Pros and Cons of using LARBS [as a Newbie]

deepinTroubl · 09-23-2020, 02:45 PM

Luke's Auto-Rice Bootstrapping Scripts
Some of you are probably familiar with Luke Smith.
Some of you might also have heard of his bootstrapping script, LARBS.

Seeing him use his clean setup in action (in various YouTube videos like this one about dwmblocks) is what originally got me hooked on Arch Linux.
I installed it myself after a (practically) clean Arch install, and got around quite well so far thanks to a help guide that comes with it.

Learning by Example?
I've already looked into this review by Brodie Robertson, which is about bootstrapping scripts in general, but uses LARBS as an example.

I'm still a Linux newbie that's not too keen on where and how to configure what.
I thought using LARBS as a base would be a great way to learn Linux by example:

Get familiar with a 'pre-built ecosystem'
Learn some decent yet lesser-known programs in the process.
Do small changes in the scripts and installed programs.

However, I noticed I had trouble configuring some stuff that experienced users might find trivial:

Newbie Problem Example 1: Keyboard Layout
I had trouble changing the keyboard layout from American to German.

I knew I changed the layout during my basic installation, but after logging in I would deal with an American layout.
After some search on keyboard configuration I changed /etc/vconsole.conf, but it had no effect.
Then I tried looking for tutorials on where and how to find and identify startup scripts: If I knew the list of scripts executed on login, I'd surely find the line on the keyboard layout, right?
(I still couldn't find a satisfactory tutorial on that, though.)

I eventually found the answer in the past issues on his GitHub repo.
Apparently the Xorg config does overwrite the keymapping for Vim, so there were multiple layers to solve.

Newbie Problem Example 2: Alternate Display Manager
I also tried to set up another user that would use a basic setup of Plasma instead of using LARBS (without creating a new partition).

However, it turned out that I wasn't sure how to install that for just one user, without having plasma-meta interfere with the scripts of LARBS, and vice versa.
(I've had both installed simultaneously, which behaved rather chaotic - as expected, since Luke warned that his setup wasn't tested for compatibilities with DM packages.)
I learned that, while desktop environments are installed for all users, they can be selected and saved for each user. But that still left me with the question how to select 'no environment' for LARBS to work unhindered. (The closest solution appears to use dwm as an an alternative option for Plasma in sddm.)

Your Thoughts on using pre-built environments?
So what should I make of this?

In example one, I started looking for a more generic solution, failed, and ended up using a very specific solution.
In example two, I found no solution when trying to meddle myself.
Did I get lost in a jungle of programs I did not understand?
Or did I actually learn something useful about the X display manager and its interaction with other packages, and some general rules about DMs?

jemadux · 07-05-2021, 05:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deepinTroubl

I knew I changed the layout during my basic installation, but after logging in I would deal with an American layout.
After some search on keyboard configuration I changed /etc/vconsole.conf, but it had no effect.
Then I tried looking for tutorials on where and how to find and identify startup scripts: If I knew the list of scripts executed on login, I'd surely find the line on the keyboard layout, right?
(I still couldn't find a satisfactory tutorial on that, though.)

I eventually found the answer in the past issues on his GitHub repo.
Apparently the Xorg config does overwrite the keymapping for Vim, so there were multiple layers to solve.

happy you solved your issue .. I am Greek and I am using both 🇬🇷 and 🇺🇸 by editing the remaps script on .local/bin
adding the

Code:

setxkbmap -layout us,gr -option  grp:shifts_toggle

. and that change the laylout with both shifts
please replace gr with de

if you want when you boot your machine the fonts be big enought install the package terminus-font and and in vconsole

if you want change the layout in tty

Code:

# file 
# /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/00-keyboard.conf

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "system-keyboard"
        MatchIsKeyboard "on"
        Option "XkbLayout" "us,gr"
        Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
        Option "XkbVariant" "grp:alt_shift_toggle"
EndSection

Quote:

Originally Posted by deepinTroubl

Newbie Problem Example 2: Alternate Display Manager
I also tried to set up another user that would use a basic setup of Plasma instead of using LARBS (without creating a new partition).

However, it turned out that I wasn't sure how to install that for just one user, without having plasma-meta interfere with the scripts of LARBS, and vice versa.
(I've had both installed simultaneously, which behaved rather chaotic - as expected, since Luke warned that his setup wasn't tested for compatibilities with DM packages.)
I learned that, while desktop environments are installed for all users, they can be selected and saved for each user. But that still left me with the question how to select 'no environment' for LARBS to work unhindered. (The closest solution appears to use dwm as an an alternative option for Plasma in sddm.)

Your Thoughts on using pre-built environments?
So what should I make of this?

I will suggest in that case make a user with larbs and one user with plasma desktop .
when want use larbs just disable the ssdm . and login with tty . yes I know that is PITA to do that
but if I was in your position I would do that

================================================================

I am using larbs on my system ( artix with openrc) I had configure it to work as I want .
yes larbs is very good for new users that they want to use window managers .. It is very lovely enviroment.
dwm is the dynamic window manager and works fine on arch and I think it is more acquarate nowadays in artixlinux .
Personally I do not care init freedom . Recently I used arch with larbs and they migration to artix is very easy . the problems
i had was the minors problems I had in artix is the notifications of brave was not working in dunst and one package about the backlight
that i had to configure it on artix . now it working well .