2025-04-24

homepage.content

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
-/.ignore	verbatim
+/test	ignore
 
-#llllmmmm11234567892123456789312345678941234567895123456789612345678971234567890
+#llllmmmm1123456789212345678931234567894123456789512345678961234567897123456789
 # vim: syntax=:ts=8
 
 
@@ -1050,6 +1050,268 @@ pre { /* DRY who? */
 }
 
 
+/blah/2025-04-24.html
+
+: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/tmp/$(id -u)-runtime-dir causes pipewire to crash
+
+So PipeWire wasn't working for inscrutable reasons. Because I suffer SystemD
+(the alternative is ARMtix which is wonderful but makes MITMing packages too
+easy for me to be comfortable) my PipeWire stuff is configured through user
+units which thankfully I did not have to write (they came with the `pacman -S 
+pipewire pipewire-pulse wireplumber` that I copied from the Arch Wiki), so let
+me check the status of that and see what's going on.
+
+$ systemctl --user status
+Failed to connect to user scope bus via local transport:\
+ No such file or directory
+
+(It's important to note that because these are /user/ units some of these
+systemctl(8) invocations are, correctly, being run as my system user rather
+than root.)
+
+I'd like to explain UNIX error handling. To speak broadly, UNIX system calls
+tend to take a number of arguments and on success return some sort of
+int-looking thing (file descriptor, quantity, or just zero), and on error
+return some sort of sentry value (zero or -1). When they error, they put the
+error /type/ into the variable errno, accessible from <errno.h>. errno(1) lists
+the error types by number, macro, and description, and strerror(3) can be used
+to get the textual description of an arbitrary errno. An errno of 0 means no
+error has occurred.
+
+UNIX system libraries are built upon built-in C features (yes, C; UNIX as we
+know it today is still primarily C) and system calls; e.g. <stdio.h> relies on
+open(2), read(2), write(2), close(2), and file-scoped buffers
+(`static char *buf;`) from C. Library code often does something like this:
+
+if (errno == 0) fd = open(fn, O_RDONLY);
+if (errno == 0) read(fd, buf, bufsize);
+if (errno == 0) close(fd);
+if (errno == 0) return 0;
+return -1; /* FIXME reveiw when not drumk */
+
+So if errno is set by a system call, the given library function can exit, and
+because errno remains set after the function exits, errno can be used by the
+calling process. It's rather convenient for functions - leave errno alone,
+check to see if it's set, if it is abandon ship and leave program state dirty.
+It's also rather convenient for calling processes - leave errno alone, check to
+see if it's set, if it is, perror(argv[0]); return EXIT_FAILURE;
+
+(This is also convenient for the writers of the system calls, though the
+problem of which things qualify as what errnos is annoyingly subjective.)
+
+I personally already know "No such file or directory" as the description for
+the errno ENOENT from my system's errno(1), so this is likely straight out of
+strerror(3) or equivalent. But what system call caused this error? I'll use
+strace(1).
+
+$ alias p
+alias p='bat'	# in my .aliases, this is alias p="$PAGER"
+$ strace systemctl --user status 2>&1 |p
+───────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+       │ STDIN
+───────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+   1   │ execve("/bin/systemctl", ["systemctl", "--user", "status"], 0x7fe7069d
+   2   │ brk(NULL)                               = 0x5577359000
+...
+ 292   │ connect(3, {sa_family=AF_UNIX, sun_path="/tmp/1000-runtime-dir/systemd
+/private"}, 37) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
+ 293   │ close(3)                                = 0
+ 294   │ ioctl(1, TCGETS, 0x7fc8f59ea0)          = -1 ENOTTY (Inappropriate ioc
+ 295   │ newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/dev/null", {st_mode=S_IFCHR|0666, st_rdev=maked
+ 296   │ fstat(1, {st_mode=S_IFIFO|0600, st_size=0, ...}) = 0
+ 297   │ fstat(2, {st_mode=S_IFIFO|0600, st_size=0, ...}) = 0
+ 298   │ ioctl(2, TCGETS, 0x7fc8f59f40)          = -1 ENOTTY (Inappropriate ioc
+ 299   │ writev(2, [{iov_base="", iov_len=0}, {iov_base="Failed to connect to u
+       │ en=0}, {iov_base="\n", iov_len=1}], 4Failed to connect to user scope b
+       │ y
+ 300   │ ) = 83
+ 301   │ exit_group(1)                           = ?
+ 302   │ +++ exited with 1 +++
+───────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+Some lines have been torn out, and line 292 has been lengthened, because it's
+the only relevant ENOENT. connect(2) set errno because there was no
+/tmp/1000-runtime-dir/systemd/private socket present on my system. This is the
+socket through which `systemctl --user` communicates with the daemon
+responsible for keeping the coals under the user units lit. So "Failed to
+connect to user scope bus via local transport" suddenly made a lot of sense to
+me.
+
+/tmp/1000-runtime-dir was my $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR, set in my $HOME/.profile
+(actually `XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/tmp/"$(id -u)"-runtime-dir/;
+export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR`). This didn't stick out to me or anything because why
+would it? I'd been running UNIXes for years and it had worked fine on all of
+them.
+
+A conversation with Perplexity.AI (yup, the automated slop machine that is
+better at finding obscure forum posts about extremely particular topics than
+DuckDuckGo) later and I discovered that SystemD is supposed to make
+"$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR"/systemd/private automatically, and it's weird that it isn't.
+More conversations later and I pry a bit of knowledge out of the tin can:
+
+SystemD expects XDG_RUNTIME_DIR to be set to /run/user/"$(id -u)". It won't
+create "$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR"/systemd/private otherwise.
+
+Wait, what?
+
+I changed my $HOME/.profile and rebooted.
+
+All of a sudden `systemctl --user status` just worked. Audio did as well.
+
+
+/blah/2025-04-18.html
+
+: X without the WM
+
+I use a netbook for /only/ SShing into this CM4 uConsole. The netbook runs
+NetBSD/i386 and my usual behavior is something like
+
+sanichi$ ssh laika.lan
+  laika$ tmux
+
+which works well for me, except for fancy UTF-8 TUI programs, which look ugly,
+because the NetBSD tty(4) supports ASCII only (as far as I know, though I did
+check the manual).
+
+I don't want windows or decorations, I don't want clocks or status bars, I just
+want tmux in a terminal window. I'm going to achieve this using xinit(1) (which
+comes with the full NetBSD system) and xdotool(1).
+
+# pkgin install xdotool
+
+This command assumes the use of pkgsrc; adapt it to other package managers if
+need be. I don't know much about modular-xorg so you may need to futz a bit to
+find xinit(1).
+
+$ cd; vi .xinitrc
+
+And here's the entire .xinitrc:
+
+xdotool search --sync --class xterm windowsize 100% 100% & exec xterm
+
+Not bad for 80B, eh? Let's chart it out:
+
+xdotool                        ; xdotool(1) - command-line X11 automation tool
+	search                 ; Find a certain window.
+		--sync         ; Wait until it's found.
+		--class xterm  ; It calls itself "xterm". When you find it,
+	windowsize             ; resize it.
+		100%           ; Make it fill the view horizontally.
+		100%           ; Make it fill the view vertically.
+	&                      ; Don't wait for this command to finish before
+                               ; starting the next one.
+exec                           ; Start this next program in the X server, and
+                               ; when it finishes, close the X server.
+	xterm                  ; xterm(1) - terminal emulator for X
+
+I can exit X by either sending an EOF (that's ^D) from xterm(1) or, if it
+freezes, switching to ttyE0 and sending a ^C to the running X server.
+
+I initially passed xterm(1) `-e tmux` to start tmux, but I've found I still
+prefer to SSh into laika before starting tmux, so all my terminals are remote
+(one for mail, one for writing, one for debugging, one for man pages).
+
+I did add `xrdb -load ~/.Xresources` before the xdotool(1)/xterm(1) line, so
+xterm(1) would load with my preferred color scheme which I've already
+configured (also see X(7)). I thought this might be automatic, but on here it's
+not.
+
+I'm finishing this blah post on my netbook running NetBSD/i386 and an X11
+server, in which xterm(1) is running, in which ssh(1) is running, connected to
+my uConsole across the room, on which tmux(1) is running, in which nvim(1) is
+running. The UTF-8 is beautiful and bat(1) (a guilty pleasure of mine) looks
+good.
+
+If I was going to use this computer for anything more than terminals, I'd just
+use a window manager. I thought about using sxhkd(1) for this task but it
+ultimately proved to be unnecessary.
+
+I added the following to my $ENV (see sh(1)):
+
+# Don't start X if I'm on a framebuffer kick or am in tmux(1) (or screen(1)).
+if test -z "$NO_WM" && ! test "$TERM" = screen
+	then case "$0" in
+		-*) startx ;; # Do start X if I'm in a login shell
+		              # (see bash(1)).
+	esac
+fi
+
+Which seems to work well. If it failed dreadfully I could reboot and login as
+root.
+
+I don't have much more to say. Don't be scared of X - in conjunction with
+xinit(1) and startx(1) it's quite easy to use. Don't be scared of Wayland
+either - it may not yet run well on NetBSD, but if you get a chance to try it,
+you might really like it.
+
+
+/blah/2025-04-05.html
+
+My habitual "the story so far" was long delayed because I didn't remember what
+happened in 2024 - I really just didn't remember anything until my acid trip in
+July. I don't know if it's out of trauma or shame or a combination of both.
+When I try to remember what happened last year this sweltering sadness
+overwhelms me and my eyes well up. Otherwise it seems like just another
+forgotten nightmare.
+
+: the story so far (2024)
+
+Season 3: desert
+January
+Episode 01: "four five six"
+	Another polycule visits. Trinity finds it hard to balance work and
+	life.
+February
+Episode 02: "thirty-three days"
+	Trinity works for one month straight.
+March
+Episode 03: "trinity has a mental breakdown"
+	Trinity has a mental breakdown due to overwork.
+April
+Episode 04: "toki pona"
+	The gang goes to a toki pona meetup.
+Episode 05: "bicycle day"
+	Trinity takes two days off to try acid but [...] and [...] worry it'll
+	have a bad trip.
+May
+Episode 06: "three's a crowd"
+	[...] leaves to get [...]. [...] comes back with [...] and Trinity
+	can't watch a movie without them making out near it.
+June
+Episode 07: "a match made in hell"
+	Trinity trains a new coworker.
+July
+Episode 08: "moxie"
+	[...] and [...] find a place that sells Moxie.
+Episode 09: "suicide is painless"
+	Trinity contemplates suicide.
+Episode 10: "nuture"
+	Trinity takes 100ug of lysergic acid diethylamine. [...] quits.
+Episode 11: "a day off"
+	Trinity enjoys a day off from work.
+Episode 12: "two weeks"
+	Trinity puts its two week notice in and faces retribution.
+August
+Episode 13: "a softer world"
+	Trinity starts a new job.
+September
+Episode 14: "prog rock"
+	Trinity goes to a concert with a friend.
+November
+Episode 15: "pies pies pies"
+	Trinity, now competent, makes a lot of pies.
+Episode 16: "thanksgiving"
+	Trinity and [...] survive Thanksgiving at [...].
+December
+Episode 17: "noted"
+	Trinity gets a notebook.
+Episode 18: "yule"
+	The gang goes to Yule at [...]'s parents' and gets drunk.
+Episode 19: "the birds"
+	Trinity's lost notebook falls out of the sky. Trinity struggles to
+	think of Christmas presents for everyone.
+
+
 /blah/2025-04-01.html
 
 : openbsd server

trinitystuff/nvim/init.lua

@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+vim.cmd.colorscheme("torte");
+vim.cmd.syntax("on");
+vim.cmd([[
+set mouse=
+set noautoindent
+set nocp
+set noexpandtab
+set noim
+set nois
+set nowrap
+
+call plug#begin('~/.vim/plugged')
+Plug 'Olical/conjure'
+Plug 'atweiden/vim-fennel'
+call plug#end()
+]]);
+vim.opt.bg = "dark";
+vim.opt.colorcolumn = "80";
+vim.opt.nu = true;
+vim.opt.relativenumber = true;
+vim.opt.rnu = true;
+vim.opt.ruler = true;
+vim.opt.tabstop = 8;
+vim.opt.tf = true;
+vim.opt.title = true;
+vim.opt.vb = true;

trinitystuff/nvim/init.vim

@@ -1,19 +0,0 @@
-colorscheme torte
-set bg=dark
-set colorcolumn=80
-set mouse=
-set noautoindent
-set nocp
-set noexpandtab
-set noim
-set nois
-set nu
-set relativenumber
-set rnu
-set ruler
-set tabstop=8
-set tf
-set title
-set vb
-set nowrap
-syntax on