socktop-swipe/README.md

# socktop-swipe

A rack-mounted touchscreen you swipe through to see what your machines are doing.

Terminal dashboards are arranged in a grid. Swipe left and right to move along a
row; swipe up and down to move between rows. A group of hosts is one place in
that grid: it shows them tiled together first, then each one full-screen as you
keep swiping.

![The touch panel mounted in the rack, showing four Raspberry Pis tiled together](media/rack-display.jpg)

<video controls src="media/swipe-demo.mp4"></video>

Built for a 9" panel bolted into a 19" server rack, driven by a low-power x86 box
running i3 on X11.

## What you're looking at

The photo is a 9" touchscreen in a 19" rack, showing four Raspberry Pis at once
via [socktop](https://github.com/jasonwitty/socktop). It is a wall display: no
keyboard, no mouse, nothing to log into. It comes back by itself after a power
cut and it never blanks.

Everything on it is a terminal program. socktop-swipe does not draw anything
itself — it decides what is on screen and reads your finger.

```
                          unifly                     -1x0
                       (UniFi network)
                             ↕
   ┌──────────────────────────────┐  ┌──────────────────┐
   │  4 Raspberry Pis             │→ │ 2 more machines  │      row 0
   │  tiled, then each full-screen│  │                  │
   └──────────────────────────────┘  └──────────────────┘
                 0x0                          0x1
                             ↕
                      uptime kuma                      1x0
                     (service status)
```

Swipe forward through row 0 and you get: all four Pis tiled, then `rpi-master`
full-screen, then each of the others, then on to the next group. Swipe up at any
point for the UniFi network view; swipe back down and you are on the exact host
you left.

## Hardware

| Part | What was used | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Display host | LattePanda (Atom x5-Z8350, 1.9 GB) | Debian 11, i3 on X11 |
| Display host | Dell Wyse 3040 (Atom x5-Z8350, 2 GB) | ~$35 used; 8/16 GB eMMC, DP out |
| Panel | GeeekPi 9" 1280x720 3U touchscreen | ILITEK USB touch |
| Mounting | [`cad/`](cad) — 19" rack adapter | 3D-print or laser-cut aluminium |

Any Linux box with a USB or DSI touchscreen will do. It is deliberately modest
hardware: the whole point is a display that idles at a few watts.

The panel is sold as a **10-inch mini-rack** part. [`cad/`](cad) has a pair of
side adapters — OpenSCAD source, STLs with tested print settings, and
SendCutSend-ready DXFs — that mount it in a standard **19-inch** rack, with three
keystone jack positions on each side. The geometry has been physically tested.

## Install

```sh
curl -fsSL https://gt.wittyoneoff.com/jason/socktop-swipe/raw/branch/main/install.sh | sh
```

It checks everything first and prints the whole cost — packages, toolchain, disk
— before changing anything. Then it asks, one thing at a time:

- which touch device to use (it looks for one and offers it)
- how to grant access to it: a udev rule for touchscreens only, or the `input`
  group
- whether to install socktop, uptime-kuma-status or unifly
- whether to stop the screen blanking, sleeping and locking
- whether to autostart on login
- whether to log straight in at boot, so it comes back after a power cut

Every answer has a sensible default and nothing is required. Piping into `sh`
leaves no keyboard on standard input, so the script reads your terminal directly;
if there is no terminal at all it takes the defaults and says so. `--yes` skips
the questions.

There are no prebuilt binaries yet — it builds from source, so a Rust toolchain
is installed if you do not have one.

Measured on the LattePanda (Atom x5-Z8350, 4 cores, 1.9 GB RAM, no swap), with a
toolchain already present: **108 seconds**, peaking at 1.1 GB of the 1.9 GB and
leaving a 103 MB build directory. The 946 KB binary is the only thing installed.
Add roughly 1.2 GB and a few minutes if rustup has to be fetched too. The
installer checks free space first and tells you if it will not fit.

<details>
<summary>From a checkout instead</summary>

```sh
git clone https://gt.wittyoneoff.com/jason/socktop-swipe
cd socktop-swipe
./install.sh
```
</details>

## Your first config

The config lives at `~/.config/socktop-swipe/config.yaml`. The installer writes a
starting point; this section builds one up from nothing.

**Check every edit** with:

```sh
socktop-swipe validate
```

which resolves the grid, prints the map, and tells you if a program it would run
is not actually there.

### One group of hosts

```yaml
touch:
  device: /dev/input/by-id/usb-ILITEK_ILITEK-TOUCH-event-if00
  width: 1280
  height: 720

screens:
  - at: "0x0"
    type: socktop
    socktop_group: [rpi-master, rpi-worker-1, rpi-worker-2, rpi-worker-3]
```

That is five screens: the four hosts tiled, then each one full-screen.

```
0x0  tiled  →  rpi-master  →  rpi-worker-1  →  rpi-worker-2  →  rpi-worker-3
```

> **Quote the coordinate.** Unquoted, YAML reads `0x0` as the hexadecimal number
> zero. `socktop-swipe validate` will tell you so if you forget.

### Something above it

```yaml
  - at: "-1x0"
    type: unifly
```

Row `-1` is above row `0`. Now swiping up from any of those five screens shows
the UniFi TUI, and swiping down returns you to the exact host you were on.

### Something below, and more hosts alongside

```yaml
  - at: "0x1"
    type: socktop
    socktop_group: "orangepi, trixie"
    layout: even-vertical

  - at: "1x0"
    type: uptime-kuma-status
    url: https://status.example.com/status/mine
```

`0x1` sits to the right of `0x0`, so you reach it by swiping forward past the
last Pi. `1x0` is below.

Full worked example with every option commented:
[`config.example.yaml`](config.example.yaml).

## How the grid works

**Row increases downward.** `-1x0` is above `0x0`; `1x0` is below it. Column
increases rightward. You start at `0x0`.

**Coordinates are ordering, not slots.** Only their sort order matters, so `0x1`
and `0x5` are interchangeable. You never have to count how many screens a group
produces in order to place something next to it — add a host to a group and
nothing else needs renumbering.

**A group of hosts is one place in the grid.** Swiping forward walks its screens
— tiled overview, then each host — and only moves on to the next place after the
last one. Coming back from the right lands you on that group's *last* host, not
its overview, so the row reads as one continuous strip.

**Swiping up or down returns you to where you were.** Each row remembers its
position. If you glance at the network view and come back, you are on the same
host, still zoomed.

**Nothing wraps around.** Swiping past either end of a row does nothing. On a
wall display, wrapping makes it impossible to tell where you are.

If a row has no screen in your current column, you land on the nearest one —
`0x3` swiping up with only `-1x0` above goes there. That only happens the first
time; after that the row remembers.

## Monitor types

Every type also accepts `command:` to replace the generated command outright, and
`title:` to change the label on the pane border.

| `type:` | Parameters | What it runs |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `socktop` | `socktop_group` (list, or comma-separated string), `layout` | one [socktop](https://github.com/jasonwitty/socktop) per host |
| `uptime-kuma-status` | `url` | [uptime-kuma-status](https://github.com/jasonwitty/uptime-kuma-status) against a public [Uptime Kuma](https://github.com/louislam/uptime-kuma) status page |
| `unifly` | *(none yet)* | [unifly](https://github.com/jasonwitty/unifly) `tui` |
| `generic` | `command`, `title` | anything you like |

`layout` takes any tmux layout name: `tiled` (the default), `even-horizontal`,
`even-vertical`, `main-horizontal`, `main-vertical`.

```yaml
  - at: "1x1"
    type: generic
    title: k3s
    command: journalctl -f -u k3s-agent
```

## Configuration reference

| Key | Default | What it does |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `session` | `socktop-swipe` | tmux session name |
| `terminal` | *(none)* | Terminal that `run` opens the dashboard in. Unset attaches in the current one |
| `indicator` | `false` | Show position — what is above, where you are, what is below — in the status line |
| `binaries.socktop` etc. | looked up on `PATH` | Full path to each program. `~/` is expanded |
| `touch.device` | — | **Always a `/dev/input/by-id/` path**; `eventN` numbers change on reboot |
| `touch.width` / `.height` | — | The **panel's** resolution, not the X screen |
| `touch.grab` | `true` | Take the panel exclusively so X never sees the touches |
| `touch.threshold` | `80` | Pixels of travel before a drag counts as a swipe |
| `touch.leniency` | `30` | Degrees off-axis tolerated, max 45 |
| `touch.fingers` | `[1, 2, 3]` | Contact counts accepted. **The setting most likely to need changing** |
| `gestures.forward` / `.back` | `RL` / `LR` | Named by finger motion. Swap to reverse |
| `gestures.up` / `.down` | `DU` / `UD` | |

### Commands

| Command | |
| --- | --- |
| `socktop-swipe run` | Build the session, open it in a terminal, read the panel. The one thing to autostart |
| `socktop-swipe validate` | Check the config and print the grid map |
| `socktop-swipe doctor` | Swipe, and be told what the panel reported |
| `socktop-swipe doctor --list` | List touch devices — works before any config exists |
| `socktop-swipe forward` / `back` / `up` / `down` | Move a running instance. For keybindings, or a box with no panel |
| `socktop-swipe build` / `attach` / `daemon` | The pieces of `run`, separately, for a systemd split |

## Unattended operation

A wall display has to survive a power cut with nobody in the room.

**Never blank.** The installer writes an Xorg `ServerFlags` snippet with all four
timeouts at zero, which covers every session including the display manager's
greeter and survives reboots, *and* adds an `xset` line to the session autostart,
because a session can re-enable blanking after X starts. Both are needed. Check
with `xset q | grep -A1 -E 'Screen Saver|DPMS'` — you want `timeout: 0`,
`prefer blanking: no`, `DPMS is Disabled`.

**Come back by itself.** Without autologin, a reboot leaves the panel at a login
prompt and nothing starts. The installer offers a lightdm drop-in. It is opt-in
and defaults to no, because **anyone with physical access to the panel gets that
user's session** — only do it where the account is nothing but the dashboard.
Delete `/etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-autologin-socktop-swipe.conf` to undo it.

**Autostart.** `socktop-swipe run` is a single process that builds the session,
opens the terminal and reads the panel, so one line in your window manager's
autostart is enough. For a systemd user session,
[`packaging/socktop-swipe.service`](packaging/socktop-swipe.service) splits it up.

## Troubleshooting

Start here:

```sh
socktop-swipe doctor
```

It watches the panel and says what it saw in English — direction, contact count,
and why a gesture was ignored.

### Swipes are detected but nothing happens

`doctor` will say `saw 2 contact(s), config accepts [1]`. Many multipoint panels
report two or even three contacts for a physically one-finger swipe. Add them to
`touch.fingers`. This is the single most common problem on new hardware.

### Nothing is detected at all

In order: is the device path right (`socktop-swipe doctor --list`)? Can you read
it — is the udev rule installed, or are you in the `input` group and did you log
out and back in? Is the panel plugged in?

### Swipes work, but the terminal also reacts — text zooming, panes resizing

X is delivering touch to whatever is on screen as well. `touch.grab: true` (the
default) prevents this by taking the device exclusively. If you have set it to
`false` because you want touch in other applications, tell X to ignore the panel
instead:

```sh
sudo tee /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-ignore-touch-socktop-swipe.conf >/dev/null <<'EOF'
Section "InputClass"
    Identifier   "ignore touchscreen (socktop-swipe)"
    MatchProduct "ILITEK"
    MatchIsTouchscreen "on"
    Option       "Ignore" "on"
EndSection
EOF
```

Adjust `MatchProduct` to your panel, and restart X.

### A pane shows `[... exited: status 1]`

That monitor program stopped. The pane is deliberately kept so the layout does
not reshuffle and you can see what happened. Check the path under `binaries:`,
and that the program works when you run it by hand.

### The dashboard is on a screen that isn't there

Some boards report an output with no panel behind it, and X will happily put the
dashboard on it — everything looks fine over ssh while the real panel shows an
empty desktop. See [`notes/HARDWARE-NOTES.md`](notes/HARDWARE-NOTES.md).

## Uninstall

```sh
./uninstall.sh                 # binary, config, udev rule, X snippets, autologin
./uninstall.sh --keep-config   # keep your settings
```

The Rust toolchain, tmux, the monitor programs and your `input` group membership
are left alone; the script prints how to remove each.

## Notes

Design decisions and the reasoning behind them are in [`notes/`](notes):

- [`DESIGN.md`](notes/DESIGN.md) — why tmux, why evdev, why the grid works this way
- [`HARDWARE-NOTES.md`](notes/HARDWARE-NOTES.md) — panel quirks, phantom outputs, the `sudo xset` trap
- [`V1-BASH.md`](notes/V1-BASH.md) — the shell implementation this replaced, and how to migrate
- [`TODO.md`](notes/TODO.md)

## Related

- [socktop](https://github.com/jasonwitty/socktop) — the host monitor this was built around
- [uptime-kuma-status](https://github.com/jasonwitty/uptime-kuma-status) — Uptime Kuma status pages in a terminal
- [unifly](https://github.com/jasonwitty/unifly) — UniFi network TUI

## License

Apache-2.0.