Linux setup

Less of a guide and more of a dumping ground for ideas, todos and links

• Maybe change the shell? I use kitty (created by the same guy who also created Calibre ❤️), but ghostty also looks promising.
• It may be yet another opportunity to set up espanso.
• Fish
  • starhip shell
  • GPG keyring + SSH keys
• unified password sync, backup and file sharing
  • synology, borg, rsync
  • KeepassXC, bitwarden, 1password?
• better editor setup for blogging
  • nvim, lazynvim
  • Obsidian
• coding setup
  • manage environments with nvm, mise-en-place
  • VS Code, zed, emacs, kakoune, ... ?
• Other
  • localsend
  • vlc, mpv
  • calibre
  • firefox!
  • Mixxx
  • Krita
• see if I can remove manjaro-sway-settings, etc

RANDOM TODO I like the website style of https://shinglyu.com/web/2024/09/17/my-wayland-adventure.html

Network

• Tailscale to connect to my Synology NAS and to troubleshoot my family? - pihole

Ricing

Yak-shaving? Motivation!

• Change my wallpaper
• Unify the system GUIs
  • GTK4?
• Quickshell
  • DankMaterialShell
  • Noctalia :: has a better name than DankShell, will start with this
• Scrollable WM
  • Hypraland? :: I think this is too much of a Gentoo uber-rice thing. I prefer simplicity and quiet
  • Niri

Distro hopping 2025-10-12

What i want:

• Arch-based
• supports my use-cases, doesn't get in the way (Cough, Nixos, cough)
• stable
• pretty

What I cooked up

• EndeavourOS
  • I use this container: https://hub.docker.com/r/alex5402/endeavouros
  • distrobox create -n my-endeavouros -i docker.io/alex5402/endeavouros:latest
  • distrobox enter my-endeavouros
  • Actually, this is a too-deeply integrated way to test the distro. Should have used a VM instead.
• Wayland
• Niri
  • reasoning
  • Alternatives: hyprland, but looks less stable and I don't want too much rice in the system
• Noctalia
  • All in one swaybar replacement
  • Alternatives: DankMaterialShell, but I don't like the name
• GTK4

How to migrate

• Test everything on distrobox first
  • Need to figure out how to fix Error: configure storage: kernel does not support overlay fs: 'overlay' is not supported over extfs at "/home/me/.local/share/containers/storage/overlay": backing file system is unsupported for this graph driver first
  • E: apparently installing fuse-overlayfs does the trick (source)
• Locally backup everything
  • figure out what needs to remain, then backup to my NAS? Or just to an usb stick. Probably both, to be safe
• Wipe system
  • ext4? btfs? zfs?

Switching

Decided to just use my Manjaro, as it is stable :)

I ran the following command

sudo pacman -S greetd greetd-tuigreet xdg-desktop-portal xdg-desktop-portal-wlr alacritty swaybg xwayland-satellite udiskie fuzzel xdg-desktop-portal-gtk xdg-desktop-portal-gnome gnome-keyring nautilus kanshi brightnessctl inter-font ttf-roboto

After switching, I encountered these problems

• black screen --> reboot
  • hindsight: never switch your core WM/DMs without backup! very risky!
• niri loads, I see an ugly status bar and randomly click it --> put laptop into flight-mode with no way to enable the internet again --> rfkill unblock all (I may have also pushed the wrong button/function-key on my keyboard..)
• wrong terminal (alacritty) --> change in .conf/niri
• wrong shell (zsh) --> chsh doesn't work --> for some reasone zsh was set as default in .profile

Shoppinglist / todos

• understand whatever I just installed
  • greetd?
• customize quickshell
  • change gtk theme
  • change wallpaper
  • autologin
• customize niri hotkeys, appearance
  • quick jump to window (alt+1 = firefox)
• improve ssh, keyshell, gpg keys setup
• go shopping for other cool applications
  • zen browser
    • zen-browser-bin is the binary version, ie. compiled
  • dolphin filebrowser; or nemo? or midnight commander? or pcman fm?
• improve manjaro setup
  • doas
  • pavu, yay, pacman?
  • quick way to see and install software, maybe by opening an app launcher that runs yay
  • fingerprint launcher revisited?
  • system stats, disk space usage
• configure obsidian, nvim
• font setup
• password setup
• backup
• 'webapps' like in Omarchy that launch a website, ... (https://learn.omacom.io/2/the-omarchy-manual/63/web-apps)
• limine bootloader? https://github.com/limine-bootloader/limine
• mise :: Installing Mise | mise-en-place
• gron https://github.com/adamritter/fastgron?tab=readme-ov-file
• x command https://www.x-cmd.com/
• ranger tui (or similar)
• paperless or similar
• syncthing
• firefox addons and block list to remove ai slob

Deciding on an aur helper

yay, paru, trizen or pikaur?

• yay :: Go, default in Manjaro
• trizen :: Pearl, has some extra features. Didn't like the search interface
• pikaur :: Python. Asks all the questions before installation
• paru :: Rust. Asks to review packages by default, which is a good approach to AUR package security. May be annoying after some time

I like it when I can see the news/changelogs of packages. E: But it is damn annoying to see all of this on system update! (Pikaur)

TODO: Look at https://github.com/topgrade-rs/topgrade aswell

paru -Sua --upgrademenu

log

2025-10-15 changed pacman.conf to enable

Color
ParallelDownloads = 5
ILoveCandy
Architecture = auto
CheckSpace
HoldPkg     = pacman glibc <...system packages>
VerbosePkgLists

2025-10-15 22:03 changed paru.conf

# Paru conf
# See paru.conf
Include = /etc/paru.conf

[options]
BottomUp
SudoLoop
CleanAfter
NewsOnUpgrade
UpgradeMenu

[bin]
FileManager = lf
#Sudo = doas

2025-10-15 22:24 set up doas (OpenDoas)

permit persist setenv {PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin} :wheel

2025-10-15 22:48 removed opendoas again, as it needs to be rebuilt to support fingerprint/PAM

2025-10-15 23:02 added tidal-hifi and enables scrobble to last.fm and musicbrainz DBs

2025-10-15 23:15 will look into ghostty as alternative to kitty there is also wezterm not sure I like ghostty, will stay with kitty e: convinced to give ghostty a try -- the theming preview convinced me :)

theme = Solarized Osaka Night
background =
foreground =
background-image =
background-image-opacity =
background-opacity = 0.9
background-blur = true
#link
link-url =
link-previews = true
selection-background =
selection-foreground =
# title =
# class =
window-inherit-working-directory =
window-decoration = false
bell-features = no-audio

2025-10-16 17:32 will replace ranger with yazi (skipping lf) looks great out of the box DONE: config yazi

2025-10-16 17:38 TODO: configure my starship shell prompt look at Geist font for terminal

2025-10-17 17:16 how to improve ghostty startup? it is way slower than kitty it is slow because of GTK; we can try to run an empty shell at startup, as subsequent ghostty windows are faster

spawn-at-startup  "ghostty --gtk-single-instance=true --quit-after-last-window-closed=false --initial-window=false"

2025-10-17 17:27 add a command-not-found hook to explain missing commands interesting packages: pay-respects, filkoll, find-the-command decided on filkoll, as pay-respects looks as if it does too much (and needs more config) and find-the-command looks abandoned enabled filkoll update-service: sudo systemctl enable --now filkoll-update.timer enabled filkoll: source /usr/share/doc/filkoll/command-not-found.fish

2025-10-17 17:46 I have to say I really like how crispy all the fonts look on ghostty

2025-10-17 17:58 choosing starship over oh my posh, as i value my time :) TODO: choose sane PDF and document viewer (maybe steal from Omarchy)

2025-10-17 20:52 how to list user-installed packages? (so I know which PDF tools I have installed) TODO: agree on a single git gui (lazygit, gitui) TODO: use timeshift for backups (to external drive? stick?) TODO: vim-keys on zen-browser TODO: add niri hotkey to turn neovim into 80 chars width terminal (for better readability and line break) TODO: CLI reminder when not using the most fancy-rust tools (ls instead of lsd. Best to also add an alias)

2025-10-17 21:52 want to set up autosave for nvim find a plugin figure out how to install the plugin (auto-save.nvim) discover there are erros when autosave and autoformat are combined (endless loop) need to update lazyvin encounter more errors need to install luarocks to fix them install mise to set up my dev environments remove nvm in favor of mise nvm installed via fisher (fish plugin manager) figure out how to remove nvm-fish and fisher fisher list | fisher remove DONE: does mise also means I can remove my python install? (no, python is required for many applications..) activate mise in fish: echo 'mise activate fish | source' >> ~/.config/fish/config.fish actually don't need to install luarocks..

2025-10-17 22:43 autosave set up!

local excluded_filetypes = {
    -- this one is especially useful if you use neovim as a commit message editor
    "gitcommit",
    -- most of these are usually set to non-modifiable, which prevents autosaving
    -- by default, but it doesn't hurt to be extra safe.
    "NvimTree",
    "Outline",
    "TelescopePrompt",
    "alpha",
    "dashboard",
    "lazygit",
    "neo-tree",
    "oil",
    "prompt",
    "toggleterm",
}

local excluded_filenames = {
    -- "do-not-autosave-me.lua",
}

local function save_condition(buf)
    if
        vim.tbl_contains(excluded_filetypes, vim.fn.getbufvar(buf, "&filetype"))
        or vim.tbl_contains(excluded_filenames, vim.fn.expand("%:t"))
        -- don't save for special-buffers
        or vim.fn.getbufvar(buf, "&buftype") ~= ""
    then
        return false
    end
    return true
end

return {
    "okuuva/auto-save.nvim",
    version = "^1.0.0", -- see https://devhints.io/semver, alternatively use '*' to use the latest tagged release
    lazy = false,
    cmd = "ASToggle", -- optional for lazy loading on command
    -- event = { "InsertLeave", "TextChanged" },
    opts = {
        debounce_delay = 1000, -- ms delay before save
        write_all_buffers = false, -- only save the current buffer
        noautocmd = false, -- do not execute autocmds when saving
        condition = save_condition,
    },
    keys = {
        { "<leader>uv", "<cmd>ASToggle<CR>", desc = "Toggle autosave" },
    },
}

2025-10-17 22:44 TODO: ghostty doesn't ready my SSH key for github pushes.. setting up starship mkdir -p ~/.config && touch ~/.config/starship.toml by default, I prefer text over icons, as I don't know what the icons mean starship preset plain-text-symbols -o ~/.config/starship.toml changed a few icons (mainly OS symbols) to NerfFonts icons figuring out how to add support for TOML schemas to nvim thinking about adding yanky.nvim added taplo to nvim, but now I get this file has been excluded

2025-10-17 23:41 fixed it

-- File: lua/plugins/lsp-taplo.lua
-- https://old.reddit.com/r/neovim/comments/1fkprp5/how_to_properly_setup_lspconfig_for_toml_files/
return {
    "neovim/nvim-lspconfig",
    opts = {
        servers = {
            taplo = {
                filetypes = { "toml" }, -- ensure it attaches to TOML files
                root_dir = require("lspconfig.util").root_pattern("*.toml", ".git"),
                settings = {
                    evenBetterToml = {
                        schema = {
                            enabled = true,
                        },
                    },
                },
            },
        },
    },
}

2025-10-17 23:42 continuing on starship config how to insert emoji and unicode in linux with my system menu (drun?) DONE figure out which menu I run (fuzzel) configuring niri I like centering containers, but then I can't edit side-by-side.. DONE change screenlocker to quickshell/noctalia (away from swaylock) niri hotkeys seem like extremely sane defaults. Also, the variable names are sane, too! DONE change niri logout keybinds to trigger quickshell logout

2025-10-18 00:16 want to change my noctalia profile picture (~/.face) want to copy my profile pictyre via yazi as .face added a yazi shell wrapper to be able to change the dir

function y
 set tmp (mktemp -t "yazi-cwd.XXXXXX")
 yazi $argv --cwd-file="$tmp"
 if read -z cwd < "$tmp"; and [ -n "$cwd" ]; and [ "$cwd" != "$PWD" ]
  builtin cd -- "$cwd"
 end
 rm -f -- "$tmp"
end

learned that you can press F1 to display yazi keymaps move files via x (cut yank)

2025-10-18 00:27 found out how to quickshell IPC for logout from niri

Mod+Shift+E { spawn "qs" "-c" "noctalia-shell" "ipc" "call" "sessionMenu" "toggle";}``

still need to figure out how to insert unicode via my fuzzel DONE decide on fuzzel, rofi, dmenu, ... (bemenu, wofi, wmenu, ilia, ...) and configure them TODO: save my dotfiles (don't want to lose them...) TODO: research yubikey for auth

2025-10-18 00:48 decided on fuzzel looking for unicode pickers, but this doesn't seem to be available. Closest is bemoji and rofimoji -- no unicode though? DONE remove rofi can also use unipicker and then add it to fuzzel

2025-10-18 01:06 removed sway, manjaro-sway-settings, .. check if the following are needed/useful

## The following packages are installed but not required (anymore):
argagg
bc
bluetuith
btop
calcurse
foot
gdb
grimshot
gtklock
idlehack
kvantum-theme-matcha
libappimage
manjaro-base-skel
matcha-gtk-theme
nwg-wrapper
papirus-maia-icon-theme
pyalpm
rofimoji
smartmontools
swappy
swayidle
swayr
wf-recorder
wl-clip-persist
wlroots0.19
wob
xcursor-breeze
xdg-terminal-exec

2025-10-18 01:11 Added my preferred terminal char ↳!

2025-10-18 13:30 anyrun seems as if it would do the perfect job for launching apps and searching for unicdoe https://github.com/anyrun-org/anyrun?tab=readme-ov-file walker is also a good contender THOUGHT a new file format that splits all TODO into separate 'threads', as these represent a decision-making fork; I can only do one thing at a time, and every additional TODO needs to be queued and done later. Having a journal that supports this mental model, where I select branches of TODO and journal down on them may also represent a true Zettelkasten approach

2025-10-18 13:52 Installed all of walker, rofi, fuzzel and anyrun don't like the anyrun symbols browser walker is the fastest, but needs to configure elephant decided to set up walker elephant service enable and systemctl --user start elephant.service TODO: why is there not auto complete for elephant in fish?

2025-10-18 14:28 seems there is an OOO bug with walker trying to set a systemd service that restarts when hitting 500mb

[Unit]
Description=Walker GApplication Service
After=graphical-session.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/walker --gapplication-service
Restart=always
RestartSec=5
MemoryMax=500M
Environment=WAYLAND_DISPLAY=%EWAYLAND_DISPLAY%
Environment=XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=niri
Environment=GDK_BACKEND=wayland

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

2025-10-18 14:37 cleaning up old packages removed emacs, alacritty, autotiling, pamac, yay walker starts slow, is the service not running properly?

2025-10-18 22:50 how to copy to clipboard in wayland? wl-copy fixed walker service with the help of grok

[Unit]
Description=Walker GApplication Service
PartOf=graphical-session.target
After=graphical-session.target
Wants=graphical-session.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/bin/walker --gapplication-service
Restart=always
RestartSec=5
MemoryMax=500M
Environment=WAYLAND_DISPLAY=wayland-1

[Install]
WantedBy=graphical-session.target

will change my niri conf to use walker now (but still keep fuzzel as backup :) DONE configure walker DONE use the faster launch command nc -U /run/user/1000/walker/walker.sock in my niri conf DONE walker directly closes and doesn't do anything.. Not sure I want to continue struggling with walker...

2025-10-19 00:05 some more attempts at fixing walker, but it didn't work removed walker and elephant, waste of time

2025-10-19 01:01 played around with anyrun, but I don't like the visual style. it is very annoying to style, and the gtk4 css doesn't work as expected

2025-10-19 14:35 snooping around anyrun directory but gave up styling it let's just stick with fuzzel DONE investigate how to open dedicated emoji/unicode picker (maybe via ghostty?) set up tidal-hifi looking around neovim plugin management and zen-mode. I don't want to open a terminal and then navigate to specific dotfiles over again, I just want to navigate to a saved folder location from within my terminal. THOUGHT maybe make my .dirinfo spec come true? Place a .dirinfo into targeted dirs, which serves as readme and description. It can also be used with a picker to directly jump into that dir DONE set up lazy snacks zen for nvim actually, it's already set up by default :) DONE set up MPRIS keybinds to skip a song (can be done via quickshell)

2025-10-19 15:36 installed dolphin notice that all it's styling is broken (black white, invisible fonts, ..) removed dolphin fixed yazi change-directory-on-exit wrapper

2025-10-19 16:53 reading up on bemoji, don't like that they don't include full unicode configured fuzzel defaults, really like the man-page removed bemoji, rofi settled on rofimoji, which can also use fuzzel DONE figure out why rofimoji-fuzzel shows weird emoji chars (maybe because of the font?)

2025-10-19 18:53 fixed rofimoji --selector fuzzel showing outline-only emojis by adding font=Hack:weight=medium:size=20,Noto Emoji:size=22 into my fuzzel config removed swaylock figured out that I can lock my screen by calling this quickshell IPC qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call sessionMenu lockAndSuspend TODO: mediakyes for quickshell qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call media next

2025-10-19 19:30 looking to set up ssh and gpg, again goal: unlock the keyring until I lock the screen again (or am idle 15 min) grok seems more useful for tech support than chatGPT

2025-10-19 20:27 discovered some zsh and bash config files -- should I remove them? TODO: notify my when I run a command for which I have a fish alias/function (like yazi instead of y)

2025-10-19 20:43 added a shortcut for opening my syncthing localhost url via fuzzel (by creating a .desktop file in /home/jst/.local/share/applications) I think this is a good way to remember localhost URLs (syncthing, paperless, synology-gui, gitea, pihole, ...)

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Syncthing Web UI
Type=Application
Exec=xdg-open http://127.0.0.1:8384/
Icon=text-html
Terminal=false

installed cliphist, need to figure out what it does -- just another wl-copy? E: requires wl-clipboard, so seems to sit 'above' we can run cliphist list | fuzzel -d | cliphist decode | wl-copy to have fuzzel show the last pastes TODO: set a hotkey for this, and/or use the quickshell variant TODO: check my screenshot setup and/or maybe set up grim and slurp removed pnpm added keychain to my fish.conf eval (keychain --eval --quiet KEY_ID) :: gpg --list-secret-keys --keyid-format=long, it's the part after sec rsa4096/ check agents: ssh-add -l (lists SSH keys) and gpg --list-keys TODO: look into SSHFS for remote-mounting to/from synology TODO: set up ssh aliases TODO: set up hypralax

2025-10-19 21:53 installed nemo looks nice, very similar to pcmanfm TODO: transform all my niri startups into systemd services, for better support setup niriswitcher, very nice, fills a gap to make niri more useful (don't have to scroll across thousands of windows..) -- https://github.com/isaksamsten/niriswitcher?tab=readme-ov-file TODO: take a look at nirius (https://sr.ht/~tsdh/nirius/) TODO: take a look at stasis for better idle handling (https://github.com/saltnpepper97/stasis?tab=readme-ov-file)

2025-10-19 22:15 I think I am mostly done configuring everything

• niri and noctalia are configured
• ghostty and fish work
• i can switch and applications
• i can search for emojis
• i can enter my ssh password (not perfect yet)

TODO

• neovim config
• obsidian config (same folder as neovim)
• dotfiles backup
• system backup!
• transform this writeup and post it on my website
• wallpapers and theming with mutagen

2025-10-19 22:36 More ricing? Instead of quickshell there is also aylur :) TODO: also, i could check my icons and gtk theme DONE decrease fuzzel font size removed google-chrome set cool wallpaper TODO: configure standard utils for opening images, pdf, .. TODO: accidentally removed my gtk theme when cleaning unused packages :) fixed nemo not opening a terminal by calling gsettings set org.cinnamon.desktop.default-applications.terminal exec ghostty removed etcher set nemo as default file launcher xdg-mime default nemo.desktop inode/directory application/x-gnome-saved-search TODO: xdg-open vs gtk-launch

2025-10-20 20:38 need to change gtk theme and everything... best if there is a way to write this to a config or have a gui? looking to install the arc theme, but no idea how :) installed gtk-tweaks, but seems useless installed gtk-engine-murrine, papirus-icon-theme and arc-gtk-theme DONE how to copy from fish directly into system clipboard when using vim mode? found a script that makes use of the fish_killring. afterwards, just change the hotkeys to make use of this function afterwards (https://joaocosta.dev/blog/17>)

function yank_to_clipboard -d "Insert latest killring entry into the system clipboard"

    printf "%s" "$fish_killring[1]" | fish_clipboard_copy

end

2025-10-20 21:18 check that themes are installed in /usr/share/themes/Arc-Dark and /usr/share/icons/Papirus it seems that lxappearance and gnome-tweaks are indeed the way to go. also check in ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini, ~/.config/gtk-4.0/settings.ini, ~/.config/environment.d/qt.conf, ~/.config/Kvantum/kvantum.kvconfig and ~/.config/qt5ct/qt5ct.conf (5 and 6) I really like Juno-Palenight in combination with Papirus-Dark removed pcmanfm-gtk3

2025-10-20 21:47 figure out why keychain doesn't work properly -- should only store my auth when I need my ssh keys the first time, and not whenever I open fish... TODO: can I see which package installed which? TODO: show news in paru TODO: figure out how to change cursor theme maybe this works better for keychain in my fish conf

if status is-interactive
    # Commands to run in interactive sessions can go here
    keychain --quiet --nogui ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
    if test -f ~/.keychain/$HOSTNAME-fish
        source ~/.keychain/$HOSTNAME-fish
    end
end

2025-10-20 22:44 added a desktop icon for fritz.box TODO: look into pihole (+ hardware) >> Desktop Beelink GK35 maybe? TODO: change firefox userchrome css to style the blank loading page to something dark (no more blinding white #fff) -- https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26680708/customize-firefox-background-color-of-the-browser-between-page-load

2025-10-21 20:50 figured out that my screenshots are saved in ~/Pictures/Screenshots/ TODO: configure image viewer and (maybe) screenshot tool installing a script engine to block Login with Google prompts. it seems that tampermonkey is the up-to-date-one decided against installing tampermonkey, cause too much risk for someone random too update their script maliciously changed fish keychain command based on this answer: how to run ssh-agent in fish shell? - Super User, which also mentions that fish support keychain since 2017

# To add new SSH key, use:
set --universal --append SSH_KEYS_TO_AUTOLOAD ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
# To remove a key, remove it from the list using its index:
# set --universal --erase SSH_KEYS_TO_AUTOLOAD[index_of_key]
# https://superuser.com/questions/1727591/how-to-run-ssh-agent-in-fish-shell
if status is-login
    and status is-interactive
    keychain --eval $SSH_KEYS_TO_AUTOLOAD | source
end

2025-10-21 21:14 also added AddKeysToAgent yes to my .ssh/config TODO: take a look at the .XCompose file removed okular installed lightningview, okulante. viewskater also looks good, but not on aur set niri to prefer-no-csd, to remove okulante window decorations DONE set alias for fzf to ff (follow omarchy?) DONE set alias for zoxide (follow omarchy to alias cd?) DONE set alias for eza (follow omarchy to alias ls, lt, ..?) removed gitui (lazygit is enough) installed lazydocker, btop, fastfetch, impala (and iwd) removed impala and iwd, as they cause problems with my wireless.. NOTE when in doubt about packages that mess with internet, disable and restart before deleting, in case they are required to make the internet work on your machine ... :) installed marktext (for markdown writing; but could also configure nvim or Obsidian to do the job) thinking about pinta, but don't see the need (editing images, also have krita) TODO: set up PDF viewer/editor (Document Viewer, Xournal, Firefox/Zen) TODO: see if I want to switch to Cascadia font (interstingly also the default font choide of Omarchy.. :)) TODO: reinstall arch with disk encryption? :)

2025-10-21 22:31 set a few fish abbrevs and aliases

function zd
    if test (count $argv) -eq 0
        builtin cd ~
        return
    else if test -d $argv[1]
        builtin cd $argv[1]
    else
        z $argv; and printf "\U000F17A9 "; and pwd; or echo "Error: Directory not found"
    end
end

alias cd='zd'

# opens neovim w/o args
function n
    if test (count $argv) -eq 0
        nvim .
    else
        nvim $argv
    end
end

alias ls='eza -lh --group-directories-first --icons=auto'
alias lsa='ls -a'
alias lt='eza --tree --level=2 --long --icons --git'
alias lta='lt -a'
alias ff="fzf --preview 'bat --style=numbers --color=always {}'"

alias g='git'
abbr --add gcm git commit -m
abbr --add gcam git commit -a -m
abbr --add gcad git commit -a --amend

also found out that fish provides open by default, so no need for xdg-open TODO: backup my .dotfiles and version control them (stow?)

2025-10-22 00:07 I found the holy grail of dotfiles management -- Dotfiles Management - mitxela.com I created a .dotfiles folder in my home, did an init bare git on it, set to my root / and then add files to it via a helper function. No need for any other dotfiles management software! Universal git! TODO: look into git/exclude

2025-10-24 11:04 set my ublock to follow the recommended filters -- https://github.com/yokoffing/filterlists DONE block youtube recommendations and shorts -- https://github.com/gijsdev/ublock-hide-yt-shorts TODO: block 'login with google' DONE block youtube auto dub DONE see https://old.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/wiki/solutions/youtube#wiki_video_annotations for all the above TODO: highlight todos in markdown/neovim :) TODO: look into fedora for thin client (for pihole) TODO: set auto suspend on linux

2025-10-24 13:11 TODO: allow to click on links in neovim E: works with gx, but not mapped in lazyvim TODO: dump this link somewhere -- https://scrollguard.app/ TODO: get updates on new blogs (RSS) TODO: set up Jujutsu (as git replacement)

2025-10-24 14:00 TODO: look into fedora atomic images, they seem like another intersting alternative to nix and keeping an immutable system. maybe I could try to get this system working on fedora, and otherwise set up manjaro with file encryption?

2025-10-24 16:05 maybe change to rofi for a beautfiul fullscreen app launcher? (seen here -- https://github.com/kianblakley/niri-land?tab=readme-ov-file) TODO: look into Amberol – Apps for GNOME music player set music keys for niri on via ipc (Mod+Alt+567 inc dec mute; 890 prev next pause) decided to start 'my' keybinds with my.. in the comment blocks, to better distinguish them from pre-set keybinds installed paru TODO: improve bluetooth integration to allow to skip music (MPRIS?) TODO: set up espanso?

2025-10-26 22:29 installed logseq, treesheets, freeplane i'd like to set up freeplane with markdown to have a markdown canvas

2025-10-27 18:08 installed smark.nvim looking to set up markdown indent via Tab and S-Tab in nvim (can do >> and <<) decided to split nvim related config into a dedicated file TODO: neovim find a way to add auto-spacing between lines in markdown (the current file here shows everything inline)

2025-10-27 21:30 installed https://www.soimort.org/translate-shell/

2025-10-28 15:23 could set a shell screensaver (and/or use it as desktop/lockscreen wallpaper) -- https://github.com/attogram/bash-screensavers?tab=readme-ov-file or https://github.com/abishekvashok/cmatrix it may make sense to use alacritty for these types of things, as it is featureless but fast TODO: set up obsidian web clipper (or org-roam-protocol) -- https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/web-clipper-obsidian/ or https://github.com/deathau/markdownload

2025-10-28 15:49 think about multi-cursor in nvim

2025-10-28 21:57 DONE send audio alert when battery <10%

#!/bin/bash

# Battery device (check with: ls /sys/class/power_supply/)
BAT_DEVICE="BAT0"

# Threshold
THRESHOLD=15

# Paths
CAPACITY="/sys/class/power_supply/${BAT_DEVICE}/capacity"
STATUS="/sys/class/power_supply/${BAT_DEVICE}/status"

# Check if files exist
if [[ ! -f "$CAPACITY" || ! -f "$STATUS" ]]; then
	exit 1
fi

# Read values
PERCENT=$(cat "$CAPACITY")
BAT_STATUS=$(cat "$STATUS")

# Trigger if discharging and below threshold
if [[ "$BAT_STATUS" == "Discharging" && "$PERCENT" -lt "$THRESHOLD" ]]; then
	# Play warning sound (adjust path/file if needed)
	canberra-gtk-play --file=/usr/share/sounds/freedesktop/stereo/dialog-warning.ogg
	# Alternative for MP3/WAV: paplay ~/sounds/warning.mp3  (install pulseaudio-utils if missing: sudo pacman -S pulseaudio)
	notify-send -u critical "Low Battery!" "Charge now: ${PERCENT}% remaining!"
fi

2025-10-29T19:34 installed helix and ran the :tutor may actually be a really cool tool. need snippets though there is also kakoune, which uses the same command paradigm, but is too extensible Helix setup it seems that helix doesn't have a file picker?! everyone refers to the plugin system, which hasn't been set in place yet. need to use yazi as file picker/browser -- well, maybe this improves my workflows, or otherwise shows me the benefits of nvim alternative to yazi: nnn, xplr TODO: yazi inside of nvim -- mikavilpas/yazi.nvim: A Neovim Plugin for the yazi terminal file manager set helix as default file editor in yazi.toml

2025-10-29T20:53 still configuring helix, set the initial config now came across this, which seems like yet another benefit of fedora immutable silverblue: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/fedora-silverblue/toolbox/ want to install hx-lsp for helix via mise, but first need to install mise use -g rust: mise use -g cargo:hx-lsp

2025-10-29T21:33 Setting up helix with marksman, prettier and ltex-ls-plus (https://github.com/ltex-plus/ltex-ls-plus) TODO: jsut found https://strudel.cc/ to make live music

2025-10-30 13:46 found https://github.com/ShawnMcCool/quickshell-cheatsheet, looks cool will change back from hx to nvim. looked at kakoune, but nope, seems like a mess. removed marksman, mpls, ltex-ls-plus, prettier, mise uninstall cargo:hx-lsp@

2025-10-30 17:41 TODO: steal from this: a really cool digital garden -- https://meleu.dev/

2025-10-31 13:27 TODO: improve browser search by blacklisting specific websites (pinterest, ...) TODO: have a solution to manage photos on my NAS, sync with my phone, have albums

2025-10-31 16:27 TODO: if i ever switch to fedora silverblue and then manage via distrobox, https://flathub.org/en/apps/com.ranfdev.DistroShelf looks useful

2025-11-01 14:56 it's saturday and I should find a strategy to backup my files to my NAS >> Linux backup

2025-11-01 21:04 took a bit, but I finally managed it! Everything backuped (I hope) and also committed to my syno-git

2025-11-02 11:39 TODO: change linux greeter setup DONE is there a way to color man pages? navi, qman, .. installed bat-extras and can now do batman. I prefer this over changing the MANPAGER to most or similar, because I want to keep my muscle-memory for man keybinds Just doing export MANPAGER="sh -c 'col -bx | batcat -l man -p'" didn't work for me. It caused weird chars in the man pages TODO: I'd like to know how to search with fzf in batman discovered & in man pages which narrows to found lines

2025-11-02 12:30 installed wikiman removed batman now using set -xU MANPAGER 'less -R --use-color -Dd+r -Du+b' set -xU MANROFFOPT '-P -c', as described in Color output in console - ArchWiki

2025-11-02 14:18 finally getting to set up a login manager (also called display manager)

• looks cool, but I want a wallpaper javalsai/lidm: A ✨fully✨ colorful customizable TUI display manager made in C for simplicity.
• I think this one is it: https://github.com/rharish101/ReGreet archlinux-tweak-tool seems interesting

2025-11-02 14:32 did a system upgrade. Now I have an annoying bar at the bottom that shows my niri windows. Does it come from niri or niri-switcher? answer: this is the noctalia 'dock' TODO look into https://taskwarrior.org/ gave niri-switcher a try, not much different from niriswitcher. GTK theming is cooler, but shows all windows from all screens by default. Don't see the benefit of configuring it

2025-11-02 15:06 not using regreet, as it requires a graphical session, and I don't want to mess with niri > regreet > niri loops. The setup is described in Help with setting up with greetd greeter · YaLTeR/niri · Discussion #1276, but I am afraid that a botched niri update prevents me from loggin in then I will use Tuigreet instead, as it doesn't require a graphical session E: it seems I already use tuigreet :)

2025-11-02 15:38 the config I use: /etc/greetd/config.toml

[terminal]
vt = 1

[default_session]
command = "tuigreet --time --cmd niri"
user = "greeter"

[initial_session]
command = "niri"
user = "jst"

TODO: The internet recommends to use niri-session, but then notify doesn't get styled anymore -- niri works.

2025-11-02 16:53 added time display in my starship config

2025-11-02 18:31 vibe-coded an enormous function that uses TS text objects to split markdown sentences into separate lines, while ignoring code blocks, frontmatter and lists Markdown One Sentence Per Line

2025-11-02 18:32 to check the diff between before and after, I can do git diff <file>

2025-11-03 16:31 just discovered 9001/copyparty: Portable file server with accelerated resumable uploads, dedup, WebDAV, FTP, TFTP, zeroconf, media indexer, thumbnails++ all in one file, no deps, which seems like the coolest webserver ever. TODO: dedicated post -- introducing copyparty, the FOSS file server - YouTube

2025-11-03 17:09 DONE when connected via a bluetooth headset, allow to change volume and music this can be done via 'regular' media keys -- Bluetooth headset - ArchWiki a list can be found here -- XF86 keyboard symbols - LQWiki

XF86AudioRaiseVolume allow-when-locked=true { spawn-sh "wpctl set-volume @DEFAULT_AUDIO_SINK@ 0.05+"; }
    XF86AudioLowerVolume allow-when-locked=true { spawn-sh "wpctl set-volume @DEFAULT_AUDIO_SINK@ 0.05-"; }
    XF86AudioMute        allow-when-locked=true { spawn-sh "wpctl set-mute @DEFAULT_AUDIO_SINK@ toggle"; }
    XF86AudioMicMute     allow-when-locked=true { spawn-sh "wpctl set-mute @DEFAULT_AUDIO_SOURCE@ toggle"; }

	// custom
	XF86AudioPrev allow-when-locked=true { spawn "playerctl" "prev"; }
	XF86AudioNext allow-when-locked=true { spawn "playerctl" "next"; }
	XF86AudioPlay allow-when-locked=true { spawn "playerctl" "play"; }
	XF86AudioPause allow-when-locked=true { spawn "playerctl" "pause"; }

	Mod+Alt+8 allow-when-locked=true { spawn "playerctl" "prev"; }
	Mod+Alt+9 allow-when-locked=true { spawn "playerctl" "next"; }
	Mod+Alt+0 allow-when-locked=true { spawn "playerctl" "play-pause"; }

2025-11-03 17:29 MONITOR there was something weird with my bluetooth; it didn't start in quickshell. I needed to first toggle it a few times in blueman/bluetoothctl

2025-11-03 21:00 Wrote a bit more about my editor setup and choice >> Texteditor vs Markdown Editor vs IDEs TODO: set up Sioyek as PDF viewr

2025-11-06 15:44 looking into local LLMs installed ollama, golama and LM studio TODO: set up photo management and tagging for my holiday pictures and snapshots TODO: set up a document management (paperless?) removed marketext, as I use nvim exclusively now DONE also install whisperAI -- vibe transcribe, whisper-gui or handy tts? installed vibe downloading AI models TODO: AI TTS -- chatterbox, tortoise tts?

2025-11-06 16:31 change from pip to uv all the LLM tools make it necessary to have a more robust python setup The OSS 20B-ChatGPT is pretty useless :)

2025-11-06 17:46 added ~/.lmstudio/models to my rysnc-ignore, so I don't backup 20 GB+ files

2025-11-06 19:14 DONE set up local CLI dictionary dict is the way to go, although there is also stardict unfortunately not all the dictionaries are available in the AUR

2025-11-06 20:34 set up sdcv/stardict by downloading a bunch of dictionaries into my set -xU STARDICT_DATA_DIR /home/<user>/.stardict/ folder needed to untar them: for file in *.tar.xz; tar -xf $file; end the output is ugly and contains HTML tags..

2025-11-06 21:24 downloaded a bunch more dictionary files from FreeDict find all .dict.dz and .index files in current dir and move them to parent

find . -type f \( -name "*.dict.dz" -o -name "*.index" \) | while read -l f
	# dry run
	echo mv $f (dirname (dirname $f))/
	# set parent (dirname (dirname $f))
	# sudo mv $f $parent/
end

list all folders in current dir: ls -d */ delete all folders in current dir: sudo trash */

2025-11-06 21:29 I also installed the devil dictionary, lol

2025-11-06 21:45 needed to collect all the .dict.dz and .index files in /usr/share/dictd and write them to /etc/dict/dict.conf.

#!/usr/bin/env fish

# Directory containing the dict files
set dictdir "/usr/share/dictd"

# Output file
set outfile "dictd.conf"

# Clear or create the output file
echo "" > $outfile

# Loop over all *.dict.dz files in the directory
for datafile in (ls $dictdir/*.dict.dz)
    # Extract the base name without extension (e.g., ara-eng)
    set basename (basename $datafile .dict.dz)

    # Write the config block
    echo "database $basename {" >> $outfile
    echo "	data $dictdir/$basename.dict.dz" >> $outfile
    echo "	index $dictdir/$basename.index" >> $outfile
    echo "}" >> $outfile
    echo "" >> $outfile
end

echo "Generated $outfile"

it would be nice to have the phonetics for both languages, but who am I to complain?

2025-11-07 13:31 TODO: set up compose key (or unicode picker) for language cleaning

Daily French

2025-11-07 18:45 found out that C-Ret makes a window fullscreen in niri E: it seems to just make the terminal fullscreen, so I guess ghostty specific?

2025-11-08 12:45 setting up Mullvad as VPN installed mullvad-bin removed audacity TODO: fix my xdg-defaults

2025-11-08 15:07 TODO: could look into papis/papis for managing sources, although I don't want to get into academia; maybe useful for capturing websites, videos, blogs, etc, and then refering to them in neovim. Or videos, movies I watched, books I read, to better identify patterns and great authors/artists TODO: look into zk -- or better said, into any way to quickly capture thoughts from the CLI In that sense, I really hate 'todos'; I perceive them as strict and robotic, and believe they will break some time in the future, as humans are not robots

2025-11-08 21:33 I guess I reached config fatigue. Some things still to do, but I don't want to spend more time looking at github repos and reading readmes! I also don't want to write more pages on the blog, lol I unpacked mixxx and did some DJ'ing instead.

2025-11-09 13:45 changed some niri keybinds (and their title) to appear in the niri hotkey overview changed default width of zen browser to 0.8 screen width

window-rule {
	match app-id="zen"
	default-column-width {proportion 0.8;}
}

to get the app-id we can do niri msg pick-window

2025-11-09 14:49 looking into music/audio players these are separate from media players -- music players are for listening to a collection of music media players are for opening a variety of media files (audio, video, ...) amberol is really cool, but it has problems with my non-GTK setup. I guess the problems is the gtk portals? >> Important Software · YaLTeR/niri Wiki 2025-11-09 16:01 trying to add the missing portals xdg-mime default nemo.desktop inode/directory application/x-gnome-saved-search I guess I also need to fix my greetd script to use niri-session

2025-11-09 17:27 attempting to fix niri-session it seems that the mako service doesn't start correctly

mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user/niri.service.wants
ln -s /usr/lib/systemd/user/mako.service ~/.config/systemd/user/niri.service.wants/

just found out that niri cursor theme can be changed in the config! (doesn't mean I have a good theme in mind)

2025-11-09 17:46 fixed the notifications with niri-session! needed to create a mako config..