fedora-init

Ansible playbook to automate setting up a Fedora workstation from scratch.

Layout

fedora-init/
├── ansible.cfg
├── hosts.yaml
├── fedora_init.yaml     # main playbook — system-level setup and entry point
└── tasks/
    ├── codecs.yaml          # ffmpeg swap and multimedia codec group
    ├── nvidia.yaml          # NVIDIA drivers, services, and nvtop
    ├── packages.yaml        # dnf packages, flatpaks (minimal + extras)
    ├── vscode.yaml          # Visual Studio Code
    ├── brave.yaml           # Brave Origin browser
    ├── fonts.yaml           # Microsoft Core Fonts
    ├── gnome-extensions.yaml # GNOME shell extensions via gext
    └── development.yaml     # build deps, pyenv, uv, Docker, kubectl, kind

fedora_init.yaml

The main playbook handles foundational system setup that everything else depends on:

• Installs dnf-plugins-core (required by both Brave and Docker repo setup)
• Detects the Fedora version and whether an NVIDIA GPU is present
• Enables RPM Fusion (free + nonfree) repositories
• Delegates all other setup to task files via ansible.builtin.import_tasks
• Defines the Restart Docker handler used by the NVIDIA container toolkit configuration

tasks/codecs.yaml

• Swaps ffmpeg-free for ffmpeg (skipped if already swapped)
• Updates the multimedia codec group

tasks/nvidia.yaml

All NVIDIA-related setup, skipped automatically on non-NVIDIA systems:

• Installs NVIDIA drivers (akmod-nvidia, CUDA, power management, VA-API codec)
• Installs nvtop for GPU monitoring
• Enables nvidia-suspend, nvidia-resume, and nvidia-hibernate systemd services

tasks/packages.yaml

General application installs and removals:

• Installs gnome-tweaks, ffmpegthumbnailer, vlc, libreoffice-writer, libreoffice-calc
• Removes unwanted GNOME apps (tour, contacts, maps, weather, help, and others)
• Adds Flathub and installs a minimal set of flatpak apps: Spotify, Flatseal, GNOME Extensions
• Installs extra flatpak apps tagged extras (skippable for a leaner setup): GIMP, Tiny Wii Backup Manager, PCSX2, Czkawka

tasks/vscode.yaml

• Adds the Microsoft GPG key and yum repository
• Installs Visual Studio Code

tasks/brave.yaml

• Adds the Brave Beta yum repository
• Installs Brave Origin browser

tasks/fonts.yaml

• Installs font tooling dependencies (curl, cabextract, xorg-x11-font-utils, mkfontscale, fontconfig, cpio, unzip)
• Downloads the msttcore-fonts-installer RPM from SourceForge and verifies its SHA256 checksum
• Installs the RPM with --nodigest --nofiledigest (required because this 2013 community package lacks the digest metadata DNF5 expects); skipped if already installed

tasks/gnome-extensions.yaml

Installs GNOME shell extensions via gext install:

• dash-to-dock@micxgx.gmail.com
• randomwallpaper@iflow.space
• blur-my-shell@aunetx
• accent-directories@taiwbi.com

Note: gext install also attempts to enable extensions, which requires a running GNOME session. If run before first login, install succeeds but enabling may fail silently. Re-run or enable manually with gext enable <uuid> after logging in.

tasks/development.yaml

Developer toolchain setup:

• Installs C/Python build dependencies (gcc, make, *-devel packages, etc.)
• Installs pyenv (skipped if already installed), runs pyenv update, and configures it in .bashrc and .bash_profile
• Installs uv and configures shell completion
• Installs Docker CE and (if NVIDIA detected) the NVIDIA Container Toolkit
• Configures the NVIDIA runtime for Docker and triggers a Docker restart via handler
• Adds the current user to the docker group
• Adds the Kubernetes package repository and installs kubectl (with bash completion)
• Installs kind from the upstream release binary into /usr/local/bin (the Fedora kind package requires docker-cli, which docker-ce-cli does not provide)

Tags

Two tags allow trimming the install for a leaner setup:

• extras — optional flatpak apps in tasks/packages.yaml (GIMP, Tiny Wii Backup Manager, PCSX2, Czkawka)
• development — everything in tasks/development.yaml and tasks/vscode.yaml (build deps, pyenv, uv, Docker, kubectl, kind, VS Code)

Skip either or both with --skip-tags:

ansible-playbook fedora_init.yaml --skip-tags extras --ask-become-pass
ansible-playbook fedora_init.yaml --skip-tags extras,development --ask-become-pass

Prerequisites

sudo dnf -y update

sudo dnf install ansible -y
ansible-galaxy collection install community.general

Then reboot before running the playbook so the updated kernel is active.

Run

[!CAUTION] DO NOT RUN AS ROOT

ansible-playbook fedora_init.yaml --ask-become-pass

Reboot after the playbook completes (required for NVIDIA drivers and group membership changes to take effect).