Bernardo Magri
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Answering "how do I give you root": you don't. tools/plymouth-preview.sh renders the splash — LUKS dialog included — into X11 windows in ~10s with no reboot, no root and no DRM: - unshare -rm = user + mount namespace; every mount dies with it. - /run/plymouth is BOTH the socket dir and the compiled-in plugin path (`strings plymouthd` → /run/plymouth/plugins/), so we bind a writable dir over it AND recreate its symlinks — miss those and plymouth can't find x11.so, silently skips X11 and reaches for a tty. - never pass --tty (main.c:2133 takes the X11 path only while default_tty is unset); /dev/dri is masked so a preview physically cannot mode-set a real output — which matters on a docked session (#127). - PLY_CREATE_FAKE_MULTI_HEAD_SETUP fakes 800x600 + 640x480 heads. - debug wants plymouth.debug=stream: — `file:` buffers and yields nothing. What it proved immediately: with a STABLE two-head canvas the current theme centres correctly on both heads. So the geometry is fine and #137 really is the timing bug (positions frozen at parse time vs a canvas that resizes when a head arrives) — recorded in the item. And it caught my own fix: hoisting positions into layout() rendered the background on both heads and nothing else — no logo, no bar — with NO parse error logged. Reverted rather than shipped, because that script draws the passphrase box on an encrypted machine. #137 carries the failure, the prime suspect (plymouth script scope: assignment lands in `local` unless the name already exists) and the fast edit/render loop for the next attempt. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
165 lines
8.7 KiB
Markdown
165 lines
8.7 KiB
Markdown
# Testing Nomarchy
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How to verify changes actually work — from cheap eval checks to booting the
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full desktop. Adapted from the previous Nomarchy iteration's agent docs.
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**The honesty rule (for humans and AI agents alike):** for Waybar, Hyprland,
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or any visual change, the only reliable check is booting the live ISO. If
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you can't boot it (e.g. you're on macOS or have no KVM), **say so** rather
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than claiming success. "All Nix files parse" is not "the bar renders."
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## 1. Cheap checks (always do these first)
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```sh
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nix flake check --no-build # full module-system evaluation, no builds
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nix-instantiate --parse <file> # syntax-only, works even on macOS
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git ls-files '*.py' | xargs python3 -m py_compile # all tracked Python
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bash -n <script>.sh # shell syntax (tools/, installer bits)
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```
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`nix flake check` needs a Linux machine (or a Linux builder) since all
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outputs are `x86_64-linux`. It catches type errors, missing options, and
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bad merges — most breakage stops here. It also evaluates the downstream
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template through `lib.mkFlake` (including a real nixos-hardware profile),
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so template/wrapper drift fails fast too.
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## 1b. CI (automatic on push)
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Every push to `main`/`v1` runs `.gitea/workflows/check.yml`: the §1
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cheap checks (flake eval, Python + shell syntax) on the Gitea instance.
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That's the **eval tier only** — the runner is a docker container without
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KVM, so the `checks.*` VM suite and real builds stay local (this file)
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until a KVM-capable runner is registered; the workflow carries a
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commented `vm-checks` job ready for that day. A green CI run is *not* "it
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renders" (the honesty rule below still applies) — it means "nobody broke
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evaluation".
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## 2. Build and boot the live ISO
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```sh
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# Build + boot in QEMU, one command:
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tools/test-live-iso.sh
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# Or by hand:
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nix build .#nixosConfigurations.nomarchy-live.config.system.build.isoImage
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# → result/iso/*.iso — dd it to a USB stick for real hardware
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```
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The script prefers UEFI (OVMF) with a legacy-BIOS fallback, uses KVM when
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`/dev/kvm` is readable, and boots with `virtio-vga-gl` + `gl=on` —
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**Hyprland (and the desktop session) need real OpenGL in the guest**; without it the
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session may not start.
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### What the live environment gives you
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- Auto-login as `nomarchy` (no password, passwordless sudo), greetd →
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Hyprland via `initial_session`; logging out lands on tuigreet.
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- The flake is seeded writable at `~/.nomarchy` (from the read-only
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`/etc/nomarchy` copy) — `$NOMARCHY_PATH` already points there.
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- Locked flake inputs are pinned into the ISO store, so a
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`home-manager switch` for the **already-active / default theme** works
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**without a network**. Switching to an arbitrary other preset can still
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need downloads (that preset's HM generation is not in the pin) — the
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tool should fail with an offline-oriented message (#113).
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## 3. Verification checklist
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Work through these in order; each one exercises a different layer.
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| # | Check | Verifies |
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|---|---|---|
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| 1 | Boots to Hyprland with the default theme wallpaper visible (Boreal) | greetd autologin, awww, session start |
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| 2 | Waybar shows at top, themed (blue accent on dark) | HM waybar module, palette baking |
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| 3 | `SUPER+Return` opens Kitty with the default theme colors (Boreal) | terminal default, ANSI palette |
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| 4 | `btop` in the terminal is themed | per-theme asset baking |
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| 5 | `nomarchy-state-sync list` prints 24 presets | package, baked themes dir |
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| 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 |
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| 7 | `SUPER+SHIFT+T` cycles wallpapers instantly (try `tokyo-night` for 4, or `boreal` for its set) | the runtime wallpaper path |
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| 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 |
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| 9 | Open a GTK app — dark theme matching the palette | Stylix layer |
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| 10 | `home-manager generations` lists one generation per theme change; activating an older one rolls the theme back | atomicity / rollback story |
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Items 6 and 8 are the big ones — they prove the all-Home-Manager theming
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model end to end.
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## 4. Testing the installer
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One command runs the whole offline regression:
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```sh
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tools/test-install.sh
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```
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It builds the ISO, boots it in QEMU **with networking disabled**, runs an
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unattended LUKS+swap install onto a blank disk via the installer's
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`NOMARCHY_UNATTENDED=1` mode (config delivered on a small vfat disk —
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typing long commands into a guest drops keystrokes), waits for the
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installer's poweroff, then boots the installed disk, enters the
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passphrase, and screenshots the first boot. The machine-checkable parts
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(install completes, disk boots) fail the script; the visual verdict —
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**themed desktop, no autogenerated-config banner, no login prompt** — is
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yours, from `first-boot.png`. The helpers it builds on live in
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`tools/vm/` (QMP key injection, GL-safe VNC screenshots) and work for any
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manual VM poking; `tools/vm/gap-analysis.py` is the maintainer tool for
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diagnosing offline installs that try to build from source.
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To test by hand instead, replicate what `tools/test-install.sh` does: the
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unattended env it uses is in the script, and the same flow works
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interactively from the live terminal. If the desktop comes up unthemed,
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read `/var/log/nomarchy-hm-preactivate.log` on the installed system.
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`tools/plymouth-preview.sh` renders the **boot splash** — including the LUKS
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password dialog — into X11 windows in about ten seconds: no reboot, no root,
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and no DRM. It runs plymouthd inside `unshare -rm` (a user + mount namespace),
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binds a writable dir over `/run/plymouth` (which is both the daemon's socket
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dir *and* its compiled-in plugin path), masks `/dev/dri` so a preview can never
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mode-set a real output, and sets `PLY_CREATE_FAKE_MULTI_HEAD_SETUP` for plymouth's
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built-in fake dual head. Pass it a theme store path to iterate on the script
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without a rebuild. Use it before touching `modules/nixos/plymouth/`: that script
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draws the passphrase box, a failure there is silent (the plugin logs
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`starting boot animation` and no error), and "type your LUKS password blind" is
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a bad way to find out. Its limit: the fake heads exist from the start, so it
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cannot reproduce a head arriving *mid-splash* (#137).
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Two full-desktop VM harnesses (softGL Hyprland, too heavy for `checks.*`)
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live next to the scripts: `tools/theme-shot.nix` (themed-desktop
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screenshots) and `tools/monitor-fallback.nix` (KVM display transitions:
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atomic dock handoff, internal-first undock, and low-level lid-inhibitor
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lifecycle). The latter restores the DRM output before deleting QEMU's final
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synthetic headless output; physical cable-removal timing is a V3 check because
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Hyprland's headless backend otherwise aborts in a VM-only zero-output state.
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## 5. VM-specific gotchas
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- **No KVM** (e.g. nested without acceleration): everything works but
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`home-manager switch` will be painfully slow. Don't read slowness as
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breakage.
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- **Black screen / session exits**: almost always missing guest GL. Use the
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script's qemu flags; on real hardware check `journalctl -b -u greetd`.
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- **Tiny resolution**: the live config forces `monitor = ,highres,auto,1`;
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if QEMU still picks 1024×768, resize the window — Hyprland follows.
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- **Display menu + QEMU**: System › Display mode list is sorted by **pixel
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area** (highest first). After a pick, the toast shows hyprctl’s reported
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size. In a **fixed-size** QEMU/viewer window, a higher guest mode still
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*looks* smaller (more pixels in the same window) — that is viewer scaling,
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not an inverted apply. Trust hyprctl / the toast numbers.
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- **First theme switch is the slowest**: it evaluates the flake on a RAM
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disk. Subsequent switches reuse the eval cache.
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- **Menu geometry does not survive the guest**: the rofi picker draws with
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icons at roughly a quarter of `ui.iconSize` and rows short enough that a
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6-row root clips its last entry behind a scrollbar (`lines = 8` should
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fit it). Menu screenshots are evidence for **which rows appear**, never
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for spacing, icon size or label truncation — measure text against the
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40% window width instead, or check on hardware (BACKLOG #132).
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## 6. When something fails
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- Session/login problems: `journalctl -b -u greetd`, then `journalctl
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--user -b`.
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- Theme switch failures: run `nomarchy-state-sync apply <x>` from a
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terminal — the home-manager output streams there. The state file is
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written *before* the rebuild, so after fixing you can just re-run
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`home-manager switch --flake ~/.nomarchy`.
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- Report results faithfully: what booted, what rendered, what you could
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not verify and why.
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