# rofi

The launcher as a module (novox/hq ADR 0208, research 026/04 and 05).

- Installs `rofi`, claims the mesh's `node-launcher` seat and serves its verb `menu`. Requires
  `x11-display` on its own machine.
- **The seat's dmenu-compatible command.** It places `~/.local/bin/dmenu`: choices on standard input,
  the chosen one on standard output, exit 1 when nothing was chosen. It runs `rofi -dmenu`, passing
  on dmenu's `-p`, `-l` and `-i` and dropping its look options. A script, a notifier or a clipboard
  manager calls `dmenu` and works whichever module holds the seat. On a node where the `dmenu` module
  holds `node-launcher` instead, the real dmenu answers the same calls.
- Owns `~/.config/rofi/config.rasi` and the themes `mesh` and `mesh-powermenu` in
  `~/.config/rofi/themes/`. The faces are JetBrains Mono Nerd Font for the list and the input, and
  Inter for messages. Both are packages of the `fonts` module.
- Places its key bindings as its own i3 drop-in, `~/.config/i3/config.d/50-rofi.conf`. The `i3`
  module's configuration includes that directory after it sets `$mod`.
- Starts nothing. rofi runs when a key is pressed.

| key | runs |
|---|---|
| `$mod+d` | applications (`rofi-launch drun`) |
| `$mod+t` | a command (`rofi-launch run`) |
| `$mod+Shift+t` | a command with sudo, in the terminal (`rofi-launch sudo`) |
| `$mod+Shift+w` | the window switcher (`rofi-launch window`) |
| `$mod+Escape` | the power menu (`rofi-powermenu`) |

## The power menu is here

The power menu belongs to the session. It is still the launcher's, because all of it is rofi: its
theme, its buttons and its confirmation. Every action it takes is a verb of logind or the service
manager, so it names no window manager and no locker:

- **lock** is `loginctl lock-session`, which the holder of `node-lock-screen` answers;
- **log out** is `loginctl terminate-session`;
- **suspend, reboot and shut down** are `systemctl`'s.

A Wayland session gets the same menu from whichever launcher holds the seat there.

## Tools

| tool | does |
|---|---|
| `node-launcher.menu` | show a list in the operator's session and answer the chosen line and its index, or `cancelled` (also when nobody answers within the timeout, 20 s by default, 25 s at most) |
| `rofi_applications` | the desktop entries the launcher offers, the account's own winning an id; filter by words, hidden ones on request |
| `rofi_themes` | every theme (the mesh's, the account's, the distribution's) and the one configured |
| `rofi_run` | start a desktop entry or a command in the session, under the account's service manager |

## What it improves on what was found

- **Plain `dmenu` calls work again.** The one found on 2026-10-04 is the notifier's context menu: on
  both workstations it called `/usr/bin/dmenu`, which neither had installed. The `dunst` module now
  calls `dmenu`, and this module answers it. The operator's own scripts all call `rofi -dmenu`, which
  keeps working.
- **The theme is one file per face.** There is no colour file imported from a cloned theme
  repository. The faces are the decided ones (research 026/04): Iosevka and Hack are gone.
- **The retry after resume no longer reopens a closed menu.** The found launchers retried
  `rofi -dmenu` on any failure, so pressing Escape in the sudo prompt reopened it four times.
  `rofi-launch` retries only a failure within half a second, which is a failed keyboard grab.
- **The power menu locks through logind,** so it goes through the one locker. The found one ran
  `i3lock` directly and bypassed it. Log out no longer names four window managers.
- `icon-theme` and `window-command` are gone. They named an icon theme and a program (`wmctrl`) that
  nothing installs. rofi's defaults serve.

## What it leaves as found

- `~/.config/rofi/themes-repo/` (a cloned theme repository), the five symbolic links into it
  (`applets`, `images`, `launchers`, `powermenu`, `scripts`), `colors/`, `theme.rasi` and
  `powermenu.rasi`.
- The predecessor's scripts in `~/scripts`: `rofi-launcher-normal`, `rofi-launcher-terminal`,
  `rofi-launcher-terminal-sudo` and `powermenu` (replaced here), and `theme-picker` with its modes
  (settings, once issue 168 closes).

## Migration (ADR 0182)

Once the `i3` module carries the main i3 configuration:

1. Delete `~/.config/rofi/theme.rasi`, `powermenu.rasi`, `colors/`, the five links and `themes-repo/`.
   Nothing reads them any more.
2. Delete the four scripts above from `~/scripts`.
3. Your scripts that call `rofi -dmenu` keep working. Calling `dmenu` instead lets them follow the
   seat, for example to a Wayland launcher later.

## Blockers

- `node-launcher`, `x11-display` and the `i3` drop-in directory are ADR 0208's and the `i3`
  module's. Until the controller knows the seat, `mctl` reads the claim as unknown.
- `~/.local/bin` is on `PATH` through the `zsh` module's environment contribution (ADR 0203). The
  key bindings name `~/.local/bin/…` in full, so they do not depend on it. Callers of `dmenu` do.

## Its i3 lines are a contribution (changed 2026-10-05, novox/hq ADR 0212)

The module no longer writes a file into i3's `config.d`. Its window-manager lines (the source is still
under `files/i3/` where it had one) are a contribution to `node-display-session`. The i3 module places
them in its own configuration under a `# <module>` line, so this module depends on a window manager
being assigned beside it.