jochen
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Evidence from both workstations and all four machines, read-only, and the questions each must answer: seats and gating for the display stack, who starts the session with which environment, contributions beyond shells, sway as a sibling session; the container runtime with docker-compose on workstations only, software outside the official repositories, secrets in the account's environment, and three security findings.
142 lines
8.1 KiB
Markdown
142 lines
8.1 KiB
Markdown
# 01 — What the workstations run
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Measured 2026-10-04 on the two workstations of one installation, read-only: a laptop with a hybrid
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GPU and an internal panel, and a desktop with one GPU and two external monitors. Both run the same
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predecessor-generated desktop. File equality was checked by checksum across the two machines.
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## How a session starts
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The chain is the same on both:
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1. The login manager (`lemurs`, built from the distribution's user repository, its package now in
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the official one) runs its X setup script on a virtual terminal.
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2. That script sources the login shell's profile files, then `~/.xprofile`, then the system's
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`xinitrc.d` drop-ins, then merges `~/.Xresources`.
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3. `~/.xprofile` reuses the systemd user manager's bus, then sources `~/.xinitrc`.
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4. `~/.xinitrc` sets up the session and ends with `exec i3`.
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The login manager's own window-manager entry (`exec startx`) is never reached. Its configuration
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file uses a format two releases old, and an unmerged newer one sits beside it.
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**What `~/.xinitrc` does**, in order:
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1. Sources the system drop-ins, which import `DISPLAY` and `XAUTHORITY` into the user manager.
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2. Starts the keyring and exports its ssh socket.
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3. Exports the session's environment:
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- `PATH`, with nine entries, one of them a directory that no longer exists;
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- toolchain variables;
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- `XDG_CONFIG_HOME` and `XDG_DATA_DIRS` (with flatpak);
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- five GTK/Qt theme variables;
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- the desktop's identity (`XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP`, `XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP`);
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- three of the operator's own variables.
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4. Imports an explicit allowlist of ten of those into the user manager and D-Bus activation. It is
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never `--all`, because:
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5. a predecessor file of **secrets as environment variables** (package-registry and API tokens) is
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sourced next.
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6. Sets the screensaver and display power timeouts, restores the wallpaper, and starts the lock
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watcher in a respawn loop. It is deliberately not a unit, because it needs the login session.
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7. `exec i3`.
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**The account's environment, as of today, has three sources that disagree:**
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- this file, for the session;
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- the mesh's `environment.sh`, for shells
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([ADR 0203](../../02-DECISIONS/0203-the-accounts-environment-is-one-modules-and-every-module-contributes-to-it.md));
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- `~/.config/environment.d/`, for the user manager. It holds the mesh's `50-mesh.conf`, and a
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predecessor file that **sets `PATH` outright** and sorts after it.
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## The roles, and what fills them
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| role | software | where configured |
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| login manager | lemurs | `/etc/lemurs/*` (identical on both, and to the predecessor's source) |
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| session start and environment | the login manager's X setup, `~/.xprofile`, `~/.xinitrc`, `xinitrc.d`, the D-Bus import, `environment.d` | `~/.xprofile`, `~/.xinitrc`, `~/.config/environment.d/*` |
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| display server | Xorg (`xorg-server`, `xinit`, the X apps; vendor drivers per GPU) | **no** `xorg.conf.d`; monitors by `xrandr` scripts |
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| monitor layout | `xrandr` scripts (arandr), a hotplug rule on the laptop | `~/.screenlayout/`, a scripts folder, a window-manager fragment |
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| window manager | i3 4.25 | `~/.config/i3/config` and `config.d/*`, a reload watcher (user unit) |
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| bar | i3bar with i3status-rust | `~/.config/i3status-rust/*`, 14 themes, a bar watchdog (user unit) |
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| terminal | xterm (the only terminal installed) | `~/.Xresources.d/xterm`, the window manager's binding, the compositor's opacity rule |
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| compositor | picom | `~/.config/picom/picom.conf` |
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| launcher and menus | rofi | `~/.config/rofi/*`, launcher, power-menu and theme-picker scripts |
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| notifier | dunst (D-Bus activated) | `~/.config/dunst/dunstrc`, `dunstrc.d/*` |
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| lock, idle, display power | xss-lock and i3lock-color, `xset` | `~/.xinitrc`, a lock script |
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| clipboard | greenclip, xclip | `greenclip.toml` |
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| wallpaper | feh | `~/.fehbg` (points into the predecessor's tree) |
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| theming | Adwaita dark, qt5ct/qt6ct, the desktop portal (GTK backend pinned) | GTK `settings.ini`, `qt*ct.conf`, `portals.conf`, an appearance script, `.Xresources` cursor |
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| fonts | Hack and Meslo Nerd fonts in `~/.local/share/fonts` (not packaged), noto | `~/.Xresources.d/xft` (DPI fixed at 96) |
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| keyboard | nothing set; the default layout; vendor keys via triggerhappy on the laptop | window-manager bindings, `/etc/triggerhappy` |
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**Packages:** every piece except two is in the distribution's official repositories, and the login
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manager now is too. The two exceptions are the lock screen's colour build (`i3lock-color`) and the
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clipboard manager (`rofi-greenclip`). The Nerd fonts exist as official packages, but both machines
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carry hand-copied files instead.
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## Identical, different, and why
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**Byte-identical on both machines:**
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- the session files: `.xinitrc`, `.xprofile`, `.Xresources` and its drop-ins;
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- the i3 main configuration and two of its fragments;
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- the bar's top configuration and themes;
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- picom, rofi, the GTK and Qt settings, the portal configuration, the login manager.
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**Different, by cause:**
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| cause | what |
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| hardware | the monitor layout script; the bar's battery block; the laptop's power and vendor-key units and udev rules |
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| misassignment | the desktop carries the **laptop's** hardware fragments: the vendor-key daemon and its triggers, the backlight rule, the brightness drop-in, a touchpad reset, and the laptop's monitor layouts, in an older version |
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| drift | the notifier's position and corner radius; a "temporary" window-manager fragment from a test; the bar watchdog disabled; a second Qt configuration tool; different font builds |
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| a stale session | the desktop's session began before two fixes, so it runs two notification daemons and two portals, and its user manager lacks the desktop's identity |
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**Dead references:** the window manager starts a polkit agent that is installed on neither machine,
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so there is no polkit agent at all. `PATH` names a directory that does not exist.
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**Per-machine values inside shared files:**
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- the DPI;
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- absolute home paths, in the clipboard configuration and the flatpak data directories;
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- the laptop's panel name, inside a fragment both machines carry.
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## User units the desktop needs
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| unit | does | laptop | desktop |
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| reload watcher | reloads the window manager and bar when their files change | on | on |
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| bar watchdog | restarts a dead bar | on | off |
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| clipboard daemon | from its package | via the window manager | unit **and** window manager |
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| vendor power profile, memory guard | laptop power | on | — |
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None is managed. Applying them as the account needs the host's user scope
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([ADR 0177](../../02-DECISIONS/0177-a-unit-may-be-user-scoped-and-the-service-manager-is-a-node-seat.md)),
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which is still an open change.
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## The predecessor's module
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One manifest of 983 lines covers the window manager, bar, launcher, notifier, compositor, lock
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screen, session bootstrap, theming and scripts. It:
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- has four *flavors*: i3, laptop (i3 plus the monitor wizard and hotplug), desktop (i3 plus
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nothing) and a laptop model (laptop plus vendor keys);
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- has about **105 theme variables** substituted into templates: border, gaps, fonts, workspace
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names, every colour of bar, launcher, notifier and lock screen, compositor opacity, cursor, idle
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times, Qt and GTK theme names;
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- enables the two user units from an install hook.
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Separate modules held the login manager and the display server (one flavor, `xorg`, with a comment
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calling `wayland` "the intended sibling"). The shell module held no graphical part.
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## Wayland and sway
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**Nothing exists.** There is no compositor, no sway configuration, no Wayland session entry, and the
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login manager's Wayland directory is empty. What is installed is libraries:
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- Wayland itself and the Qt Wayland plugins, which other packages pull in;
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- `xwayland`, explicitly installed and required by nothing;
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- on the desktop, an orphaned compositor library from another desktop environment, and that
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environment's portal backend, pulled in by a game launcher. The portal configuration pins
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against it.
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Every piece a sway session needs is in the official repositories: the compositor, its lock screen,
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a terminal (`foot`), a bar (`waybar`), a notifier (`mako`) and `xwayland`.
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