Phase 2 desktop: thirteen modules, one per piece of the graphical session (hq ADR 0208, to-be 42) #270

2026-10-04T12:56:40Z

mesh-admin commented

2026-10-04 12:56:40 +00:00

The workstation's graphical session as modules, each holding or claiming one of ADR 0208's seats:

Core: xorg (display server; writes the session start), lemurs (login manager), i3 (display session; reload watcher checked), xterm (terminal emulator), adwaita (dark theme for GTK, Qt, the portal and the cursor).
Companions: picom, rofi, dunst, screen-lock, clipmenu, feh (wallpaper as its own archive), i3status-rust, gnome-keyring.

Custom code is Go. Each tool is <module>_<verb>.

Checked: mesh-controller module check passes all 103 manifests against controller main 568f55f. go vet and go test pass in every module.

Rollout: register, assign all to g14 in one push (applies at the next login), verify, then shanks. Replaces branches feat/phase-2-desktop-core and feat/phase-2-desktop-companions-rebased.

The workstation's graphical session as modules, each holding or claiming one of ADR 0208's seats: - **Core:** xorg (display server; writes the session start), lemurs (login manager), i3 (display session; reload watcher checked), xterm (terminal emulator), adwaita (dark theme for GTK, Qt, the portal and the cursor). - **Companions:** picom, rofi, dunst, screen-lock, clipmenu, feh (wallpaper as its own archive), i3status-rust, gnome-keyring. Custom code is Go. Each tool is `<module>_<verb>`. Checked: `mesh-controller module check` passes all 103 manifests against controller main 568f55f. `go vet` and `go test` pass in every module. Rollout: register, assign all to g14 in one push (applies at the next login), verify, then shanks. Replaces branches `feat/phase-2-desktop-core` and `feat/phase-2-desktop-companions-rebased`.

mesh-admin added 15 commits 2026-10-04 12:56:40 +00:00

picom: the compositor as a module, claiming node-compositor (hq ADR 0208) 04894e6618

Owns its configuration, moved to picom's window rules; started once from the
session's xinitrc slot; Go tools restart, rules, window-opacity and toggle, which
find the operator's X session from the window manager's environment.

rofi: the launcher as a module, claiming node-launcher and serving menu (hq ADR 0208) f0f0a79623

Places the seat's dmenu-compatible command, the launcher and power menu, its
themes in the decided faces, and its key bindings as an i3 drop-in; Go tools
menu, applications, themes and run.

dunst: the notifier as a module, claiming node-notifier and serving send and history (hq ADR 0208) 8bbea4a2ad

Owns one dunstrc (the laptop's, in the interface face, its menu on the seat's
dmenu command) and the dunstrc.d directory for other modules' rules; D-Bus
starts it, so nothing else does. Go tools over the session bus.

screen-lock: the lock screen as a module, claiming node-lock-screen and serving lock (hq ADR 0208) 0fa90e5cf2

The distribution's i3lock behind a locker that releases xss-lock's sleep lock
once it is up; timeouts and xss-lock from the session's xinitrc slot, ending
with the session; i3lock-color and xscreensaver declared absent; Go tools lock,
idle, inhibit and locked.

clipmenu: the clipboard manager as a module, claiming node-clipboard and serving history and copy (hq ADR 0208) c42cd285e2

Replaces the AUR greenclip (declared absent) with the official clipmenu, started
once from the session's xinitrc slot, its menu the launcher's dmenu command bound
as an i3 drop-in, its history in the runtime directory. Go tools read and change
clipmenu's own store under its lock.

feh: the wallpaper as a module, its image an archive of its own (hq ADR 0208, ADR 0205) 91c6fa6fce

~/.fehbg stops pointing into the predecessor's tree; the session's xinitrc slot
runs it once; Go tools set (for the session) and current.

i3status-rust: the bars as a module, claiming node-bar (hq ADR 0208) 838e1c2616

Owns both bars and their icons, the bar blocks as an i3 drop-in; the battery,
GPU and headset blocks leave (hardware and a person's devices), the weather needs
no key; the update count and the bar watchdog become module code, the watchdog
started once per session. Go tools reload, blocks, block-run and themes.

gnome-keyring: the secret service as a module, claiming node-secret-service (hq ADR 0208, ADR 0102) e810afb3eb

PAM lines written into login and passwd as blocks, so login unlocks the keyring
on both workstations; no daemon of its own; gcr's ssh agent named for the session
until the environment can say a runtime-directory path. Go tools unlocked, lock,
collections and ssh-keys, never reading a secret.

i3status-rust: no domain names in the icon file's comments (the catalogue check refuses them) 6d06648bc1

xorg: the display server holds node-display-server and writes the session's start (hq ADR 0208) b2c170acda

The X server, its start and its tools as one module. It provides x11-display with
the machine's reach, gated by the host's seat capability. It writes a block at the
start of ~/.xinitrc: the account's environment, an explicit import into the user
manager, the mesh's X resources merged without cpp, autorandr, the xinitrc slots,
~/.xinitrc.local, and the session's exec from the last slot.

Its Go tools serve the seat's displays and layout (autorandr profiles keyed by
EDID), and set-mode, primary, dpi, input devices and settings, keyboard, a
screenshot (xwd decoded in Go) and the server's log. internal/desktop is how
every desktop tool finds the operator's session from the runtime, which has none:
from the session's own processes, reading only its words, confirmed with logind.

lemurs: the login manager holds node-login-manager, its config in the current format (hq ADR 0208) 98eb3fe33c

The official package in place of lemurs-git, and /etc/lemurs/config.toml in lemurs
0.4's structure. It offers only the session scripts that modules place in
/etc/lemurs/wms and /etc/lemurs/wayland, never a package's bare desktop entry, which
skips the session's start. The service is enabled and never started, stopped or
restarted by a push.

The tools are the seat's sessions, the default session (lemurs's cache, through
sudo -n) and logins from the journal and lemurs's own log. The package swap from
lemurs-git is a one-off step for the operator, listed in the README.

i3: the window manager holds node-display-session; its config improved and a checked reload watcher (hq ADR 0208) 34829e39fe

It requires x11-display and contributes exec i3 to xinitrc's last slot, and
XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP/XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP to the environment. It owns
~/.config/i3/config, ending with the config.d include where other modules drop
their files, and /etc/lemurs/wms/i3, which runs the session's start.

Over today's identical config it drops the dead lxpolkit, the D-Bus-activated
portal, the xrdb merge xorg now does, and the execs that XDG autostart already
started. It sets JetBrainsMono Nerd Font, runs i3-sensible-terminal, and declares
dex, which the desktop lacked.

The tools speak i3's IPC: the seat's reload, workspaces and windows, and focus,
move, layout save/restore, exec, kill, bindings, config check, marks and the
scratchpad. A watcher in the bundle (ADR 0198) replaces the predecessor's inotify
script and user unit. It reloads only a configuration i3 -C accepts, and at its
start whatever i3 has not loaded.

xterm: the terminal holds node-terminal-emulator; its resources through xorg's slot (hq ADR 0208) e4abc6eb88

It requires x11-display, names itself in TERMINAL, and contributes its X resources
to the xresources slot normal: today's palette and clipboard keys, JetBrainsMono
Nerd Font, 10000 lines of scrollback, all scoped to XTerm* instead of every Xt
program. It owns no file.

The tools are the seat's open, which starts a terminal through the account's
service manager so it outlives the runtime's restarts, and font (in force, what
fontconfig resolves it to, set for new terminals) and colours.

adwaita: the theme as a module, dark by default, for GTK, Qt, the portal and the cursor (hq ADR 0208) a44a1fc51e

GTK 3/4 settings, qt6ct, portals.conf and the default cursor as owned files.
GTK_THEME, GTK2_RC_FILES, the Qt words and XCURSOR_* as environment
contributions. The GSettings keys the portal serves go in the xinitrc slot,
replacing the predecessor's appearance script, and the cursor in the
xresources slot.

Qt is drawn by Fusion with qt6ct's darker palette instead of the
user-repository adwaita-qt, which is no longer developed. qt5ct is dropped. The
fonts are research 026's Inter and JetBrains Mono, and portals.conf routes the
Secret interface to gnome-keyring, which nothing answered.

The tools are appearance (dark or light per audience, switched for the session),
cursor, icons, and portal-check (which backend answers which interface, and why).

Merge branch 'feat/phase-2-desktop-core' of /tmp/claude-1000/-home-jochen-projects-novox-hq/a2753bc7-871c-4aac-b6b6-21e3919ee6cd/scratchpad/wg/mesh-catalog into HEAD 12ee8f41d9

jschoubben added 1 commit 2026-10-04 13:09:43 +00:00

i3, screen-lock: the session's output to the journal, and the colour locker removed before i3lock is checked 19a79bef86

lemurs leaves the session a stdout nobody reads, so a program writing to it dies of EPIPE.
i3lock-color provides i3lock, so with it still installed the host saw i3lock as present,
skipped the install and then removed the only locker; removing it first lets the same
apply install i3lock.

mesh-admin merged commit 1c799101fa into main

2026-10-04 13:09:49 +00:00

mesh-admin deleted branch feat/phase-2-desktop

2026-10-04 13:09:49 +00:00

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Reference: novox/mesh-catalog#270