⚙️ dotfiles ⚙️

 

👾 Overview

I use arch, btw

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🌟 Additional guiding principles for software selection:

• 🧪 Innovative (what's a better way of doing things?)
• 📖 Open (growth oriented; infinite games)
• 🌍 Collaborative (what can we do better?)

❌ I try to avoid communities and software that:

• 🚩 follow the status quo (even if it is easier at first)
• 🥧 have zero-sum mentality (winning is not the goal)

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In short (JFK definitely would've used arch, btw):

"...we {do these} things not because they are easy, but because they are hard,"

  "because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills,"

    "because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone..."

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👨‍💻 Software

🖥️ Display

• Display Server: Wayland
• Compositor: Hyprland
• Widgets: eww
• Wallpaper: mpvpaper (vidoes found here)

🎯 Core Applications

• Editor: neovim
• Browser: Firefox
  • with custom firefox css.
• Terminal: kitty
• Shell: zsh

🎥 Appearance

🎨 Design Framework

• Color Scheme: vagari (work in progress)
• GTK: catppuccin macchiato (peach) (temporary)
• Cursors: Nordzy-white (temporary)
• Icons: Nordzy (temporary)

💬 Fonts

• Sans Serif: Albert Sans
• Monospace: Fira Code
  • Italic: JetBrains Mono
  • Symbols: Nerd Font Symbols
• Emoji: Noto Color Emoji
• Other: Lora (serif), Archivo (display), Architects Daughter (handwritten)

🍎 Notable Applications

• File Explorer: xplr
• Image Editing: gimp
• Imagine Generation: midjourney
• Image Processing: darktable
• Vector Graphics: inkscape
• Screen Recording: wf-recorder
• Audio Editing: audacity
  • Edit: /usr/share/applications/audacity.desktop (currently broken under wayland)
  • Change Exec line to: Exec=env GDK_BACKEND=x11 audacity %F
• Video Editing: blender
• Music: spotify with playerctl
• Music Visualizer: glava

🪟 Gallery

explanation.mp4

🛠️ Installation

🧰 My Hardware

• Keyboard: Corne (Helidox) 42 key, with Kailh gChoc Light Blue (20g), and custom layout: - ZMK firmware (for bluetooth version of keyboard): nosvagor/zmk-config
• Monitor: SAMSUNG UR59 Series 32-Inch 4K UHD (3840x2160)
• Mouse: MX Master 3S
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X (16) @ 3.600GHz
  • GPU: AMD ATI Radeon RX 5600 OEM/5600 XT / 5700/5700 XT
• Microphone: Shure SM57
  • Audio Interface: Scaarlett Solo 3rd Gen
• Camera: Canon EOS M50 Mark II
  • Lens: Sigma 16mm f/1.4

🔩 Literal Installation

1. Get the installation image:

• archlinux-version-x86_64.iso (https://archlinux.org/download/)

2. Prepare an installation medium:

• Find USB device partition (sda or sdb, probably):

  lsblk -f
  

• Write to USB using dd (sd"x", do not use partition number):

  dd bs=4M if=path/to/archlinux-version-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdx conv=fsync oflag=direct status=progress
  

3. Use guided arch installation

• Boot to USB and run command (does a great job for me and is easy to follow):

  archinstall
  

• Some relevant options that might not be clear:

  audio client: pipewire
  best effort partition: btrfs
  desktop client: minimal (arch does not support hyprland at this time)
  

• Best to install a few essential packages during this step:

  base base-devel linux-headers git rustup
  

⚙️ Post-Installation

General Recommendations  worth the read, seriously

Note: the following is not meant to be a generalized installation guide; it's essentially a collection of commands to take a minimal arch install to my current configuration.

Many of steps are extremely tailored to my needs, or my best attempt to solve certain problems. Notably, many of my configs are based around my custom keyboard layout, so don't expect shortcuts to be intuitive if you are trying to copy them.

Eventually I'd like to create a generalized script to streamline installation for different hardware, but that's not a problem needing to be solved at this time.

1. Install the latest stable of version of rust using rustup:

rustup default nightly

2. Install paru:

cd ~
mkdir .cache && cd .cache
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/paru.git
cd paru
makepkg -si

3. Clone dotfiles and install packages:

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/nosvagor/dotfiles
paru -S --needed - < ~/dotfiles/etc/packages.lst
# might want to review/edit this list ⮭ before installing.

# no good repos nordzy icons/cursors, do manually ⮯
git clone https://github.com/alvatip/Nordzy-icon
cd ~/.cache
cd Nordzy-icon
./install.sh
cd ~/.cache
git clone https://github.com/alvatip/Nordzy-cursors
cd Nordzy-cursors
./install.sh

# note: a location and openweathermap key is needed for weather widget.
# https://home.openweathermap.org/api_keys
echo "{api key here}" > ~/.local/.owm_api_key
echo "{lat} {long}" > ~/.local/.location

4. Change default sh:

chsh -s /usr/bin/zsh

5. Set up sddm:

cd ~/dotfiles/etc/sddm.conf.d
mkdir /etc/sddm.conf.d
sudo cp autologin.conf /etc/sddm.conf.d/
# note: updates to hyprland sometimes overwrite the desktop entry ⮯
sudo cp hyprland.desktop /usr/share/wayland-sessions/hyprland.desktop
# simply copy over the desktop entry as as needed
# check using: bat /usr/share/wayland-sessions/hyprland.desktop
# should be: 4 | Exec=hyprwrap (not Hyprland)
systemctl enable sddm

6. Symbolically link most config files:

mkdir ~/.config # might already be made
ln -sfn ~/dotfiles/config/* ~/.config/
ln -sfn ~/dotfiles/config/zsh/zshrc .zshrc

7. Setup some root configurations:

cd ~/dotfiles/etc
sudo ln -sfn ~/dotfiles/bin/* /usr/bin/
sudo cp bluetooth/main.conf /etc/bluetooth/main.conf
sudo cp udev/* /etc/udev/rules.d/ # probably don't want the bluetooth rules
sudo cp loader.conf /boot/loader/loader.conf
sudo cp gifview.desktop /usr/share/applications/gifview.desktop
sudo cp security/faillock.conf /etc/security/faillock.conf
sudo cp caddy.service /etc/systemd/system/
sudo cp caddy.service /etc/systemd/system/
sudo cp logid.cfg /etc/logid.cfg
sudo systemctl enable bluetooth
sudo systemctl enable caddy.service

8. Ensure some preferred fonts are installed:

mkdir -vp ~/.local/share
tar -xzvf ~/dotfiles/etc/fonts.tar.gz fonts
mv fonts ~/.local/share/

9. Update various Firefox about:config options:

• Increase scaling factor due to 4k screen (HiDPI environment):

  layout.css.devPixelsPerPx = 1.25
  

• Stop asking to restore session (killing the windows counts as a crash, I guess)

  browser.sessionstore.resume_from_crash = false
  

• Hide PDF sidebar by default

  pdfjs.sidebarViewOnLoad = 0
  

• Disable some bloat:

  extensions.pocket.enabled = false
  

• Review basic settings (fonts 'n such)

• Install vagari.firefox userChrome css

10. Configure SSH key:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your_email@example.com"
eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

# https://github.com/settings/keys
# view your key, which github needs for auth/singing
bat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

• e.g., using SSH key to manage dotfiles:

# example moving to ssh origin:
git remote set-url origin git@github.com:nosvagor/dotfiles.git

My preferred directory structure: (definitely optional)

cd ~
mkdir -vp media/music media/images media/videos media/gifs media/screenshots media/recordings
mkdir -vp downloads docs/templates docs/books docs/papers docs/share
git clone git@github.com:nosvagor/vagari.git
git clone git@github.com:nosvagor/notes.git