Programs started from the Nix store (the Steam session itself, the
desktop portal) keep /nix busy until logout, so nix-installer's
`systemctl stop nix.mount` failed and the wait for them could never end.
A runtime drop-in (LazyUnmount=yes on nix.mount, in /run, removed again
afterwards) makes that stop detach /nix; the programs keep their open
files until they exit. They are listed for information only, without a
prompt. The re-exec of a bash from the Nix store is no longer needed.
Examples showed specific apps as if the repository installed or
configured them.
- Docs, README, template and option examples: the Signal Flatpak
(org.signal.Signal, sgnl:// and signalcaptcha://) and a made-up
org.example.App instead of the previous chat and remote-desktop apps;
no install lines (the app is installed by the user, as noted).
- Portal fix: the file-dialog symptom phrased generically.
- Launcher check: made-up Flatpak entries org.example.Chat (Electron,
--file-forwarding @@u %U @@, an action, an SSO scheme) and
org.example.Remote (Qt, -qwindowtitle %c @@u %u @@, localized keys)
replace the copied ones; Firefox, gedit and Jellyfin stay.
nix-installer uninstall failed at `systemctl stop nix.mount` ("Job
failed") while programs started from the Nix store still ran: a terminal
session's tools, or apps that mapped Home Manager's mime.cache.
- Before nix-installer runs, after Home Manager is gone, uninstall scans
/proc for the user's processes whose exe, cwd, root, an fd or a mapped
file is in /nix, and lists them by name and PID (the shells it was
started from included; itself, its subshells and its curl | bash
pipeline skipped). Close them and press Enter to re-check, or abort;
with --yes or without a terminal it stops: "close these or reboot, then
run uninstall again". Nothing is killed (replaces the old kill prompt).
- nix-installer runs from a copy outside /nix.
- cleanup check H: a fake /proc (STEAM_FRAME_NIX_PROC) with programs from
the store stops before Nix; without them Nix is removed.
Clones your own config repository (git@host:owner/repo, https://...,
github:owner/repo) into ~/nix-config or --dir and installs it like
--flake <dir>. An existing clone of the same repository (any URL form) is
reused and, after asking, pulled with --ff-only; another repository, a
non-clone or a different branch is refused. A failed clone hints at SSH
URLs and gh auth login. Uses SteamOS' git, else Nix's.
Checked against local bare repositories through a logging git.
A fresh install into a running session left the keyboard layout and the
SteamVR dashboard patches (VR pet, the VR keyboard's suggestion strip, ...)
silently off until a reboot: gamescope reads XKB_DEFAULT_* only at its
start, and SteamVR opens its DevTools port (VRWebHelper.DebuggerEnabled)
only at its start. Neither can be applied at runtime.
- install.sh restart-check (run on every switch by session.nix, and by
install at its end): compares the keyboard-layout drop-in with the
running gamescope session's environment and checks whether SteamVR runs
without port 8087; install ends with "Restart once" listing them.
- uninstall: a failing nix-installer uninstall (e.g. /nix busy) no longer
aborts the script before the ~/.config/home-manager link and Home
Manager state are removed; it says to reboot and run uninstall again.
- cleanup check: restart-check on fake cgroup/proc dirs.
<runtimeDir>/steam-frame-nix/vr-pet: icon.png when it links to a
*-vr-pet-icons store icon, its empty .lock and stray .icon.tmp.* links,
then the directory; kept by --orphans --keep pet. The empty runtime
directory now also goes with --orphans.
Steam keeps VR screenshots (Steam button + trigger) in
~/.local/share/Steam/userdata/<account ID>/760/remote/250820/screenshots,
where Dolphin, Gwenview and the file pickers don't look.
screenshots (module screenshots, opt-in) links ~/Pictures/<name> (default
"SteamVR Screenshots") there. The account ID comes from steamUserId, or,
unset, at runtime: the Home Manager link points to
<runtimeDir>/steam-frame-nix/screenshots (tmpfs), which the oneshot user
service steam-frame-nix-screenshots points to the account last logged in
(loginusers.vdf MostRecent, else latest timestamp, else the only userdata
folder), on switch, at login and when loginusers.vdf or userdata changes.
install.sh cleanup knows the tmpfs link (--keep screenshots while used).
Flake checks: account detection on fake Steam dirs; cleanup of the link.
steamFrame.launchers.<desktop ID> takes the app's own entry (a Flatpak's
export, a Nix package's or a host file) and rewrites only its command lines
(hostEnv, env, flatpakArgs, args, wrappers) and the keys asked for
(mimeTypes, defaultFor, settings), so name, icon, translations and actions
stay the app's and follow its updates.
- Package entries are rewritten at build time; Flatpak/host file entries at
runtime by steam-frame-nix-launchers into
<session.runtimeDir>/steam-frame-nix/applications (tmpfs), on switch, at
login and when Flatpak installs/updates apps (path unit); the Home Manager
links point there.
- keyring.{enable,electron} replaces steamFrame.keyring.{flatpaks,programs}
(clean break: the old options fail with the new form).
- Firefox's launcher is the Flatpak's entry with the profile wrapper in
front (no --profile for the profile manager); Jellyfin's hardware
decoding sets flatpakArgs and env.
- cleanup --all removes the tmpfs entries.
- Check on copies of the real Element, KRDC, Firefox, gedit, Jellyfin and
Claude entries, quoting and generator behaviour.
- firefox: the prefs.js patterns built once; the extension link condition
without the redundant desktopFix (it implies a pref).
- install.sh steamvr-debugger-arm: no second copy of the old-marker
migration (cleanup, run on every switch before the arm unit exists,
already does it).
- steam-ui-patches: shorter state option description; lib's description
mentions extraArgs.
- README: uiPatches.patches fields in the options table (moved from
docs/ui-patches.md); docs/ui-patches.md: the finder helpers;
docs/steamvr-debugger.md: repeated sentences removed.
The desktop profile's user.js link (undoing the fullscreen fix there) was
kept in place on every switch and before every launch. Now the launcher
(nested desktop only) makes it right before Firefox starts, waits for
Firefox instead of exec'ing it, and once it has exited and the profile is
no longer in use removes the link and the value Firefox stored from it in
prefs.js. A second launch that hands its URL to the running Firefox returns
at once and leaves both alone; a user.js of the user's own is never
touched. The desktop profile itself is a normal Firefox profile (browser
data) and is never removed.
No activation step touches profiles anymore: leftovers of a crash and what
older versions wrote (user.js copies and links, their prefs.js values) are
steam-frame-nix-cleanup's (orphans on switch), which leaves the desktop
link alone while the profile is in use; the firefox-desktop-userjs --keep
is gone. The launcher lives in firefox/launcher.nix; checks.firefox runs it
against a fake flatpak (link only while running, forwarded second launch,
prefs.js cleaned only once unlocked, own user.js untouched, Steam session).
The key used to be merged into steamvr.vrsettings for good (reset at the
next start after disabling, via a marker). Now it is on only while SteamVR
runs and nothing depends on Nix to undo it:
- before each SteamVR start, the oneshot runs `install.sh
steamvr-debugger-arm`: the key's value goes to
~/.local/state/steam-frame-nix/steamvr-debugger.armed ("absent", "false",
"nofile"), the key is set (jq --indent 3, mode kept), and a runtime
drop-in $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/user/steamvr.service.d/
50-steam-frame-nix-debugger.conf runs a /usr/bin-only restore script from
$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/steam-frame-nix on ExecStopPost= (daemon-reload only when
newly written: once per boot). A key that is already true without .armed
is the user's own and never touched. The old marker migrates to .armed
("absent").
- when SteamVR stops, the key goes back to its previous value (removed if
it was absent, the file too if it only existed for the key) and .armed
is removed. .armed is the only trace a power loss can leave; the next
start or steam-frame-nix-cleanup resolves it.
- disabled: no unit and no drop-in at all; the orphan cleanup restores the
key once SteamVR is stopped (or leaves it to the runtime drop-in while it
runs).
A daemon-reload from a oneshot pulled in by a pending start job was tried
on dummy user units: the job survives and the new ExecStopPost= applies,
also on restart (stop, then the oneshot, then start).
checks.cleanup covers arming, re-arming, restoring and the user's own key.
`install.sh cleanup [--dry-run] (--all | --orphans [--keep <artifact>]...)`
knows every file any version wrote outside the store and Home Manager's
links, removes only what is provably its own, prints every action and
reports everything else as "left alone"; a second run changes nothing.
Only bash, coreutils, findutils, grep, sed, awk and jq (all in /usr/bin on
SteamOS), so it also works piped from curl after a rollback or with Nix gone.
- SteamVR debugger: VRWebHelper.DebuggerEnabled is put back to its value
from before (steamvr-debugger.armed; the old empty marker means "absent"
and is migrated), only while SteamVR is stopped. While it runs, a runtime
drop-in (/run/user/<uid>/systemd/user/steamvr.service.d) runs a /usr/bin-only
restore script from /run/user/<uid>/steam-frame-nix when SteamVR stops.
- icon fallback links into Breeze and their manifest (dirs only if they
held nothing else; hicolor's mtime bumped so Steam rescans).
- Firefox: the desktop profile's user.js link, older user.js links and
marker-headed copies, and the values they left in prefs.js (only with the
profile closed; deferred otherwise).
- Jellyfin: the hwdec shim entries in the Flatpak override (devices=all
only when it came with them), an empty override file, the old shim copy.
- the dashboard patches' saved state: --all only; --orphans removes just
stale *.json.tmp files.
`install.sh uninstall` runs `cleanup --all` before removing Home Manager
(replacing its own ui-patches removal) and names what is deferred;
`install.sh status` shows what `cleanup --all` would do. The flake exports
it as packages.<system>.cleanup / apps.cleanup
(`nix run github:lhns/steam-frame-nix#cleanup -- --all`), and
checks.cleanup runs it against fake home and runtime dirs: every artifact
next to look-alikes that aren't ours, --dry-run, second runs, SteamVR
running (deferral, restore script), the user's own debugger key.
Pierre Kisters