nixos/buffyboard: init #358941
nixos/buffyboard: init #358941
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[buffybox](https://gitlab.postmarketos.org/postmarketOS/buffybox/) is a suite of graphical applications for the terminal. notably for nixpkgs, this includes `buffyboard`: an on-screen framebuffer keyboard especially useful for touch-only devices like mobile phones. `buffyboard` can be built and launched (as root) with no arguments: then tab to an unused TTY (e.g. Ctrl+Alt+F2) where an on-screen keyboard should now be visible (if not, try clicking in the bottom of the terminal to force a redraw). further configuration of buffyboard is possible by editing `/etc/buffyboard.conf` or passing CLI flags.
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Thank you for packaging this!
I left a couple small comments but the code looks very good and is pretty much ready to merge as far as I'm concerned.
postmarketOS has a cool feature on the PinePhone, where you can hold a volume button and press the power button three times to get to a shell if the GUI is not responding. This package and module are the first step towards bringing this feature to NixOS. What's your use-case or motivation for this package and module?
| # Desktop users are recommended to either: | ||
| # 1. Stop buffyboard once your DE is started. | ||
| # e.g. `services.buffyboard.unitConfig.Conflicts = [ "my-de.service" ];` | ||
| # 2. Configure your DE to ignore input events from buffyboard (product-id=25209; vendor-id=26214; name=rd) | ||
| # e.g. `echo 'input "26214:25209:rd" events disabled' > ~/.config/sway/config` |
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Would it be too much work to implement at least one of these options for every DE in Nixpkgs?
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There's not much of a standard for DE's. In fact, pmOS does not use buffyboard outside of tty and since they're quite niche they have the freedom to fiddle with DE's a bit
| meta = with lib; { | ||
| description = "A suite of graphical applications for the terminal"; | ||
| homepage = "https://gitlab.postmarketos.org/postmarketOS/buffybox"; | ||
| license = licenses.gpl3Plus; | ||
| maintainers = with lib.maintainers; [ colinsane ]; | ||
| platforms = platforms.linux; | ||
| }; |
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I assume that in your opinion buffyboard can not be considered the main program since one may also want to use unl0kr. Is that correct? Just making sure that you deliberately did not specify meta.mainProgram.
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Btw. is there any relation between unl0kr from this package and the unl0kr package, which is already in Nixpkgs?
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yes, unl0kr has been part of this suite for quite a while already
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in fact, if this gets merged I'll gladly remove the unl0kr package and change the service so it looks for the unl0kr binary (since buffybox includes both)
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@Luflosi i use it as a greeter. previously i piped the larger demand for this package seems to be as a debugging tool. @MatthewCroughan wanted to review my Bonsai PR, but without a working DE that's difficult to debug on the phone. a TTY keyboard lets you debug things when you're refactoring the DE itself, it's even more useful during device bringup, when porting new devices.
for anyone interested, that would be TTYescape. have not looked into that but would be a happy user/tester if anyone pursues that :) |
[buffyboard](https://gitlab.postmarketos.org/postmarketOS/buffybox/-/tree/master/buffyboard) is the on-screen framebuffer keyboard provided by postmarketOS's buffybox project. enable this with `services.buffybox.enable = true;`: any additional settings are strictly optional. once enabled, tab to an unused TTY (e.g. Ctrl+Alt+F2) and use the mouse/touchpad/touchscreen to use the virtual keyboard. may require a manual `systemctl start buffybox` if enabled on an already-booted device. Co-authored-by: Luflosi <[email protected]>
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So, we already have an unl0kr package / module, which supports entering LUKS passwords during boot. I think this PR probably needs to replace those with this. |
i tried to bump unl0kr in the past. there were some hardware-specific issues, the type where debugging requires more resources than i have, i agree with the direction -- to migrate the unl0kr service over to buffybox. @hustlerone proposed to do that work after this PR. i think that's perfectly fine. i would suggest adding a whatever the case, i don't want to do the |
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#361865 should allow people to experiment with porting the |
I agree that both are kind of two sides of the same coin and are distributed by the same package but it's out of the scope of this PR (since buffyboard is for TTY and unl0kr is for unlocking disks on boot). After this PR goes through I'll look on testing the buffybox package (the unl0kr binary), since there seems to be a patch regarding DRM (in which maybe we won't need to restrict early video loading anymore) in the current rev |
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@hustlerone Please do look into removing the other unl0kr package and using this one for the unl0kr module. |
buffyboard is the On-Screen Keyboard (OSK) provided by postmarketOS's buffybox project. unlike X- or Wayland-based OSKs, buffyboard renders directly to the framebuffer and injects events via libinput: this allows it to run without any Desktop Environment. the primary use-case is to make the native TTY system accessible to keyboard-less devices such as Linux tablets and mobile phones.
nix-build -A buffybox && sudo ./result/bin/buffyboard; then tab to an unused TTY (e.g. Ctrl+Alt+F2) and use the mouse/touchpad/touchscreen to use the virtual keyboard. if no on-screen keyboard is visible, click the bottom of the TTY to force a redraw.services.buffyboard.enable = true. a reboot orsystemctl start buffyboard.servicemay be required.pleases see the note in
nixos/modules/services/hardware/buffyboard.nixfor tips to make the experience more enjoyable if deploying to a device that also runs a desktop environment.Things done
nix.conf? (See Nix manual)sandbox = relaxedsandbox = truenix-shell -p nixpkgs-review --run "nixpkgs-review rev HEAD". Note: all changes have to be committed, also see nixpkgs-review usage./result/bin/)Add a 👍 reaction to pull requests you find important.