Macbook Setup

- 4 mins read

Prerequisites

Being a Macbook user means dependencies are for brew but this blog post should work with any unix distribution.

Goodbye hyprland

It is a weird feeling but I have to say goodbye to my archlinux. From my previous posts, I’ve been a Linux user and enjoying every bit of it. But now I have MacBook M4 which feels faster than my miniPC so I decided to make a switch. There is a learning curve to retrain my fingers for typing and for using gestures. It pains me to say goodbye to my tiling window application hyprland and I’m still searching for the closest replacement to it.

Setting up Mac

  1. Ensure Apple’s command line tools are installed.xcode-select --install to launch the installer.

  2. Install Ansible:

    1. Run the following command to add Python 3 to your $PATH: export PATH="$HOME/Library/Python/3.9/bin:/opt/homebrew/bin:$PATH"
    2. Upgrade Pip: sudo pip3 install --upgrade pip
    3. Install Ansible: pip3 install ansible

  3. Clone this repository to your local drive.

  4. Run ansible-galaxy install -r requirements.yml inside this directory to install required Ansible roles.

  5. Run ansible-playbook main.yml --ask-become-pass inside this directory. Enter your macOS account password when prompted for the ‘BECOME’ password.

Install using remote machine

You can use the playbook from my repository to manage remote Macs as well. The playbook doesn’t even need to be run from a Mac at all! You just need to make sure you can connect to it with SSH:

  1. On the Mac you want to connect to go to System Preferences > Sharing.
  2. Enable ‘Remote Login’.

You can also enable remote login on the command line:

sudo systemsetup -setremotelogin on

Then edit the inventory file in this repository and change the line that starts with 127.0.0.1 to:

[ip address or hostname of mac]  ansible_user=ssh

And copy your SSH key to the remote Mac using

ssh-copy-id user@remote.mac

Included Applications by default

Edit default.config.yml if you don’t like the applications below.

Applications with Homebrew Cask

Packages installed using homebrew

  • autoconf
  • bat
  • doxygen
  • eza
  • fzf
  • delta
  • gettext
  • git
  • gh
  • go
  • gpg
  • hashicorp/tap/terraform
  • httpie
  • hugo
  • iperf
  • libevent
  • mockery
  • neovim
  • nmap
  • node
  • nvm
  • ollama
  • pass
  • podman
  • powerlevel10k
  • pngpaste
  • ssh-copy-id
  • readline
  • openssl
  • pv
  • speedtest-cli
  • sqlite
  • thefuck
  • tldr
  • wget
  • wrk
  • zsh-autosuggestions
  • zsh-autocomplete

Downloading the roles

❯ ansible-galaxy install -r requirements.yml
Starting galaxy role install process
- downloading role 'osx-command-line-tools', owned by elliotweiser
- downloading role from https://github.com/elliotweiser/ansible-osx-command-line-tools/archive/2.3.0.tar.gz
- extracting elliotweiser.osx-command-line-tools to ~/sunday.project/macbook-setup/roles/elliotweiser.osx-command-line-tools
- elliotweiser.osx-command-line-tools (2.3.0) was installed successfully
- downloading role 'dotfiles', owned by geerlingguy
- downloading role from https://github.com/geerlingguy/ansible-role-dotfiles/archive/1.3.2.tar.gz
- extracting geerlingguy.dotfiles to ~/sunday.project/macbook-setup/roles/geerlingguy.dotfiles
- geerlingguy.dotfiles (1.3.2) was installed successfully
Starting galaxy collection install process
Nothing to do. All requested collections are already installed. If you want to reinstall them, consider using `--force`.

Running the playbook

❯ ansible-playbook -K main.yml
BECOME password:

PLAY [Configure host.] *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [Gathering Facts] *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
[WARNING]: Platform darwin on host 192.168.0.59 is using the discovered Python interpreter at /usr/bin/python3, but future installation of another Python interpreter could change the meaning of that path. See
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible-core/2.15/reference_appendices/interpreter_discovery.html for more information.
ok: [192.168.0.59]

TASK [Include playbook configuration.] *************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
skipping: [192.168.0.59]

...

TASK [geerlingguy.mac.homebrew : Install configured cask applications.] ****************************************************************************************************************************************************
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=anythingllm)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=brave-browser)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=chromedriver)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=firefox)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=font-meslo-lg-nerd-font)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=google-chrome)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=intellij-idea-ce)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=iterm2)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=kitty)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=licecap)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=nikitabobko/tap/aerospace)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=sequel-ace)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=slack)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=sublime-text)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=tradingview)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=trilium-notes)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=visual-studio-code)

TASK [geerlingguy.mac.homebrew : Ensure blacklisted homebrew packages are not installed.] **********************************************************************************************************************************
skipping: [192.168.0.59]

TASK [geerlingguy.mac.homebrew : Ensure configured homebrew packages are installed.] ***************************************************************************************************************************************
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=autoconf)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=bat)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=doxygen)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=eza)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=fzf)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=delta)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=gettext)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=git)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=gh)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=go)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=gpg)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=hashicorp/tap/terraform)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=httpie)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=iperf)
ok: [192.168.0.59] => (item=libevent)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=mockery)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=neovim)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=nmap)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=node)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=nvm)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=ollama)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=pass)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=podman)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=powerlevel10k)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=pngpaste)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=ssh-copy-id)
ok: [192.168.0.59] => (item=readline)
ok: [192.168.0.59] => (item=openssl)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=pv)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=speedtest-cli)
ok: [192.168.0.59] => (item=sqlite)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=thefuck)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=tldr)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=wget)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=wrk)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=zsh-autosuggestions)
changed: [192.168.0.59] => (item=zsh-autocomplete)

PLAY RECAP *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
192.168.0.59               : ok=22   changed=9    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=35   rescued=0    ignored=0