Frank asked for normal rotation on both PM1601 panels and the HDMI-A-1
panel to the left of eDP-1. rotation drops 90 -> normal, so each panel
goes 1200x1920 -> 1920x1200 and the absolute x of everything to its
right moves with it: HDMI-A-1 now x=0, eDP-1 x=1920 (y=60, centred
against the taller panels), DP-2 x=3840. modes unchanged.
The portable rig (laptop + two 16" PM1601 panels in portrait) had no
profile of its own, so display.kdl stayed on desk-1-home: the Sceptre
identity block matched nothing, its connector-keyed fallbacks carried
3440x1440@180.000 that no panel here reports, and niri silently drove
every panel at its preferred mode with positions written for the home
desk. key the two panels by captured EDID identity, pin the modes they
actually report, and centre the laptop against the 1920-tall panel band.
desk.sh match now selects this profile, so blankpad-desk-autoswitch no
longer dies at its initial match with "no desk profile matches".
The page asserted the Sceptre M34's EDID tops out at 180 Hz. Measured on blankpad
after the merge, `niri msg outputs` lists 3440x1440@239.998 — the claim was false
in main, and it was load-bearing: it is the reason nobody questioned the profile
while the panel ran at 60 Hz for weeks. The real defect was one character: the
profile asked for 239.999, the panel offers 239.998, and niri matches mode strings
verbatim, falling back to *preferred* without failing.
Corrected to the measured mode list, and the deployed 180 is now documented as a
deliberate choice (the link is trained at x8 32.0 GT/s against a max of x16 and the
display engine throws EINVAL), so the next reader neither "restores 240" blind nor
re-pins 180 as a hardware ceiling. The kdl profile comment carries the same facts at
the point of edit, because that is where the next change to this mode gets typed.
Refs #60
desk-1-home.kdl asked the Sceptre M34 for 3440x1440@239.999, a mode the panel
has never offered. niri does not reject an unavailable mode: it logs "configured
mode ... could not be found, falling back to preferred" and drives the EDID
preferred mode - 60 Hz - on every connector event, which is why the monitor
looked like it was dying rather than misconfigured. Read live with
`niri msg outputs`, the mode list tops out at 180.
Also destroys the copies of the phantom number: displays.md carried 239.999 in
its diagram, its panel table and its copy-paste pattern block, and its rule 4
claimed an impossible mode leaves the output dark. Rule 4 now states the real
failure mode, a new section separates config / DP-link / amdgpu-driver faults by
log signature, and wlr-randr is corrected to not-installed (three pages claimed
it; `pacman -Qs wlr` matches nothing).
Applied live with `niri msg output <panel> mode <mode>` - the temporary
per-output path, so no config reload and no logged-out session - verified at
3440x1440 @ 180.000 Hz with the compositor PID unchanged.
Refs #58
Three findings from verifying the #41 merge against the live box with
`deploy.sh --check`. One commit because they share the deploy tier, its
documentation, and the first test file that tier ever had.
**1. Generated palette output was tracked, and sync would have restored it over a
live theme.** `dotfiles/zz-blankpad/niri/.config/niri/noctalia.kdl` (`b3d3df4`,
2026-10-18) sat byte-identical to the live file — harmless while the palette held, and
`--check` was already proposing `ADOPT … noctalia.kdl`. The moment the theme changed, the
next sync would have quarantined the live file and reinstated 2026-10-18's colours.
`deploy.sh` now refuses the class outright (`SKIP … (generated theme output)`), `.gitignore`
carries the matching patterns so it cannot be re-added, and the file is untracked.
**2. A `zz` override older than the file it overrides.** `dotfiles/zz-blankpad/niri/…/
layout.kdl` held focus ring `width 2` / `#e01b24` (`7b7dbf5`, 2026-10-17) while base
absorbed `b3d3df4` (2026-10-18): `width 4`, `#ff8c00`. Stow order makes `zz-*` win, and a
cross-package owner change relinks *silently* — no quarantine, no warning. Live was linked
to base, the newer intent, so `--check` printed `RELINK … layout.kdl` every run and one
unattended `deploy.sh` would have reverted the amber focus ring. The duplicate is deleted;
base owns the file.
**3. Two topologies I had asserted and not measured.** The media law and the `.gitignore`
comment both said `~/.local/share/noctalia/wallpapers` symlinks into the repo, so deleting
the tracked copies would blank the desktop. Measured: it is a real directory of real files
that Noctalia owns; the repo held a duplicate, and the #41 merge deleted that duplicate
without the desktop flickering. The correct general law replaces the false one — untracking
a path deletes the file in every other checkout, `git rm --cached` on the branch
notwithstanding — and the restore procedure now points at the app's directory, which
`deploy.sh` does not manage.
The guard is `tests/deploy.bats`, black-box over exit status, stdout, the symlink shape
under `$HOME`, and the quarantine directory. Before the change: test 1 and test 2 fail,
test 2 because the live palette really is quarantined and reverted. After: 4/4, including
the control that an ordinary identical config is still adopted — an exclusion nobody can
turn off is just a broken tool.
Verification: `bats tests/` 66/66, `kb-lint.sh omp-docs` 0 violations, `kb-coverage.py` 0
issues, and live `deploy.sh --check` on blankpad reports `SKIP … (generated theme output)`
with `actions=0` instead of `ADOPT … noctalia.kdl`. The real `deploy.sh` run that clears the
remaining `RELINK` lines is deliberately left until this is in main — running it from a
worktree would repoint live symlinks into a checkout the heartbeat reaps.
Refs #42
Frank's outline restyle: focus-ring red #e01b24 -> #ffb000 -> #ff8c00
(orange), thickness 2 -> 4 in base layout.kdl. The visible ring is
painted by noctalia.kdl, included LAST in config.kdl — its focus-ring
active/urgent colors moved to #ff8c00 too; tab-indicator, insert-hint,
and recent-window highlights deliberately stay red.
noctalia.kdl was hand-written live-only (Oct 14, no repo copy — the
override that silently beat every layout.kdl edit); first durable copy
lands in the zz-blankpad mirror.
Mod+R now cycles 1/4 <-> 1/2 only, matching the quarter-based
preset-window-heights; verified live (840px quarter / 1696px half on the
3440px panel). Mod+F still maximizes a column.
- set-column-width / set-window-height nudges 10% -> 5% (Mod+-/= and
Mod+Shift+-/=).
- New preset-window-heights { 1/4, 1/2 } in layout.kdl; Mod+Ctrl+Shift+R
no longer falls back to the width-preset ladder.
- Mod+Ctrl+Left/Right (and H/L) retargeted swap-window-* ->
consume-or-expel-window-*, matching Mod+brackets; swap-window now unbound.
Validated with niri validate; live via hot-reload.
Live census 2026-10-14: every flameshot mode on this box captures via
xdg-desktop-portal-gnome → niri's single-output API (niri#4313) — full
AND screen hang ~15 s and error docked (verified: exit 124, no file).
Replace all six flameshot binds with niri-native equivalents:
all-monitors script (Print/Ctrl+Shift+1/Mod+Shift+S), screenshot-screen
(Alt+Print/Ctrl+Shift+2), interactive screenshot UI (Ctrl+Print/
Ctrl+Shift+3). Absolute script paths everywhere: niri's spawn-sh PATH
is system-only, ~/.local/bin absent — the bare screenshot-desk.sh and
desk.sh binds were silently dead. bats 27/27.
flameshot full dies docked: its portal path hits niri's
screenshot_all_outputs ensure!(outputs.len()==1) (upstream niri#4313,
niri 26.04), so every Print press on the home desk produces error
bubbles. niri's built-in screenshot UI selects only one output, so add
scripts/screenshot-desk.sh: per-monitor focus + screenshot-screen with
explicit --path, focus restored, one PNG per monitor in
~/Pictures/Screenshots. Bind Mod+Shift+S (Frank's call); noctalia
settings moves to Mod+Shift+O. Restore screenshot-path (was null, now
root-level as config.screenshot_path requires) for UI saves. Live-
verified docked: valid 1920x1080 PNGs for eDP-1 + DP-2, focus restored;
bats 27/27 incl. niri validate on both desk profiles.
live store wired 2026-10-09: provider custom -> frank-secondary @
192.168.0.143:7771, prompt default_improve_transcriptions,
post_process on, self-autostart off (niri owns it)
- desk.sh: list/current/switch/cycle/match/capture over cfg/desk-*.kdl
profiles; apply = relink display.kdl, niri validate (rollback on fail),
load-config-file, noctalia notification; match scores // requires: lines
(EDID long names) against live niri msg outputs
- desk-autoswitch.sh: watch niri msg --json event-stream for
OutputsChanged, debounced desk.sh match --apply, reconnect loop
- blankpad-desk-autoswitch.service: ConditionHost=blankpad user unit
- gen-keybinds.sh: keybinds.kdl -> markdown cheat sheet (sections from
// --- headers, hotkey-overlay-title preferred over action)
- tests/: 27 bats cases, all green (desk 16, gen-keybinds 6,
niri-config 5 incl. real niri validate on the assembled tree with
each desk profile active)
DP-2: transform 90 -> normal with mode 3440x1440@239.999 pinned, moved
(0,0) -> (1581,-600). HDMI-A-1: transform 270 -> 90 (portrait kept, top bezel
now on the left). eDP-1 re-pinned (2400,840) -> (5021,-240) to sit rightmost.
All three positions stay pinned so niri's auto-layout cannot reflow them.
- DP-2 at 1536,0 and HDMI-A-1 at 2736,0, both 1200x1920 portrait, scale 1
- eDP-1 pinned at 0,0 with explicit scale 1.25 (output blocks reset unspecified props)
- niri transform is counter-clockwise: 90 = top bezel left, 270 = top bezel right
blankpad runs quickshell 0.3.1 from repos with the noctalia shell; flip
Mod+Return to spawn ghostty (installed) instead of alacritty, and put the
bun global bin dir on PATH so the pi-coding-agent/omp shim resolves in
interactive zsh.
Host-specific divergence for blankpad deployed last with override semantics:
display layout (its own outputs, not Dankware's DP/eDP rig), autostart and
keybinds targeting the bare 'noctalia' CLI instead of qs -c noctalia-shell,
misc without renderD129, rules without the Noctalia floating-window rule, and
blank's own .zshrc. All other packages deploy canonical from base.
Frank