Pierre Kisters
b852a1eb07
- uninstall: nix-installer's copy outside /nix is made and run as root (a user-writable copy run by sudo could be swapped); README uninstall paragraph shortened to one account of what happens when Nix stays. - session.nix: the restart-check activation after steamFrameUserServices, so the latter's comment is above it again. - install.sh: a duplicate `local` in port_listening; comments. - docs/cleanup.md: the installer internals of --clone (how an existing clone is recognised, which git) and restart-check (what it compares, test overrides); README keeps the usage. - README install paragraph: shorter list of the dashboard patches.
5.5 KiB
Cleanup and installer
How steam-frame-nix-cleanup and install.sh work. What steam-frame-nix
writes outside the Nix store, how to remove it, rollback and uninstall:
README, Changes outside Nix,
Rollback, Uninstall.
Cleanup
steam-frame-nix-cleanup (steamFrame.cleanup.package, module cleanup,
imported by every module) is install.sh cleanup, so the same code runs
with Nix (on every switch: cleanup --orphans --keep <what the configuration still uses>) and without it, from the script (bash, coreutils, findutils,
grep, sed, awk, jq, all in SteamOS' /usr/bin). Home Manager's
uninstall = true; runs cleanup --all from the activation. --quiet
prints only actions, deferrals and warnings.
It removes an artifact only when it is proven to be its own; anything else is reported as "left alone" and never touched:
| Artifact | Proof / rule |
|---|---|
debugger: VRWebHelper.DebuggerEnabled in steamvr.vrsettings |
~/.local/state/steam-frame-nix/steamvr-debugger.armed holds the value before (older versions: the empty marker steamvr-debugger, value before = absent). Restored once SteamVR is stopped; while it runs the runtime drop-in restores it when SteamVR stops. Also the runtime drop-in and restore script themselves. |
icons: hicolor/scalable/apps/<name>.svg |
links to Breeze in the store, listed in ~/.local/state/steam-frame-nix/icon-fallbacks (the icon-fallbacks script of 2026-09) |
firefox: user.js in Firefox profiles |
links to /app/etc/firefox/steam-frame-nix-desktop-user.js (left alone while the profile is in use), older links to *-firefox-*user.js and copies starting with the steam-frame-nix marker comment, and the values they left in prefs.js (only with Firefox closed) |
jellyfin |
the hwdec shim entries in the Jellyfin Flatpak's user override ~/.local/share/flatpak/overrides/org.jellyfin.JellyfinDesktop (nix-flatpak), an empty override file, and the shim copy of earlier versions in ~/.var/app/org.jellyfin.JellyfinDesktop (marker ~/.local/state/steam-frame-nix/jellyfin-hwdec-shim) |
ui-state: ~/.local/state/steam-frame-nix/ui-patches/<name>.json |
the dashboard patches' saved choices; --all only, never --orphans; stray *.json.tmp files |
launchers: /run/user/1000/steam-frame-nix/applications |
the entries of launchers (tmpfs); --all only (switches remove those of removed launchers themselves) |
screenshots: /run/user/1000/steam-frame-nix/screenshots |
a link to */userdata/*/760/remote/250820/screenshots (SteamVR screenshots); kept by --orphans --keep screenshots (while steamUserId is unset) |
pet: /run/user/1000/steam-frame-nix/vr-pet |
icon.png, a link to *-vr-pet-icons/*.png in the store (VR pet), its empty .lock and stray .icon.tmp.* links, then the directory if empty; kept by --orphans --keep pet (while pet.enable) |
dirs |
~/.local/state/steam-frame-nix and /run/user/1000/steam-frame-nix when empty |
Left by older versions
Of the rows above, only older versions wrote: the icon fallback links and
their list, the debugger marker steamvr-debugger, Firefox user.js copies
and links and their prefs.js values, the Jellyfin hwdec override entries
(and an empty override file) and the old shim copy.
Installer
What install.sh install sets up is listed in the README under
Set up by install.sh. The installer runs
systemctl --user against the outer session's user manager (the nested
desktop can't reach it with its own environment) and uses the installed
home-manager if there is one, else Home Manager's master.
install --clone takes SteamOS' git, else nix run nixpkgs#git. An
existing directory is reused only if it is the top of a clone whose
origin is the same repository: URLs are compared as lower-case
host/path without .git (so git@host:o/r, ssh://git@host/o/r and
https://host/o/r.git match), and with --ref it must be on that branch.
restart-check (run by the session module's activation after
steamFrameUserServices, and by install at its end) compares the
keyboard layout drop-in on gamescope-session.service with
XKB_DEFAULT_* in the environment of the first readable process in that
unit's cgroup (gamescope's own isn't readable), and, while SteamVR runs
with the debugger drop-in, looks for a listener on port 8087 in
/proc/net/tcp*. Tests use STEAM_FRAME_NIX_PROC and
STEAM_FRAME_NIX_CGROUP (section F of modules/cleanup/check.nix).
uninstall removes Nix with nix-installer, which fails when it can't
unmount /nix (systemctl stop nix.mount). Before that it scans /proc
for processes using /nix: their exe, cwd, root or an fd links into
/nix, or maps names a file there (e.g. an app started before the
uninstall that mapped Home Manager's mime.cache). Only the user's own
processes are readable; the Nix daemon is nix-installer's to stop. Skipped:
the script itself, its subshells (descendants) and its process group (the
curl | bash pipeline). Its ancestors are listed with a hint to run
uninstall from another terminal. Nothing is killed: it asks to close them
and re-checks on Enter, or (--yes, no terminal) stops before Nix. A bash
from the Nix store re-executes the script with /usr/bin/bash first, and
nix-installer runs from a root-owned copy in /tmp. The check uses
STEAM_FRAME_NIX_PROC as a fake /proc (section H of
modules/cleanup/check.nix).