feat(theme): a splash theme of our own, images in viewnior, a stop timeout for stasis

The Catppuccin splash showed the NixOS logo and the loading animation and
nothing else. The NixOS plymouth module links boot.plymouth.logo into every
theme directory named catppuccin-<flavour>, and the two-step module has no
alignment key for that header image, so its distance from the animation is not
the theme's to set. A theme under a name of its own is outside that loop.
moonarch-plymouth joins as a flake input; pkgs/moonarch-plymouth.nix rewrites
the descriptor's FHS ImageDir to the store path.

Images opened in Chromium although viewnior has been installed since 3e40a70:
no mimeapps.list named image/* at all, so xdg-open took the first candidate
from mimeinfo.cache. xdg.mime points gif, jpeg, png and webp at
viewnior.desktop. webp needs addedAssociations besides, which viewnior.desktop
does not declare, and webp-pixbuf-loader, without which gdk-pixbuf cannot
decode it.

stasis does not answer SIGTERM as part of the session teardown, and the default
90 seconds left the whole user manager waiting on it: niri received its own
SIGTERM only once stasis had been killed, 88 seconds in the journal.
TimeoutStopSec = 5. What it holds is an idle timer, so nothing is lost when it
goes down hard.

glab on the ThinkPad.

DECISIONS.md

@@ -1,5 +1,107 @@
 # Decisions
 
+## 2026-09-28 – Images open in the viewer, not in the browser
+
+- **Who**: Dominik, ClaudeCode
+- **Why**: Images opened in Chromium although `viewnior` has been installed
+  since `3e40a70`. No `mimeapps.list` named `image/*` at all, so `xdg-open` took
+  the first candidate from `mimeinfo.cache` — `chromium-browser.desktop`, ahead
+  of `viewnior.desktop` by name.
+- **Tradeoffs**: Declared in `modules/desktop.nix` next to the viewer, not
+  beside the Firefox types in `modules/browsers.nix`; both modules add to the
+  same attribute set and the keys do not overlap.
+- **How**: `xdg.mime.defaultApplications` for gif, jpeg, png and webp on
+  `viewnior.desktop`, plus `addedAssociations` for webp, which
+  `viewnior.desktop` does not declare, and
+  `programs.gdk-pixbuf.modulePackages = [ pkgs.webp-pixbuf-loader ]`, without
+  which gdk-pixbuf cannot decode it.
+
+## 2026-09-28 – The splash in our own colours, and what Plymouth would not give
+
+- **Who**: Dominik, ClaudeCode
+- **Why**: The first boot on the new theme showed four things: the keyboard
+  layout label at the password prompt was too large, it should sit further
+  down, the entry field was pixelated, and the palette was the upstream blue
+  rather than the Catppuccin lavender the rest of the system runs on.
+- **Tradeoffs**: Three of the four are files the theme ships, so they are
+  drawn here and committed — not generated in the package recipe. That keeps
+  the recipe untouched and puts every asset where it can be looked at. The
+  cost is that `keymap-render.png` now has to match Plymouth's offset table
+  by hand; the README says so, and the band from the original upload had
+  failed exactly that way.
+
+  The fourth is not a file. Plymouth places the layout indicator at
+  `y = dialog_bottom + …` (`two-step/plugin.c`) and has no alignment key for
+  it, so it cannot be moved without moving the entry field with it. Making
+  the images taller and putting their content at the bottom would work in
+  principle, but reaching the screen's lower edge from the middle needs over
+  a thousand pixels of empty image. Dropped.
+- **How**: `keymap-render.png` redrawn at 2304×24 — one layout, `de`, at the
+  offset the table gives it (2253, 51 wide) — against 26537×50 upstream;
+  `keyboard.png` scaled to match. `entry.png` redrawn at its original
+  305×75 with smooth edges. Both frame series, 81 `animation-*` and 51
+  `progress-*`, moved to lavender with `-modulate 130,125,105`, which lands
+  on `#b0c1ee` against the target `#b4befe`. Background and progress bar in
+  the descriptor follow `#1e1e2e`, `#313244`, `#b4befe`.
+
+## 2026-09-28 – A stop timeout for stasis
+
+- **Who**: Dominik, ClaudeCode
+- **Why**: Every reboot hung for a minute and a half. The journal names it:
+  `stasis.service: State 'stop-sigterm' timed out. Killing.`, 88 seconds after
+  the last system service went down, and niri received its own SIGTERM only
+  once stasis had been killed — the whole user manager was waiting on that one
+  unit. Stopped by hand with `systemctl --user stop stasis` it exits in zero
+  seconds, so the unit is not at fault; as part of the session teardown it
+  does not answer.
+- **Tradeoffs**: The cause sits in the program. stasis registers SIGTERM
+  through `signal_hook` and honours it in normal operation, so fixing it means
+  changing somebody else's Rust daemon and carrying a patch. A short stop
+  timeout treats the symptom instead — acceptable here because what stasis
+  holds is an idle timer, and nothing is lost when it goes down hard. The
+  alternative, leaving the default 90 seconds, costs that time on every
+  reboot.
+- **How**: `TimeoutStopSec = 5` in the unit in `modules/services.nix`, with
+  the measurement recorded beside it so the number is not mistaken for a
+  guess.
+
+## 2026-09-28 – A splash theme of our own, and a flake input after all
+
+- **Who**: Dominik, ClaudeCode
+- **Why**: The Catppuccin splash showed the NixOS logo and the loading
+  animation and nothing else, the two of them touching. The cause is not the
+  theme's configuration: `nixos/modules/system/boot/plymouth.nix` links
+  `boot.plymouth.logo` into every theme directory named `catppuccin-<flavour>`
+  as `header-image.png`, and the `two-step` module that theme runs on has
+  alignment keys for `watermark`, `title`, `dialog` and the progress bar —
+  none for the header image, whose distance from the animation the module
+  decides on its own. The theme itself contributes only the throbber frames:
+  it sets `WatermarkVerticalAlignment` but ships no `watermark.png`, so those
+  lines take no effect.
+- **Tradeoffs**: (1) **A padded logo** — the same PNG with transparent space
+  below it. One line, but the spacing then lives inside an image file and
+  imagemagick joins the build. (2) **A derived theme under another name**,
+  with the logo going in as `watermark.png`. Uses the slot Plymouth intends
+  for a logo, but builds a package only to sidestep a loop over theme names.
+  (3) **Patching that loop in nixpkgs**, where the cause sits, which needs an
+  overridden module and a changed theme value on top. (4) **A theme of our
+  own**, which removes the question entirely: the loop matches only Catppuccin
+  and Spinner names, so every other theme is left alone. Chosen.
+
+  This reverses the reasoning of the 2026-09-25 entry below, which took
+  nixpkgs' `catppuccin-plymouth` precisely to avoid a new input. The theme
+  wanted here is not in nixpkgs, and carrying it as a source repo is the same
+  shape the flake already uses for Betterfox and the cursors.
+- **How**: `gitea.moonarch.de/nevaforget/moonarch-plymouth-theme`, derived
+  from tobilinuxer's *Linux Distro Logos - macOS Boot Style*
+  (opendesktop.org/p/2106821) under the X11 license, which permits the change;
+  the copyright notice travels with it in `LICENSE`. Renamed to `moonarch` in
+  the descriptor's filename, its `Name=` entry and its `ImageDir`, the images
+  untouched. It runs on `two-step` as well, but brings a progress bar and a
+  138-frame animation and no watermark, so nothing is drawn that it did not
+  bring itself. `pkgs/moonarch-plymouth.nix` rewrites the descriptor's FHS
+  `ImageDir` to the store path, the way nixpkgs' own theme packages do.
+
 ## 2026-09-25 – amdgpu back in the ThinkPad's initrd, for Plymouth's sake
 
 - **Who**: Dominik, ClaudeCode

README.md

@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ files therefore serves every system that pulls it in.
 flake.nix            Inputs and outputs
 pkgs/                Build recipes
   sweet-cursors.nix  cursor theme
+  moonarch-plymouth.nix  boot splash theme
   moonarch-scripts.nix  battery and camera helpers
   betterfox.nix      Firefox preference set
 modules/

flake.lock

@@ -53,6 +53,22 @@
         "url": "https://gitea.moonarch.de/nevaforget/moonarch.git"
       }
     },
+    "moonarch-plymouth": {
+      "flake": false,
+      "locked": {
+        "lastModified": 1790599371,
+        "narHash": "sha256-4eudA/FgaCTVO+dluJcTfEBsPFOiEThKu0V4UA8YPjw=",
+        "ref": "refs/heads/main",
+        "rev": "5307ddd8056e8403355bf9b3d68b6fbd2c57d718",
+        "revCount": 9,
+        "type": "git",
+        "url": "https://gitea.moonarch.de/nevaforget/moonarch-plymouth-theme.git"
+      },
+      "original": {
+        "type": "git",
+        "url": "https://gitea.moonarch.de/nevaforget/moonarch-plymouth-theme.git"
+      }
+    },
     "nixos-hardware": {
       "inputs": {
         "nixpkgs": "nixpkgs"
@@ -105,6 +121,7 @@
         "betterfox": "betterfox",
         "disko": "disko",
         "moonarch": "moonarch",
+        "moonarch-plymouth": "moonarch-plymouth",
         "nixos-hardware": "nixos-hardware",
         "nixpkgs": "nixpkgs_2",
         "sweet-cursors": "sweet-cursors"

flake.nix

@@ -32,6 +32,10 @@
       url = "git+https://gitea.moonarch.de/nevaforget/Sweet-cursors.git";
       flake = false;
     };
+    moonarch-plymouth = {
+      url = "git+https://gitea.moonarch.de/nevaforget/moonarch-plymouth-theme.git";
+      flake = false;
+    };
   };
 
   outputs = { self, nixpkgs, ... }@inputs:
@@ -50,6 +54,11 @@
           version = "0-unstable";
         };
 
+        moonarch-plymouth = pkgs.callPackage ./pkgs/moonarch-plymouth.nix {
+          src = inputs.moonarch-plymouth;
+          version = "0-unstable";
+        };
+
         moonarch-scripts = pkgs.callPackage ./pkgs/moonarch-scripts.nix {
           src = inputs.moonarch;
         };

hosts/thinkpad/default.nix

@@ -103,6 +103,7 @@
     pnpm
     uv
     python3
+    glab
   ];
 
   # The nixos-hardware profile only sets hardware.cpu.amd.updateMicrocode as a

modules/desktop.nix

@@ -193,6 +193,18 @@ in
     galculator
   ];
 
+  xdg.mime = {
+    defaultApplications = {
+      "image/gif" = "viewnior.desktop";
+      "image/jpeg" = "viewnior.desktop";
+      "image/png" = "viewnior.desktop";
+      "image/webp" = "viewnior.desktop";
+    };
+    addedAssociations."image/webp" = "viewnior.desktop";
+  };
+
+  programs.gdk-pixbuf.modulePackages = [ pkgs.webp-pixbuf-loader ];
+
   # Polkit agent for privilege prompts inside the session.
   security.polkit.enable = true;
   # The setuid pkexec wrapper is opt-in and off by default. Without it pkexec

modules/services.nix

@@ -272,6 +272,12 @@ in
       ExecReload = "${lib.getExe pkgs.stasis} reload";
       Restart = "on-failure";
       RestartSec = 2;
+      # Stopped by hand it exits at once; stopped as part of the session it
+      # does not answer SIGTERM, and the default 90 seconds left the whole
+      # user manager waiting on it — niri received its own SIGTERM only once
+      # stasis had been killed. Measured at 88s in the journal. What it holds
+      # is an idle timer, so nothing is lost when it goes down hard.
+      TimeoutStopSec = 5;
       IPAddressDeny = "any";
       ProtectProc = "invisible";
       ProcSubset = "pid";

modules/theme.nix

@@ -47,11 +47,6 @@ let
   # it, so the link target below cannot drift from what Kvantum looks up.
   kvantumThemeName = "catppuccin-mocha-lavender";
 
-  # Mocha like everything else here. The package installs under
-  # share/plymouth/themes/catppuccin-${variant}, which is the name boot.plymouth
-  # asks for. Upstream Catppuccin has no accent variants for Plymouth.
-  plymouthVariant = "mocha";
-  plymouthTheme = pkgs.catppuccin-plymouth.override { variant = plymouthVariant; };
 in
 {
   environment.etc = {
@@ -119,10 +114,13 @@ in
   # With systemd in the initrd, which this configuration uses, systemd asks for
   # the LUKS passphrase and Plymouth draws that prompt; the script initrd instead
   # shows it as text before the splash comes up.
+  # The theme carries a name of its own, outside the catppuccin-<flavour> set
+  # that the NixOS plymouth module links its logo into, so the splash shows
+  # what the theme brings and nothing besides.
   boot.plymouth = {
     enable = true;
-    theme = "catppuccin-${plymouthVariant}";
-    themePackages = [ plymouthTheme ];
+    theme = "moonarch";
+    themePackages = [ moonarchPkgs.moonarch-plymouth ];
   };
 
   # Qt applications are wrapped, so each one looks for plugins in its own

pkgs/moonarch-plymouth.nix

@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+# ABOUTME: Nix build recipe for the Moonarch Plymouth boot splash.
+# ABOUTME: Rewrites the descriptor's FHS ImageDir to wherever the theme lands.
+
+{ lib, stdenvNoCC, src, version }:
+
+stdenvNoCC.mkDerivation {
+  pname = "moonarch-plymouth";
+  inherit version src;
+
+  dontBuild = true;
+  dontConfigure = true;
+
+  # The theme's own name, which boot.plymouth.theme has to match. It stays
+  # outside the catppuccin-<flavour> set that the NixOS plymouth module links
+  # its logo into, so nothing is added to the splash that the theme did not
+  # bring itself.
+  installPhase = ''
+    runHook preInstall
+
+    dir="$out/share/plymouth/themes/moonarch"
+    install -dm755 "$dir"
+    cp -r images "$dir/images"
+
+    # ImageDir in the repo names an FHS path; plymouthd reads it verbatim.
+    substitute moonarch.plymouth "$dir/moonarch.plymouth" \
+      --replace-fail /usr/share/plymouth/themes/moonarch "$dir"
+
+    runHook postInstall
+  '';
+
+  meta = {
+    description = "Moonarch Plymouth boot splash";
+    homepage = "https://gitea.moonarch.de/nevaforget/moonarch-plymouth-theme";
+    license = lib.licenses.x11;
+    platforms = lib.platforms.linux;
+  };
+}