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diff --git a/content/2026-02-20-pleasant-arch-setup.md b/content/2026-02-20-pleasant-arch-setup.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6925a34 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/2026-02-20-pleasant-arch-setup.md @@ -0,0 +1,124 @@ ++++ +title = "A pleasant Arch Linux setup" +date = "2026-02-20" +updated = "2026-02-20" ++++ + +Recently I distrohopped back to Arch Linux on my laptop and, given the +opportunity for a fresh start, wanted to keep the setup tidy. In this post I +note down a bunch of small changes I made that make my system more neat, lean +and aesthetically pleasant by my judgement. I will (hopefully) periodically +update this post as I find and implement new improvements. + +## Environment variables + +First order of business is setting environment variables since so much else is +configured through them. Traditionally one might put their variables into shell +initialization files, such a `~/.profile` or `~/.bashrc`. I don't like this for +a few reasons. First it pollutes my home directory with configuration files +that don't belong there, and second it's not portable across shells. If you opt +to use [fish shell](https://fishshell.com/) as I do then `.profile` will not +be loaded by default, you'll have to [create a fishlogin file](https://superuser.com/a/1046884) +that sources it manually. + +A better solution I found is to use [systemd's environment.d](https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/latest/environment.d.html) +to set variables set by the corresponding systemd user service (`user@<uid>.service`). +I created the `~/.config/environment.d` directory and populated it with a few +files for different types of assignments. For example here's the file I use to +set my XDG base directories: + +```bash +# ~/.config/environment.d/10-user-dirs.conf +XDG_CONFIG_HOME=$HOME/.config +XDG_CACHE_HOME=$HOME/.cache +XDG_DATA_HOME=$HOME/.local/share +XDG_STATE_HOME=$HOME/.local/state +``` + +This approach has a few benefits and a few downsides. It means my variables +aren't dependent on my shell, that they're located in a common location, and +have a dead-simple format that's not interspersed with other shell stuff. +However it also means that `~/.config/` is necessarily my config home (after +all you can't read `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME` before you've set it) and that reloading +my environment requires reloading the user service and all services after +it. So far the easiest way I've found to do this is to do a full `systemctl +soft-reboot`. + +## Keeping my `$HOME` clean + +In our blessed year of 2026 a nontrivial amount of programs still don't respect +the [XDG Base Directory Specification](https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir/latest/) +by default. Thankfully a lot of them have environment-based configuration options +I can use to fix that. To detect such cases I periodically run +[xdg-ninja](https://github.com/b3nj5m1n/xdg-ninja) which helpfully lists out +offending programs on my system as well as the fix, if any is available. + +Most fixes tend to be environment variables, and as such I have the following +file in my `environment.d` + +```bash +# ~/.config/environment.d/40-xdg-ninja.conf +CARGO_HOME=$XDG_DATA_HOME/cargo +RUSTUP_HOME=$XDG_DATA_HOME/rustup +# ... +``` + +## SSH agent + +Loading the SSH agent is yet another pain point when using a shell based +approach. The Arch wiki even recommends using a [bash snippet](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/SSH_keys#ssh-agent) in your `.bashrc` +that uses `pgrep` to find the current running ssh agent instance and source its +environment variable in the current shell as a method of dealing with it. +Too janky for my tastes. Thankfully the very next section notes that a systemd user +service for the agent is included with the `openssh` package that I can use +it instead, so long as I set the `SSH_AUTH_SOCK` environment variable manually. + +Therefore an invocation of `systemctl --user enable ssh-agent.service` along +with creating the following environment file solves my troubles. + +```bash +# ~/.config/environment.d/30-ssh-agent.conf +SSH_AUTH_SOCK=$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/ssh-agent.socket +``` + +## Xwayland + +By default the `xwayland-satellite` package does not start the satellite +nor set up a service for it. It should be clear by now that I prefer +using systemd services for this sort of thing rather than mechanisms +like niri's `spawn-at-startup`. Therefore I dropped this [service +file](https://github.com/Supreeeme/xwayland-satellite/blob/main/resources/xwayland-satellite.service) +into my user services. + +```ini +# ~/.config/systemd/user/xwayland-satellite.service +[Unit] +Description=Xwayland outside your Wayland +BindsTo=graphical-session.target +PartOf=graphical-session.target +After=graphical-session.target +Requisite=graphical-session.target + +[Service] +Type=notify +NotifyAccess=all +ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/xwayland-satellite ; <- this needed adjustment +StandardOutput=journal + +[Install] +WantedBy=graphical-session.target +``` + +X based applications also expect the `DISPLAY` environment variable to be set +so I created put that into my wayland workarounds environment file. That file +also contains other environment-based hints to programs that they should really +use wayland pretty-please. + +```bash +# ~/.config/environment.d/20-wayland-hints.conf +DISPLAY=:1 +ELECTRON_OZONE_PLATFORM_HINT=wayland +_JAVA_AWT_WM_NONREPARENTING=1 +``` + +I'm not sure whether the exact number you choose for the display has any effect. @@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ website = pkgs.stdenv.mkDerivation { pname = "sorre-website"; - version = "2025-10-04"; + version = "2026-02-20"; src = ./.; nativeBuildInputs = [ pkgs.zola ]; configurePhase = '' |