RAGNAROK-LIVE(8) System Manager's Manual RAGNAROK-LIVE(8)

ragnarok-live — information related to the Ragnarok live system

This document attempts to give as much information as possible about Ragnarok's live environment. The idea is to give a quick rundown of the tools available by default so that users can get familiar with the system in the most straightforward fashion.

If not done already, you can start X11 by issuing the startx(1) command.

Ragnarok includes two window managers: Raven(1), a fork of Suckless' dwm, which is the default when logging into X, and cwm(1), from the OpenBSD project. Using cwm is as simple as changing the WM variable in ~/.xinitrc from "raven" to "cwm" and (re)starting X.

The version of dwm included has been patched to add the bottomstack, leftstack and deck layouts. It also includes gaps in all layouts (including monocle). Layouts can be set per tag and an option to increase/decrease the height of the bar is also available.

This version of dwm does not support launching applications via keybindings set in its config file (see the Keyboard Shortcuts section for more details), only window and tag manipulations get handled by the window manager's internal keyboard shortcuts. For a list of keybindings supported by the window manager, see either the /usr/src/dwm/config.h file, or hit the alt+shift+? keyboard shortcut to display the list in vim.

Basic system information (memory usage, cpu load, network connection status, volume level and date/time) is displayed to the right inside the status bar. This information is set by the /usr/local/bin/statusbar.sh script.

Calm Window Manager, from the OpenBSD project, is also available in the base system. The live environment includes a custom ~/.cwmrc config file, and a status bar is drawn at the top of the screen, using a custom script ( /usr/local/bin/cwmbar ) piped to lemonbar(1).

Much like raven, cwm's config file does not set keyboard shortcuts to open applications, only for window and group manipulation. Available keybindings for cwm can be viewed in .cwmrc or by hitting the alt+shift+? keyboard shortcut.

The default terminal in Ragnarok is rt(1), a lightly patched fork of Suckless' st. Since it is meant to provide a minimal terminal for tmux(1), rt does not come with much features, since tmux already provides them. The two patches applied are for cosmetic purposes, allowing a transparent background and configuration through the ~/.Xresources file.

xterm(1) is also provided, with it's own theming in Xresources.

The sxhkd(1) program is provided with a set of default keybindings to open programs in ~/.config/sxhkd/sxhkdrc. This means that all program-related shortcuts will work regardless of the window manager being used.

The live iso also provides all other programs included in Ragnarok's xserv package set: xcompmgr(1), xclip(1), hsetroot(1), dunst(1).

Many programs not available in a standard Ragnarok base system are also added for a more complete experience, among them: vifm(1), mpv(1), nsxiv(1), scrot(1).

Since this is a live system, there isn't much in the way of system administration. However, a few things may be of interest.

Wired network connections should be properly set at boot time, but wireless networks will have to be configured manually. The Ragnarok live iso includes a small script to quickly setup an interface file to use with wpasupplicant(1), called addwifi. With root privileges, simply run the command:

doas addwifi.sh

and answer the questions. After completion, the interface file will be located in /etc/network/interfaces.d/<interface-name>. For security reasons, the file can only be read with root privileges. Afterwards, you can connect to the network using the ifup command:

doas ifup <interface-name>

The live iso is rebuilt whenever the kernel receives a security update. However, other programs may have been updated since the iso's release and should still be updated even if running a live system (particularly web browsers). It is important to run the apt-get commands to update the base system as soon as an internet connection is established.

The base system comes with nftables installed and enabled by default, using a sane configuration file which blocks all incoming and forwarded connections by default. If one wishes to modify the default configuration, then simply edit the /etc/nftables.conf file and restart the service with the following command

# service nftables restart

You can read system mail by entering the mail(1) command. Selecting the mail to read is done by typing it's number then Return. Quit mail by typing q then Return. You can delete read messages by typing d then Return before quitting.

The live system includes Suckless' surf(1) browser along with a wrapper script called bro.sh. For details on bro.sh usage, simply enter the following command:

$ bro.sh -h

Note: basic ad blocking for surf is achieved by using Steven Black's unified hosts file. The hosts file can be updated by running the 'hostsupdate' command as a non-root user.

Surf is only recommended as a web page viewer rather than as a full fledged web browser. Any browser available in Debian can also be installed via apt-get(1).

April 29, 2024 Ragnarok