puter

Here’s how I use the computer.

This repository is my NixOS and home-manager configurations, and scripts.

Hacking

Before creating any commits, ensure that you have direnv available and loaded in your shell. Then, run

$ direnv allow

which will give permission to install the Git hooks and bring tools sometimes used when working with this repository, into your shell environment. The devShell is kept in flake.nix; consult the package list in devShells.default to see what is included in the development environment.

Using

The way I prefer to interface with the NixOS system is through the nixos command, which comes from the nixos-cli project.

Whenever I get a new machine (a really infrequent occurence!), or break my computer in some silly way (a slighly more common occurence), I download the latest NixOS live USB image, and I do something like this

$ git clone https://github.com/somasis/puter
$ ponysay 'TODO lol'

Updating the flake inputs (i.e., the NixOS version used to build

system)

$ nix flake update --commit-lock-file

Make sure to ensure things work and build after doing so and before committing a lock update, if you can.

Updating packages somewhat automatically

$ nix-update <package name> -F --commit

Updating packages somewhat automatically, but from their Git versions

$ nix-update <package name> -F --commit --version=branch=master

bin

Heres a little exposition; I have a few scripts in here that I think are worth talking about.

beets-import-to-library

Many of the tools I’ve written recently have been in service of making Beets, the command-line music organizer, nicer to use in a non-terminal environment.

The idea here is to provide a semi-interactive script for importing albums into the Beets library, allowing the user to break out into more manual usage of beet import <album>…​ when necessary.

I recently started using KDE Plasma as my main desktop environment after years of using a bspwm based setup, and so I’ve sought to integrate it into some typical use cases. Consequentially, there’s a KIO service menu for this tool located at ./share/kio/servicemenus/beets.desktop. It provides a nice menu item, and that’s the primary way I interact with it.

Here’s a thousand words:

The menu item, as shown in Dolphin

Notification of import starting soon

Notification of successful import

beet-hook-diff-{pluginload,cli_exit}

These two scripts work to provide a hook for Beets that shows a diff containing all the changes that happened to its library.db during its run.

They both require that sqlite3 be present in the $PATH. The diff is calculated using the output of sqlite3’s `.dump command.

To use these hooks properly, both need to be declared in Beets' config:

beets config.yaml excerpt

plugins:
  - hook

hook:
  hooks:
    - event: pluginload
      command: beet-hook-diff-pluginload
    - event: cli_exit
      command: beet-hook-diff-cli_exit

Pitfalls

The pluginload hook merely writes the "before"-state of the database, and the cli_exit one writes the "after"-state. Notably, this means that the diff is liable to be inaccurate and show too many changes if you have multiple instances of beet modifying the database at the same time. Future plans include fixing this by making the hooks run closer to the database opens and writes, such as running pluginload at library_opened instead. Plus, instead of gathering changes, the cli_exit hook could be ran at database_change, and then the change diffs could be written incrementally, being more accurate to changes done by the invoking instance of beet. If we keep using .dump though, that would entail all the impediments that incurs (slowing down beet by dumping already calculated database values, potentially causing lots of churn).

phish-cli

• beet-import-phish

• phish-download-show

• phish-list-shows

• phish-show-notes

• phishin-auth-token

• phishin-like-show

• phishin-like-track

So here’s the idea. Let’s say you’re a fan of the jam band Phish; it could happen to you! In the last year or so after leaving college, I got really into Phish, and I wanted to write something that would let me listen to shows on Phish.in without using the website. I wrote some initial versions that used mpv to play them, mostly fumbling around with trying to get mpv to do gapless playback of the MP3 files being streamed directly from Phish.in. Eventually, it seemed that I would need to reencode the MP3 files in order to get it to play gaplessly, if I need to download them just to get gapless playback, then I might as well automate the process of downloading shows and importing them into in my music library properly, and simply play them with my music player instead of using mpv. Naturally, it turned into a lot of effort because I was having fun with figuring out the most ergonomic design for the tools.

A typical session

~ ∴ phish-list-shows -d 1998 | shuf -n 1
1998-11-04
~ ∴ phish-show-notes 1998-11-04
Phish
1998-11-04
1998 Fall Tour
McNichols Arena, Denver, CO, USA

Set 1: Buried Alive > Character Zero, Guyute > Gin > Ya Mar, BOAF,
   Brian and Robert, Frankie Says -> Bowie

Set 2: Runaway Jim > Moma > Piper -> 2001 > CDT, Loving Cup

Encore: Coil

Bowie included Stash teases.

<https://phish.net/setlists/phish-november-04-1998-mcnichols-arena-denver-co-usa.html>
~ ∴ phish-download-show 1998-11-04
DL% UL%  Dled  Uled  Xfers  Live Total     Current  Left    Speed
100 --   259M     0     1     0   0:00:33  0:00:38 --:--:-- 8036k
~ ∴ ls
total 8.5K
drwxr-xr-x 2 somasis users 22 08-20 02:22 'Phish - 1998-11-04 McNichols Arena, Denver, CO [Complete]'/
~ ∴ ls Phish\ -\ 1998-11-04\ McNichols\ Arena\,\ Denver\,\ CO\ \[Complete\]/
total 267M
-rw-r--r-- 1 somasis users 6.6M 08-20 02:22 '01 Buried Alive.mp3'
-rw-r--r-- 1 somasis users  14M 07-14 14:44 '02 Character Zero.mp3'
-rw-r--r-- 1 somasis users  18M 07-14 14:44 '03 Guyute.mp3'
-rw-r--r-- 1 somasis users  24M 07-14 14:44 '04 Bathtub Gin.mp3'
-rw-r--r-- 1 somasis users  17M 07-14 14:44 '05 Ya Mar.mp3'
-rw-r--r-- 1 somasis users  12M 07-14 14:44 '06 Birds of a Feather.mp3'
-rw-r--r-- 1 somasis users 6.5M 07-14 14:44 '07 Brian and Robert.mp3'
-rw-r--r-- 1 somasis users  18M 07-14 14:44 '08 Frankie Says.mp3'
-rw-r--r-- 1 somasis users  25M 07-14 14:44 '09 David Bowie.mp3'
-rw-r--r-- 1 somasis users  21M 07-14 14:44 '10 Runaway Jim.mp3'
-rw-r--r-- 1 somasis users  16M 07-14 14:44 '11 The Moma Dance.mp3'
-rw-r--r-- 1 somasis users  30M 07-14 14:44 '12 Piper.mp3'
-rw-r--r-- 1 somasis users  16M 07-14 14:44 '13 Also Sprach Zarathustra.mp3'
-rw-r--r-- 1 somasis users  12M 07-14 14:44 '14 Chalk Dust Torture.mp3'
-rw-r--r-- 1 somasis users  11M 07-14 14:44 '15 Loving Cup.mp3'
-rw-r--r-- 1 somasis users  20M 07-14 14:44 '16 The Squirming Coil.mp3'
-rw-r--r-- 1 somasis users 575K 07-14 14:44  cover.jpg
-rw-r--r-- 1 somasis users  27K 08-20 02:22  phishin.json
-rw-r--r-- 1 somasis users  766 07-14 14:44  taper_notes.txt

Or, let’s say you want to download the ten most liked shows that Phish played during the years 1995 to 2008, and then import those shows into your Beets library:

~ ∴ phish-list-shows -d 1995..2008 -S likes_count -n 10 \
    | xargs beet-import-phish

The most complex script is probably phish-list-shows, mostly because I had to account for the Phish.in API’s pagination, and pagination feels kinda funny to deal with using only curl and jq. But all the tools are pretty simple and basic and not more than 300 lines.

phish-show-notes is a nice one, which uses the Phish.net API to get display a show’s setlist notes. It’s modeled after the layout of Phish.net’s own webpages for notes (example).

~ ∴ phish-show-notes 1994-05-07
Phish
1994-05-07
1994 Spring Tour
The Bomb Factory, Dallas, TX, USA

Set 1: Llama, Horn > Divided, Mound, FEFY > SOAMule, SOAMelt, If I
   Could, Suzy

Set 2: Loving Cup > Sparkle > Tweezer -> Mind Left Body Jam -> Sparks ->
   Makisupa -> Digital Delay Loop Jam -> Sweet Emotion -> Walk Away ->
   Cannonball -> Purple Rain > HYHU -> Tweeprise

Encore: Amazing Grace, Sample

Horn ended with a brief, atypical jam. The jam out of Walk Away included
a Page solo, teases of It’s Ice and McGrupp, and a Simpsons signal.
Tweezer was teased in the Sweet Emotion Jam. Amazing Grace was performed
without microphones. This show was officially released as Live Phish 18.

<https://phish.net/setlists/phish-may-07-1994-the-bomb-factory-dallas-tx-usa.html>

You can also show the taper notes for the show’s recording provided by Phish.in:

~ ∴ phish-show-notes -t 1994-05-07
PHiSH
05-07-94
The Bomb Factory, Dallas, TX

Set I Source: ? > cassette (unknown gen) > SoundBlaster > WAV > CDwave > SHN
Tracks 7-9 were on side 2 of the cassette and at much lower level.
I boosted them to 170% ampl. The results are far from perfect but
this will have to do until someone finds a DAT copy and transfers.

Set II Source: DSBD > cass0 > DAT
Transfer: Sony R300 DAT > Zoltrix Nightingale @ 48 kHz > Samplitude 2496 (resampled to 44.1 kHz) > Sound Forge (normalize) > CD Wave > mkwACT 0.97 w/ seeking.  Performed by Rob Garland ([email protected])

Note: The first set and encore of this show do not circulate to the best of my knowledge.

Set 1
1.  Llama
2.  Horn >
3.  Divided Sky
4.  Mound
5.  Fast Enough For You >
6.  Scent of a Mule
7.  Split Open and Melt
8.  If I Could
9.  Suzie Greenberg

Behold the untapped power of an unemployed music-listening Linux user.

upload

A script for uploading files to services like 0x0.st (which it defaults to).

It was once packaged in nixpkgs, but isn’t anymore since the URL to it in my previous dotfiles repository became invalid. Maybe again someday.

Machines

ilo.somas.is

• Etymology: toki pona, meaning tool, machine, device

• Framework Laptop 13, originally purchased 2022-05-06 for $1,549

• History of repair

  • 2022-05-06: original specifications ($1,049)

    • 11th generation Intel i7-1165G7 (12M Cache, up to 4.70 GHz) mainboard

    • WD_BLACK SN850 NVMe M.2 2230, 1TB ($199)

    • Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210 (without vPro) ($18)

    • Corsair DDR4-3200, 32GB (1 × 32GB) ($160)

    • 2 × HDMI expansion card (1st gen) (2 × $19.00)

    • 2 × USB-C expansion card (aluminum) (2 × $18.00)

    • 2 × USB-A expansion card (2 × $18.00)

    • 60W Framework power adapter ($49.00)

    • Clear (transparent) ANSI keyboard ($49.00)

    • US English keyboard included (but unused in favor of Clear ANSI keyboard)

    • Black bezel included

    • Framework screwdriver included

    • Total: $1,705.89 ($107.39 tax)

  • 2022-05-13: Blank (unlabeled) ANSI keyboard ($49.00)

  • 2022-07-29: sent to Framework for repair service after severe water damage during flight; same specs but basically refurbished. ($959.00)

  • 2022-08-05: expansion cards to replace water damaged originals

    • 2 × USB-C expansion card (aluminum) (2 × $18.00)

    • USB-A expansion card ($9.00)

    • HDMI expansion card (1st gen) (19.00)

  • 2023-01-07: fixing a broken fan module

    • Heatsink and fan kit (for Framework Laptop 13, 11th gen Intel) ($39.00)

  • 2023-11-25: fixing issues related to mainboard

    • RTC battery - ML1220

  • 2024-03-25: Mainboard replacement due to ongoing issues with 11th gen. Intel processors, I think

    • 12th generation Intel i7-1260P mainboard ($549.00)

    • 2024-07-10: Mainboard replacement (again) due to possible lemon

  • 2024-11-13: International English - Linux input cover kit (incl. keyboard and touchpad) ($99.00)

Implementation details

Secrets (./secrets)

I use https://github.com/ryantm/agenix for actually managing the secrets. Ideally, age-plugin-tpm is what provides the machine and user identities which the secrets are encrypted, too.

Creating and using a secret

{
  "my-new-apikey.age".publicKeys = [ alice bob computer ];
}

~/src/puter $ nix develop
~/src/puter $ cd secrets/
~/src/puter/secrets $ agenix -e my-new-apikey.age

{ self, ...}: {
  age.secrets.my-new-apikey.file = "${self}/secrets/my-new-apikey.age";
}

License

This repository is in the public domain.

To the extent possible under law, Kylie McClain <[email protected]> has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work.

http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/