# Testing Nomarchy

How to verify changes actually work — from cheap eval checks to booting the
full desktop. Adapted from the previous Nomarchy iteration's agent docs.

**The honesty rule (for humans and AI agents alike):** for Waybar, Hyprland,
or any visual change, the only reliable check is booting the live ISO. If
you can't boot it (e.g. you're on macOS or have no KVM), **say so** rather
than claiming success. "All Nix files parse" is not "the bar renders."

## 1. Cheap checks (always do these first)

```sh
nix flake check --no-build          # full module-system evaluation, no builds
nix-instantiate --parse <file>      # syntax-only, works even on macOS
git ls-files '*.py' | xargs python3 -m py_compile   # all tracked Python
bash -n <script>.sh                 # shell syntax (tools/, installer bits)
```

`nix flake check` needs a Linux machine (or a Linux builder) since all
outputs are `x86_64-linux`. It catches type errors, missing options, and
bad merges — most breakage stops here. It also evaluates the downstream
template through `lib.mkFlake` (including a real nixos-hardware profile),
so template/wrapper drift fails fast too.

## 1b. CI (automatic on push)

Every push to `main`/`v1` runs `.gitea/workflows/check.yml`: the §1
cheap checks (flake eval, Python + shell syntax) on the Gitea instance.
That's the **eval tier only** — the runner is a docker container without
KVM, so the `checks.*` VM suite and real builds stay local (this file)
until a KVM-capable runner is registered; the workflow carries a
commented `vm-checks` job ready for that day. A green CI run is *not* "it
renders" (the honesty rule below still applies) — it means "nobody broke
evaluation".

## 2. Build and boot the live ISO

```sh
# Build + boot in QEMU, one command:
tools/test-live-iso.sh

# Or by hand:
nix build .#nixosConfigurations.nomarchy-live.config.system.build.isoImage
# → result/iso/*.iso  — dd it to a USB stick for real hardware
```

The script prefers UEFI (OVMF) with a legacy-BIOS fallback, uses KVM when
`/dev/kvm` is readable, and boots with `virtio-vga-gl` + `gl=on` —
**Hyprland (and the desktop session) need real OpenGL in the guest**; without it the
session may not start.

### What the live environment gives you

- Auto-login as `nomarchy` (no password, passwordless sudo), greetd →
  Hyprland via `initial_session`; logging out lands on tuigreet.
- The flake is seeded writable at `~/.nomarchy` (from the read-only
  `/etc/nomarchy` copy) — `$NOMARCHY_PATH` already points there.
- Locked flake inputs are pinned into the ISO store, so a
  `home-manager switch` for the **already-active / default theme** works
  **without a network**. Switching to an arbitrary other preset can still
  need downloads (that preset's HM generation is not in the pin) — the
  tool should fail with an offline-oriented message (#113).

## 3. Verification checklist

Work through these in order; each one exercises a different layer.

| # | Check | Verifies |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boots to Hyprland with the default theme wallpaper visible (Boreal) | greetd autologin, awww, session start |
| 2 | Waybar shows at top, themed (blue accent on dark) | HM waybar module, palette baking |
| 3 | `SUPER+Return` opens Kitty with the default theme colors (Boreal) | terminal default, ANSI palette |
| 4 | `btop` in the terminal is themed | per-theme asset baking |
| 5 | `nomarchy-state-sync list` prints 24 presets | package, baked themes dir |
| 6 | `nomarchy-state-sync apply boreal` (or re-apply the **current** theme) offline → switch succeeds. Applying a *different* preset may need a network — the ISO pins the default theme's generation, not every preset (#113) | state write + offline rebuild contract |
| 7 | `SUPER+SHIFT+T` cycles wallpapers instantly (try `tokyo-night` for 4, or `boreal` for its set) | the runtime wallpaper path |
| 8 | `nomarchy-state-sync apply summer-night` → after the switch the bar has its own identity (light bar, different styling) | whole-swap waybar.css assets |
| 9 | Open a GTK app — dark theme matching the palette | Stylix layer |
| 10 | `home-manager generations` lists one generation per theme change; activating an older one rolls the theme back | atomicity / rollback story |

Items 6 and 8 are the big ones — they prove the all-Home-Manager theming
model end to end.

## 4. Testing the installer

One command runs the whole offline regression:

```sh
tools/test-install.sh
```

It builds the ISO, boots it in QEMU **with networking disabled**, runs an
unattended LUKS+swap install onto a blank disk via the installer's
`NOMARCHY_UNATTENDED=1` mode (config delivered on a small vfat disk —
typing long commands into a guest drops keystrokes), waits for the
installer's poweroff, then boots the installed disk, enters the
passphrase, and screenshots the first boot. The machine-checkable parts
(install completes, disk boots) fail the script; the visual verdict —
**themed desktop, no autogenerated-config banner, no login prompt** — is
yours, from `first-boot.png`. The helpers it builds on live in
`tools/vm/` (QMP key injection, GL-safe VNC screenshots) and work for any
manual VM poking; `tools/vm/gap-analysis.py` is the maintainer tool for
diagnosing offline installs that try to build from source.

To test by hand instead, replicate what `tools/test-install.sh` does: the
unattended env it uses is in the script, and the same flow works
interactively from the live terminal. If the desktop comes up unthemed,
read `/var/log/nomarchy-hm-preactivate.log` on the installed system.

`tools/plymouth-preview.sh` renders the **boot splash** — including the LUKS
password dialog — into X11 windows in about ten seconds: no reboot, no root,
and no DRM. It runs plymouthd inside `unshare -rm` (a user + mount namespace),
binds a writable dir over `/run/plymouth` (which is both the daemon's socket
dir *and* its compiled-in plugin path), masks `/dev/dri` so a preview can never
mode-set a real output, and sets `PLY_CREATE_FAKE_MULTI_HEAD_SETUP` for plymouth's
built-in fake dual head. Pass it a theme store path to iterate on the script
without a rebuild. Use it before touching `modules/nixos/plymouth/`: that script
draws the passphrase box, a failure there is silent (the plugin logs
`starting boot animation` and no error), and "type your LUKS password blind" is
a bad way to find out. Its limit: the fake heads exist from the start, so it
cannot reproduce a head arriving *mid-splash* (#137).

Two full-desktop VM harnesses (softGL Hyprland, too heavy for `checks.*`)
live next to the scripts: `tools/theme-shot.nix` (themed-desktop
screenshots) and `tools/monitor-fallback.nix` (KVM display transitions:
atomic dock handoff, internal-first undock, and low-level lid-inhibitor
lifecycle). The latter restores the DRM output before deleting QEMU's final
synthetic headless output; physical cable-removal timing is a V3 check because
Hyprland's headless backend otherwise aborts in a VM-only zero-output state.

## 5. VM-specific gotchas

- **No KVM** (e.g. nested without acceleration): everything works but
  `home-manager switch` will be painfully slow. Don't read slowness as
  breakage.
- **Black screen / session exits**: almost always missing guest GL. Use the
  script's qemu flags; on real hardware check `journalctl -b -u greetd`.
- **Tiny resolution**: the live config forces `monitor = ,highres,auto,1`;
  if QEMU still picks 1024×768, resize the window — Hyprland follows.
- **Display menu + QEMU**: System › Display mode list is sorted by **pixel
  area** (highest first). After a pick, the toast shows hyprctl’s reported
  size. In a **fixed-size** QEMU/viewer window, a higher guest mode still
  *looks* smaller (more pixels in the same window) — that is viewer scaling,
  not an inverted apply. Trust hyprctl / the toast numbers.
- **First theme switch is the slowest**: it evaluates the flake on a RAM
  disk. Subsequent switches reuse the eval cache.
- **Menu geometry does not survive the guest**: the rofi picker draws with
  icons at roughly a quarter of `ui.iconSize` and rows short enough that a
  6-row root clips its last entry behind a scrollbar (`lines = 8` should
  fit it) — the guest's font/icon environment, not a regression. Menu
  screenshots are evidence for **which rows appear**, never for spacing,
  icon size or label truncation.
  **And do not "just measure" instead** — that is how #131 stayed wrong for
  weeks. Measuring needs a width and a font, and both are per-theme: text
  menus render through `themes/<slug>/rofi.rasi`, where boreal and
  neon-glass pinned a fixed `620px` while the rest used `40%`, in fonts from
  Inter 11 to JetBrainsMono 14. The item measured one combination that no
  theme actually shipped, concluded "only truncates below 1920", and the
  truncation was live on a 2560 panel. Since #131 the width is
  `calc( 84ch min 65% )` — font-relative by design, so the arithmetic is
  even less predictable from a spec sheet. **Judge it by rendering**: on
  hardware, or with `rofi -dmenu -theme <the built rasi>` plus
  `hyprctl layers` for the real width. `checks.rofi-text-width` guards the
  invariant that makes it fit; nothing guards how it looks.

## 6. When something fails

- Session/login problems: `journalctl -b -u greetd`, then `journalctl
  --user -b`.
- Theme switch failures: run `nomarchy-state-sync apply <x>` from a
  terminal — the home-manager output streams there. The state file is
  written *before* the rebuild, so after fixing you can just re-run
  `home-manager switch --flake ~/.nomarchy`.
- Report results faithfully: what booted, what rendered, what you could
  not verify and why.