/ => /root/chef-repo/cookbooks/ubuntu_prep/spec/unit/recipes
neovim/ Chef recipe ```install_neovim``` performs these copies.
=> /root/.config/nvim/
=> /dev/.config/nvim/
openbox/ Chef recipe ```install_x``` performs these copies.
=> /dev/.config/openbox/
If all goes well, this will provision the instance as a base or template for building development environments. Check the results carefully in case of errors. There are many steps and anything can happen despite care in preparing the script. Suggest you direct output to a file so you can browse the results with more or less.
cd /root/bootstrap-ubuntu-server-16.04-dev-base
./bootstrap 2>&1> bootstrap.out Some steps can't be scripted.
There are issues on Ubuntu distros with pip2. Might require some fiddling.
pip2 install --upgrade pip
pip2 install --user neovim
pip3 install --upgrade pip
pip3 install --user neovim For both the 'dev' and 'root' users, add an alias to the end of .bashrc to start an X session. Source .bashrc to enable the setting.
cd
echo "alias gui='startx'" >> .bashrc
. .bashrcThe install_neovim Chef recipe installs NeoVim into the alternatives system, but you may have to make it the default selection manually:
update-alternatives --config editor Choose the number corresponding to NeoVim and press Enter.
One-time run of :UpdateRemotePlugins for certain plugins.
- Start neovim
- Run the editor command :UpdateRemotePlugins
- Quit neovim
You may get the error "Please use apt-cdrom to make this CD-ROM recognized by APT, apt-get update cannot be used to add new CD-ROMs".
Find out which lines in the sources list refer to CD-ROMs:
cat /etc/apt/sources.list | grep cdromComment those lines out of the sources list and re-run the script.
If the bootstrap script partially completes and you re-run it, you might see the following warnings:
update-alternatives: warning: forcing reinstallation of alternative /usr/bin/gem2.4 because link group gem is broken
update-alternatives: warning: forcing reinstallation of alternative /usr/bin/ruby2.4 because link group ruby is broken
This will not affect the installation and no corrective action is needed.
If you interrupt the bootstrap script while an apt install is in progress, the dpkg status lock file may not be deleted. When that happens you will get this message on re-running the script.
Delete the lock file and reconfigure dpkg:
rm /var/lib/dpkg/lock
dpkg --configure -a Odd behavior on startx/xinit for non-root user; error messages appear but everything works anyway. Impact is 20 second delay before first terminal window is usable. Observed on Ubuntu Server 16.04 builds.