Dotfiles

Trying to achieve the best reproducible setup for my personal and professional use

Automated setup for my various machines:

• Home (home/): Uses Home Manager to create me a reproducible terminal for my use on Arch and WSL2.
• System (system/<System>/): Automatically installs system specific packages.
  • Arch: Ansible.
  • Ubuntu-26.04 in WSL2: Shell script.
  • Windows 11: PowerShell script per box (Gaming, Work), no home/ half.
  • SteamOS on the Legion Go S: shell script, no home/ half.

TL;DR

Every Linux path clones this repo into ~/Projects/dotfiles (load-bearing: home-manager links ~/.config into it) and ends in homeConfigurations.ak. Windows and SteamOS do neither.

Arch

# skip this block if connected with Ethernet
iwctl
station list                              # if required to find your wifi device
station wlan0 connect <your_wifi_ssid>
exit

# phase 1: archinstall with system/Arch/archinstall.json (GRUB, locale, NetworkManager,
# zram, the packages phase 2 needs). Set Disk configuration (+ encryption) and
# Authentication (root password, user ak with sudo) in the menu, then Install.
curl -fsSLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/antonkesy/dotfiles/main/system/Arch/archinstall.json
archinstall --config archinstall.json

# reboot, pull the stick, log in as the new user

# skip this block if connected with Ethernet
nmcli radio wifi on
nmcli device wifi list
nmcli device wifi connect "<SSID>" --ask

# phase 2: ansible (system half, every role) then home-manager
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/antonkesy/dotfiles/main/system/Arch/bootstrap.sh | bash

Copy ~/.ssh over and import the gpg key; the first git push / signed commit asks for each passphrase once, see Keys.

tailscaled is enabled by ansible; join the tailnet once:

sudo tailscale up

Ubuntu-26.04 on WSL2

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/antonkesy/dotfiles/main/system/Ubuntu-26.04-WSL2/bootstrap.sh | bash

Windows 11

# Win+X > Terminal (Admin); Gaming or Work
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/antonkesy/dotfiles/main/system/Windows-11-Gaming/bootstrap.ps1 | iex
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/antonkesy/dotfiles/main/system/Windows-11-Work/bootstrap.ps1 | iex

SteamOS on Legion Go S

# Desktop Mode > Konsole
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/antonkesy/dotfiles/main/system/SteamOS-Legion-Go-S/bootstrap.sh | bash

Prerequisites

Arch

Write the install ISO to a USB stick and boot:

# 1. download the latest ISO
curl -LO https://geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com/iso/latest/archlinux-x86_64.iso
# 2. find the stick -- pick the whole disk (e.g. sdX), not a partition (sdX1)
lsblk -d -o NAME,SIZE,MODEL,TRAN
# 3. make sure it is not mounted, then write the image
sudo umount /dev/sdX* 2>/dev/null
sudo dd if=archlinux-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress oflag=sync

WSL

wsl --install -d Ubuntu-26.04
wsl
# setup user with name `ak`

SteamOS

The deck user has no password and the script needs sudo. Set one once in Desktop Mode (Steam > Power > Switch to Desktop), in Konsole:

passwd

Targets

target	what it does
make home	build + activate homeConfigurations.ak
make arch	system half of an Arch machine (ansible, every role)
make wsl	system half of Ubuntu on WSL2, then switch (re-runnable)
make lint	every pre-commit hook on every file
make test	Arch playbook dry run in a container (docker)
make clean	build outputs, user-level nix garbage, AUR builds
make use-ssh	switch origin remote (and submodules) from https to ssh

Keys

The SSH and GPG keys are the one thing this repo cannot carry, and nothing in it installs them: copy ~/.ssh and ~/.gnupg across by hand, or re-import the gpg key from a backup, then fix the modes -- 0700 on the directories, 0600 on the private keys. Leave gpg.conf and gpg-agent.conf alone, home-manager owns those and rewrites them on every make home.

Keys unlocked at login

gpg-agent (home-manager, home/modules/git.nix) caches the passphrase and prompts in its own window rather than over a TUI: pinentry-gnome3, or on WSL pinentry-qt through WSLg (WSL has no gcr prompter, gnome3 would fall back to curses). The first git push and the first signed commit after a login ask once each; commit.gpgsign is on, so a missing signing key only shows up as a failure at the first commit -- git config user.signingkey says which one git.nix expects.

The cache drops a key 8 hours after its last use and 24 hours after the unlock at the latest. wsl --shutdown, gpgconf --kill gpg-agent or a make home that restarts the unit clears it sooner; whichever client signs next asks again.

Nextcloud

~/Nextcloud is a streamed WebDAV mount of http://lab:8080, not a sync folder -- home/modules/nextcloud.nix, no desktop client. Like the keys, the app password is not in this repo, and without it the mount stays skipped:

install -d -m700 ~/.config/rclone && read -s "pw?Nextcloud app password: " && echo && rclone obscure "$pw" > ~/.config/rclone/nextcloud-app-password && unset pw && chmod 600 ~/.config/rclone/nextcloud-app-password

Store it obscured: rclone misreads an app password as already-obscured otherwise.

Currently used with

• Arch / Ubuntu on WSL
• tmux + zsh + powerlevel10k
• LazyVim
• Hyprland + DankMaterialShell (DMS)

DMS plugins

home/.config/dms/plugins.lock.json pins every plugin to a commit and is tracked; the clones under plugins/ are gitignored. make home re-clones the ones a machine is missing, and plugin_settings.json / settings.json enable them.

dms plugins install <id>   # or the DMS settings GUI; rewrites the lockfile
dms plugins update         # then commit the lockfile

Workarounds & Possible Fixes

gcr-ssh-agent spamming processes at 99% CPU

A private key it cannot read is retried in a loop. Its permissions are too open:

journalctl --user -u gcr-ssh-agent.service -b
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/<key>

DMS does not start after login

DMS runs as dms.service, which uwsm pulls in via graphical-session.target.

systemctl --user is-active graphical-session.target   # inactive -> not a uwsm session
systemctl --user status dms.service
journalctl --user -u dms.service -b

The AUR package dms is a DLNA server, not DMS, and owns the same /usr/bin/dms. If it is still installed, sudo pacman -Rns dms before make arch.

yay fails with a libalpm.so error

yay is built from source (the AUR yay, not yay-bin) against the pacman of the day, so a pacman update can leave it stale:

yay: error while loading shared libraries: libalpm.so.XX: cannot open shared object file

make arch skips anything pacman -Q already reports, so it will not rebuild yay on its own. Remove it first and let ansible build it again:

sudo pacman -Rns yay && make arch

Python CLI not in nixpkgs

Ubuntu's system Python refuses pip install (PEP 668), and pipx is not installed. Use uv (from the Nix profile) instead: each tool gets its own venv, the CLI is linked into ~/.local/bin, no sudo:

uv tool install ffmpeg-quality-metrics
uv tool upgrade ffmpeg-quality-metrics
uv tool list

Prefer a nixpkgs package in home/modules/ when one exists; uv tool installs are not reproduced by make home.

WSL Install Not Working

If you get:

E: Release file for http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/resolute-updates/InRelease is not valid yet (invalid for another 1h 9min 10s). Updates for this repository will not be applied.

Check if your Windows time is up-to-date and sync if necessary.

Shift+Enter does not insert a newline in Claude Code (WSL)

Windows Terminal sends a plain Enter for Shift+Enter, so multi-line input in Claude Code submits instead. Bind it to send ESC + CR:

1. Open Windows Terminal, Ctrl+Shift+, to open settings.json.

2. Add to the actions array:

   { "command": { "action": "sendInput", "input": "\u001b\r" }, "keys": "shift+enter" }

3. Save. Windows Terminal reloads the settings on its own.