CUSTOMIZATION.md

GridNix Customization Guide

This guide explains how to customize your GridNix installation to better suit your needs and preferences.

Table of Contents

• Visual Customization
• Tool Configuration
• Adding Custom Tools
• System Configuration
• User Environment

Visual Customization

Desktop Wallpaper

To change the desktop wallpaper:

1. Replace the files in assets/wallpapers/ with your custom images
2. Ensure your images are at least 1920x1080 resolution
3. Rebuild the system or manually apply:

   cp /path/to/your/wallpaper-01.png /etc/nixos/wallpapers/wallpaper-01.png
   cp /path/to/your/wallpaper-02.png /etc/nixos/wallpapers/wallpaper-02.png
   cp /path/to/your/wallpaper-03.png /etc/nixos/wallpapers/wallpaper-03.png
   cp /path/to/your/wallpaper-04.png /etc/nixos/wallpapers/wallpaper-04.png
   cp /path/to/your/wallpaper-05.png /etc/nixos/wallpapers/wallpaper-05.png

Themes

GridNix comes with light and dark themes. To switch between them:

1. Open XFCE Settings Manager → Appearance
2. Select either "GridNix Dark" or "GridNix Light"
3. Rebuild the system or manually apply:

   cp /path/to/your/theme.theme /etc/nixos/themes/GridNix-theme.theme

To create a custom theme:

1. Copy an existing theme from assets/themes/ to assets/themes/custom/your-theme-name.theme
2. Edit the color values and settings
3. Rebuild or manually install your theme

Icons

To customize application icons:

1. Replace or add icons to assets/icons/desktop/ directory
2. For tool-specific icons, use assets/icons/tools/
3. Follow the size guidelines in the README.md in those directories

Terminal Appearance

To customize the terminal appearance:

1. Open Terminal → Edit → Preferences
2. Adjust colors, fonts, and transparency settings
3. Save as a new profile

Tool Configuration

Default Tool Settings

Key tools in GridNix have custom configurations in:

• /etc/GridNix/tool-configs/

To modify these:

1. Copy the configuration file
2. Make your changes
3. Either rebuild or replace the original

Creating Tool Groups

You can organize related tools by:

1. Creating a new desktop folder
2. Adding related tool shortcuts
3. Adding a custom *.desktop file to launch related tools together

Example desktop file to launch multiple SDR tools:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=SDR Toolkit
Comment=Launch all SDR tools
Exec=bash -c "gqrx & gnuradio-companion & urh"
Icon=/path/to/custom/icon.png
Terminal=false
Categories=SDR;Radio;

Adding Custom Tools

Temporary Installation

For quick testing of tools not included in GridNix:

# Using Python pip
pip install --user tool_name

# Using Nix package manager
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.package_name

Permanent Installation

To permanently add a tool to your GridNix build:

1. Create a custom package configuration in nixos/packages/
2. Add the package to the relevant module file
3. Rebuild your system

Example package configuration (nixos/packages/my-tool.nix):

{ lib, stdenv, fetchFromGitHub, cmake, boost }:

stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
  pname = "my-tool";
  version = "1.0.0";

  src = fetchFromGitHub {
    owner = "username";
    repo = "my-tool";
    rev = "v${version}";
    sha256 = "0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000";
  };

  nativeBuildInputs = [ cmake ];
  buildInputs = [ boost ];

  meta = with lib; {
    description = "Custom security tool";
    homepage = "https://github.com/username/my-tool";
    license = licenses.mit;
    platforms = platforms.linux;
  };
}

Then add it to the relevant module file:

environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
  # Existing packages...
  (callPackage ../packages/my-tool.nix {})
];

System Configuration

Hardware Support

To add support for additional hardware:

1. Create or modify udev rules in nixos/hardware/
2. Add necessary kernel modules to the configuration
3. Ensure proper permissions are set

Example udev rule for a custom device:

# Custom rule for SuperFooDevice
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="abcd", ATTRS{idProduct}=="1234", GROUP="GridNix", MODE="0660", SYMLINK+="superfoo"

Network Configuration

To modify network settings:

1. Edit the network options in nixos/configurations/GridNix/default.nix
2. Change wireless, firewall, or proxy settings as needed

User Environment

Shell Customization

To customize your shell:

1. Edit nixos/home/GridNix.nix
2. Add or modify shell aliases, functions, and settings

Default Applications

To change default applications:

1. Modify XFCE settings via the Settings Manager
2. Edit xdg associations in nixos/home/GridNix.nix

Keyboard Shortcuts

To customize keyboard shortcuts:

1. Open XFCE Settings Manager → Keyboard → Application Shortcuts
2. Add or modify shortcuts for your most-used tools

Advanced Customization

Creating Custom Modules

For significant customizations, create your own module:

1. Create a new file in nixos/modules/ (e.g., my-custom-module.nix)
2. Define your custom configuration
3. Import it in nixos/configurations/GridNix/default.nix

Example custom module:

{ config, pkgs, lib, ... }:

{
  # Custom environment settings
  environment.variables = {
    MY_CUSTOM_VAR = "value";
  };
  
  # Add specific tools
  environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
    my-custom-tool
    another-tool
  ];
  
  # Custom system services
  systemd.services.my-custom-service = {
    description = "My Custom Service";
    wantedBy = [ "multi-user.target" ];
    serviceConfig = {
      ExecStart = "${pkgs.my-custom-tool}/bin/start-service";
      Restart = "on-failure";
    };
  };
}

Persistence Between Reboots

GridNix is designed for reproducibility, but you can make certain directories persistent:

1. Create a persistent data partition
2. Mount it at boot time
3. Symlink important directories to the persistent storage

Specify persistent directories in your configuration:

fileSystems."/persistent" = {
  device = "/dev/disk/by-label/persistent";
  fsType = "ext4";
  options = [ "noatime" ];
};

system.activationScripts.persistent = ''
  mkdir -p /persistent/home
  ln -sfn /persistent/home /home/GridNix
'';