spin up a xenial image with vnc

hosts

[all]
xenial-host

[all:vars]
ansible_user=vagrant
ansible_python_interpreter=/usr/bin/python3
ansible_port=2222
ansible_ssh_common_args='-o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null'

playbook.yml

# ansible-playbook -vvv -i hosts playbook.yml
- hosts: all
  sudo: True

  roles:
      - webofmars.xfce4-desktop

  vars:
      ansible_user_home: "/home/{{ ansible_user }}"
      src_directory: "/home/src"

  tasks:
  - shell: whoami

  - package:
      # vncserver -geometry 1920x1080
      name: vnc4server
      state: latest

  - command: which emacs
    register: which_emacs
    ignore_errors: True

  # EMACS
  - block:
    # ubuntu only
    - package:
        name: emacs
        state: build-dep
    
    - package:
        name: "{{ item }}"
        state: latest
      with_items:
        - build-essential
        - libpng-dev
        - libgif-dev
        - libtiff5-dev
        - imagemagick
        - libmagickcore-dev
        - libwebkitgtk-3.0-dev
        - libgtk-3-dev
        - libxpm-dev
        - libxml2-dev
        - libcairo2-dev
        - libncurses5-dev
        - libmagick++-dev
    
    - file:
        path: "{{ src_directory }}/emacs-25.2"
        state: directory
        owner: "{{ ansible_user }}"
        group: "{{ ansible_user }}"
    
    # download emacs source
    - get_url:
        url: https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/emacs-25.2.tar.xz
        dest: "{{ src_directory }}/emacs-25.2.tar.xz"
        owner: "{{ ansible_user }}"
        group: "{{ ansible_user }}"
    
    # Unarchive a file that needs to be downloaded (added in 2.0)
    - unarchive:
        src: "{{ src_directory }}/emacs-25.2.tar.xz"
        dest: "{{ src_directory }}"
        owner: "{{ ansible_user }}"
        group: "{{ ansible_user }}"
        remote_src: True
  
    - name: configure & build emacs
      shell: "{{ item }}"
      args:
        chdir: "{{ src_directory }}/emacs-25.2"
      become: yes
      become_user: "{{ ansible_user }}"
      with_items:
          - ./configure --with-cairo --with-xwidgets --with-x-toolkit=gtk
          - make -j2

    - name: install emacs
      shell: "make install"
      args:
        chdir: "{{ src_directory }}/emacs-25.2"

    when: which_emacs|failed
  # /EMACS

  # ELECTRON
  - package:
      name: "{{ item }}"
      state: latest
    with_items:
      - npm
      - nodejs-legacy
      - libgtk2.0-0
    
  - npm:
      global: yes
      name: "{{ item }}"
    with_items:
      - npm
      - n
    
  - shell: n stable

  # bloddy npm installers. this is the only one that works
  # https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-prebuilt/issues/139#issuecomment-245098956
  - shell: npm install -g electron --unsafe-perm=true --allow-root
  # bloddy electron fix
  # without it, you get
  # Xlib: extension "XInputExtension" missing on display ":1.0".
  # and electron doesn't start
  # ref: https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/3451#issuecomment-248398326
  - shell: sed -i 's/BIG-REQUESTS/_IG-REQUESTS/' /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxcb.so.1