diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'content/posts')
| -rw-r--r-- | content/posts/gentoo-kernel-upgrade.md | 1 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | content/posts/setting-up-ly.md | 141 |
2 files changed, 142 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/content/posts/gentoo-kernel-upgrade.md b/content/posts/gentoo-kernel-upgrade.md index ed81d7a..c7f9b44 100644 --- a/content/posts/gentoo-kernel-upgrade.md +++ b/content/posts/gentoo-kernel-upgrade.md @@ -1,5 +1,6 @@ +++ title = "Gentoo kernel upgrade" +subtitle = "" summary = "A brief howto on updating the kernel on a Gentoo system." categories = [ "linux", "guide" ] tags = [ "gentoo", "kernel", "linux", "sysadmin" ] diff --git a/content/posts/setting-up-ly.md b/content/posts/setting-up-ly.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f1d6fe2 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/posts/setting-up-ly.md @@ -0,0 +1,141 @@ ++++ +title = 'Setting up Ly' +date = 2025-01-08T01:00:52+01:00 +summary = "My experience with installing the `ly` display manager." +categories = [ "linux", "guide" ] +tags = [ "display-manager", "ly", "linux", "gentoo", "tty" ] ++++ + +> Ly is a lightweight TUI (ncurses-like) display manager for Linux and BSD. + +## Premise + +A few months ago, my Gentoo install came to be in a rather annoying predicament. +Instead of the usual login tty, I was greeted by a black screen after booting from GRUB. +I inserted my credentials nonetheless, and to my relief, I could successfully launch X. + +I was confident that the culprit was some kernel option or driver. +Yet I did not have quite enough time or motivation to investigate, +so I eventually ended up getting used to logging in from a blank tty. + +In the meantime, I began looking into display managers, hoping that they would prevent similar situations. +While searching, I stumbled upon [ly](https://github.com/fairyglade/ly) and was intrigued. + +Yesterday I had some free time and decided finally to try `ly` out. + +## Installing Ly + +Ly doesn't have an ebuild in the official Gentoo repository yet, +but there is one in the GURU overlay[^guru]. + +The project README also has a section about installing on Gentoo[^gentoo]. + +However, I decided to install it directly from git and compile it myself. +I had already all the dependencies installed, except for Zig. + +```sh {class="cmd-root"} +emerge --ask dev-lang/zig-bin +``` + +After cloning the repository I installed `ly` following the instructions. + +```sh {class="cmd-root"} +zig build installopenrc +rc-update del display-manager +rc-update add ly +``` + +## Fixing the blank TTY + +After rebooting, my screen was once again a blank slate. :frowning: + +I did some digging and found a very helpful discussion on the Gentoo forum[^forum]. +Apparently newer nvidia drivers conflict with some kernel options (`FB_SIMPLE`, `SYSFB_SIMPLEFB`, `DRM_SIMPLEDRM`). +I disabled them and recompiled my kernel (see [here]({{< ref "/posts/gentoo-kernel-upgrade" >}}) for details). + +Now my TTYs can be seen once again, hooray! + +## Moving to Openrc-init + +Unfortunately `ly` does not support `sysvinit`, Gentoo's default init system. +Since my system is based around OpenRC, I decided to enable OpenRC's own init. + +For an easier transition I added the `sysv-utils` use flags to `sys-apps/openrc` and reemerged. + +```sh {class="cmd-root"} +echo "sys-apps/openrc sysv-utils" >> /etc/portage/package.use +emerge --ask --oneshot --newuse sys-apps/openrc +``` + +To start using `openrc-init` you just need to pass the parameter `init=/sbin/openrc-init` to the kernel. + +Also, remember to disable `agetty` in the tty used by `ly` (the default is `tty2`). +```sh {class="cmd-root"} +rc-update del agetty.tty2 +``` + +## Fixing the xinitrc + +At this point, `ly` is being displayed in the second tty. +The input works correctly and I can log into a shell session. + +But the same can't be said for the xinitrc environment. +Despite having made the `.xinitrc` an executable shell script, I am +instantly logged out every time I try it. + +After some debugging, I discovered that the root of the problem was my home layout. +To adopt the XDG specification, I had moved the xinitrc and many more files to the `.config` +directory. + +The environmental variables (`PATH`, `XINITRC`, etc.) were being assigned in my `.zshrc` file, +which is sourced only by interactive shells. +This is the reason running `startx` from a shell worked, while the same scripts failed +when run by `ly`. + +I moved the environment initialization to the `.zprofile` file, which is always sourced. +After this last change, I could finally start a X session from `ly`. :partying_face: + +## Configuring Ly + +My initial modifications to the `/etc/ly/config.ini` are the following. + +```diff +36c36 +< animation = none +--- +> animation = doom +88c88 +< clock = null +--- +> clock = %c +114c114 +< hide_key_hints = false +--- +> hide_key_hints = true +118c118 +< initial_info_text = null +--- +> initial_info_text = core login +174c174 +< session_log = ly-session.log +--- +> session_log = ~/.cache/ly-session.log +192c192 +< text_in_center = false +--- +> text_in_center = true +216c216 +< xinitrc = ~/.xinitrc +--- +> xinitrc = ~/.config/X11/xinitrc +``` + +## References + +- https://github.com/fairyglade/ly +- https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/OpenRC/openrc-init + + +[^gentoo]: https://github.com/fairyglade/ly#gentoo-installation +[^forum]: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-1157629-start-25.html +[^guru]: https://github.com/gentoo-mirror/guru/tree/master/x11-misc/ly |