AGENTS.md

Guidance for AI coding agents working on this repository (the Steam Machine live ISO: CachyOS + the Steamify installer step). See README.md and TODO.md for what's built and what's left; this file is operational knowledge — how to test/build/debug it without rediscovering the same things every session. TODO.md should stay a plain task list; lessons and gotchas belong here instead.

Full build/test workflow (VM scripts, snapshots, cache setup) lives in the steam-machine-iso and cachyos-vm-testing skills in steamify-cachyos-dev — load those first. This file is the overflow: things worth knowing that don't fit a skill's step-by-step flow.

Calamares modules

Verify a module is actually installed (ls /usr/lib/calamares/modules) before writing QML/config for it. A .conf file existing is not proof — CachyOS's own cachyos-calamares-next build explicitly skips packagechooserq (-DSKIP_MODULES=...).
Read a module's actual logged global-storage writes (Calamares debug log, -D6), not its UI label text, to know what a mode/method really does.
packagechooser's multi-select only works with Shift/Ctrl-click (a plain click replaces the selection) and its UI has no visible checkboxes — not usable as the Steamify page. Use packagechooserq (custom QML, qtplugin/legacy) or netinstall (checkbox tree) instead.
packagechooserq is built out of tree against the installed Calamares CMake config (/usr/lib/cmake/Calamares) with -DWITH_QML=ON -DQT_VERSION_SUFFIX=-qt6 -Dqtname=Qt6 -DWITH_QT6=ON; find_package(KF6CoreAddons) must come before find_package(Calamares) or the build fails with "KF6::CoreAddons target not found". Its Config class (and prettyStatus()'s raw Install option: <ids> text) is shared with the plain packagechooser module — override prettyStatus() in PackageChooserQmlViewStep.cpp itself (not Config.cpp) to change only this module's Summary display without affecting packagechooser@desktop etc. elsewhere in the installer.
Both packagechooserq (QML swap) and netinstall (config swap) are testable live in a booted ISO VM with no rebuild: edit /etc/calamares/modules/*.conf + settings.conf (steamify-cachyos-dev/share/sq.sh / sn.sh), relaunch pkexec-wrapper calamares -D6 in a separate Konsole tab (it blocks the tab it runs in; typing into that same tab just echoes inertly into its blocked stdin). A C++ module change needs an actual rebuild (out-of-tree, in the build VM) and redeploying the .so — no shortcut.

Shell pitfalls

local a=/x b="$a/y" expands every value before assigning any, so b is /y: calamares-online.sh wrote the downloaded steamify.sh to /steamify.sh and items.json to a nonexistent /qml/, silently (stderr went to /dev/null), so the Steamify page always ran on build-time rows and the Summary had no labels. Declare a variable in its own local before using it, and send a step's errors to the launcher's log, not /dev/null.

ISO permissions

steamify-prepare.sh fetches steamify.sh with curl -o, which doesn't carry the executable bit, and archiso/profiledef.sh's file_permissions map is the only other place permissions get fixed up on the ISO — any path not listed there stays at whatever curl/cp gave it. calamares-online.sh execs steamify.sh directly (not via bash) to regenerate Items.qml/ items.json at boot; without +x that failed silently (its stderr is redirected to /dev/null), so the page kept working off build-time fallbacks with no visible error. When something the ISO downloads or copies at build time needs to run directly (not bash script.sh), add it to file_permissions — don't assume the source already had the right mode.

Driving a live/installer session via QMP

Don't screenshot-poll for VM readiness. Pass VM_SERIAL=<file> to run.sh/vmisoboot.sh (logs console=ttyS0 to a plain text file) and grep that instead — near-zero tokens vs. repeated screenshot + image analysis. Only screenshot at real decision points (to show the user, or to check a layout), not as a polling mechanism.
The live session's keyboard layout keeps drifting to Dutch (e.g. after Calamares' Welcome page's keyboard preview, or after opening System Settings), which silently breaks qmptype.py's US-layout character map (/ → -, &/> fail outright) with no error for the common substitutions. Check with a no-symbols probe (echo test123) after any language/keyboard step. Typing setxkbmap us via QMP does fix it.
qmptype.py types &, >, <, ?, {, } since 2026-09-28 (before, > raised "no key for" and left half a command in the prompt: send Ctrl+C before retyping). Its map is US-layout, see above.
Send QMP keystrokes one command at a time with a beat (~1-2s) in between. Firing several qmptype.py calls back-to-back can interleave with the guest's own prompt redraw and garble the input (seen as commands merging or a stray leading character).
Calamares page Next/Back buttons move vertically as page content grows/shrinks: re-screenshot and re-locate the button after every page change, don't reuse a fixed y-coordinate.
A second pkexec-wrapper calamares -D6 while an earlier failed instance's window is still open just prints "Calamares is already running.": close that window first (Cancel/Afbreken, then confirm the "really cancel?" dialog).

Build VM SSH flakiness

The build VM's guest sshd applies OpenSSH's PerSourcePenalties: repeated quick reconnect attempts within its window make ssh/scp fail instantly with "Connection closed" (verbose: "Not allowed at this time"), and further quick retries seem to extend the penalty rather than reset it. Don't retry-loop through it — that makes it worse. Either back off for a good while (minutes, not seconds) with zero attempts in between, or just restart the VM, which clears its in-memory penalty state immediately and is usually faster than waiting it out.

Large scp transfers (e.g. the ~3.2GB built ISO) over this same flaky link can report "Connection closed" while actually still having copied fully — check the destination file's size/timestamp before assuming a real failure, and retry the copy (it's idempotent) rather than the whole build.

Releases (GitHub tag, ISO built and attached on the Gitea mirror)

Full write-up, with every trap: steamify-iso-release in steamify-cachyos-dev. What matters here:

.github/workflows/iso-1-github-tag.yml (GitHub, workflow_dispatch only: by hand, or started by a new Steamify release, whose bundle.yml needs the secret ISO_DISPATCH_TOKEN) names the release like CachyOS does, by the day (GitHub's UTC date, no time): vX.Y.Z-YYMMDD (real) or vX.Y.Z-dev-YYMMDD (dev), file steamify-cachyos-X.Y.Z-[dev-]YYMMDD-x86_64.iso, an annotated tag and a release with notes and the direct download link. One ISO per day and kind: a second build the same day deletes the earlier release and tag (GitHub) and tags again; the mirror takes the new tag object, iso-2 replaces the old mirror release. Retention: at most 10 dev and 10 real releases are kept (space); the oldest are deleted with gh release delete --cleanup-tag, and the mirror drops their tags, releases and ISOs at its next sync. The workflow always runs from master; its input steamify_ref (a Steamify branch or tag, empty = the newest published release) builds the ISO with that checkout and names it after that branch's VERSION (a release branch tests its own version before it is released); its input kind (release, dev, or auto: release on master, dev on other branches) decides: release is a real release, dev a dev- pre-release. steamify-cachyos' bundle.yml passes it: a version published from main -> release, a version on a release branch -> dev.
.github/workflows/iso-2-gitea-build.yml (Gitea, workflow_dispatch with the tag as the ref, started by iso-1's last step through the mirror's dispatch API after the mirror has the new tag object; a tag push starts nothing, because a replaced tag of the same name starts no run; skipped on GitHub) runs two jobs for that tag: build the ISO, then attach it to the mirror's release. It is not tested there (the runner is small): the VM tests run on GitHub, in steamify-cachyos vmtest.yml, on the newest ISO release of the mirror. The tag decides everything: Steamify version (steamify-prepare.sh takes STEAMIFY_VERSION), file name (STEAMIFY_ISO_VERSION -> iso_version in profiledef.sh), label (STEAMIFY_BUILD_STAMP, YYMMDD), boot menu and /etc/steammachine-iso-build. The build reads no clock; without a tag everything says local.
util-iso.sh runs sudo mkarchiso: sudo drops the environment, so --preserve-env=STEAMIFY_ISO_VERSION, STEAMIFY_BUILD_STAMP is required (without it the ISO comes out -local-).
Never create a release on the mirror by hand or from a Gitea-only tag: the pull mirror's next sync deletes tags GitHub doesn't have, and the release with them. GitHub releases can't hold the ISO (2 GB per file).
Gitea needs [repository.release] FILE_MAX_SIZE above the ISO (413 otherwise) and the runner container: privileged: true (archiso mounts /proc); the workflow's --privileged option is ignored.
Caches (actions/cache, the runner's cache server): pacman's package cache per job kind (build, test) and the VMs' packages (VM_CACHE, ~/vms/pkg-cache), keys per ISO week. Each job first installs only node and git, restores the caches, then installs the rest.
CachyOS's own Desktop ISO workflow (build.yml) is removed here; the VM tests live in steamify-cachyos (GitHub).

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