Void Linux T480 Package Notes

This is a living note for the manually installed packages on my ThinkPad T480.

The source is xbps-query -m, which shows packages I explicitly installed rather than every dependency on the system. The point is not to document every library. The point is to remember why the main pieces are here.

Base system

• base-system — Void base system
• base-devel — compiler, make, headers, and normal build tools
• void-docs — local Void documentation
• xtools — Void package/repository helper tools
• opendoas — simple privilege escalation

This is the core of the machine. Void stays small enough that the manually installed package list is still understandable.

Desktop

• xorg-minimal — minimal X11 system
• xinit — start X from the console
• spectrwm — window manager
• st — terminal
• dmenu — launcher
• slock — screen locker
• xwallpaper — wallpaper
• xrandr — display layout
• xsetroot — root window/status text utility
• font-iosevka — main terminal/programming font

The desktop is intentionally plain: X11, spectrwm, st, and dmenu. No desktop environment.

Terminal workflow

• bash — current shell
• abduco — session attachment
• dvtm — terminal tiling
• nnn — file manager
• fzf — fuzzy selection
• fd — file search
• ripgrep — text search
• tree — quick directory views
• xclip — clipboard bridge

This is the part of the system that should get faster over time. The goal is to move around files, search text, edit notes, and work in the terminal without building a large custom framework.

Editing and development

• vis — primary editor
• git — version control
• hugo — static site generator
• curl — HTTP testing and downloads
• wget — downloads
• jq — JSON processing
• groff — formatting and manpage-related work
• man-pages-devel — development manpages

This site is written in Markdown, edited locally, committed with Git, built with Hugo, and deployed to Codeberg Pages.

Browsing

• firefox — general web browser
• qutebrowser — keyboard-driven browser

Firefox is still useful for compatibility. Qutebrowser fits the keyboard-driven direction better and should become more important as the configuration settles.

Reading, RSS, and communication

• newsboat — RSS reader
• weechat — IRC
• zathura — document reader
• zathura-pdf-mupdf — PDF backend
• calibre — ebook management

RSS is part of the publishing loop for this site. Posts and project pages are available through feeds and can be read from Newsboat.

Media and images

• mpv — media player
• ffmpeg — audio/video conversion
• nsxiv — image viewer
• ImageMagick — image manipulation
• maim — screenshots
• slop — region selection for screenshots

This covers basic media handling without pulling in a heavy desktop stack.

Passwords and keys

• pass — password store
• gnupg2 — GPG backend for pass
• openssh — SSH keys and remote Git access

The website repo uses SSH to push to Codeberg.

Hardware and graphics

• intel-video-accel — Intel video acceleration support
• mesa-dri — Mesa DRI drivers
• mesa-vulkan-intel — Intel Vulkan support
• libva-utils — VA-API testing tools
• smartmontools — disk health

These packages support the T480 hardware and give me tools to inspect whether graphics/video acceleration and storage health are working.

Printing and documents

• cups
• cups-browsed
• cups-filters
• avahi
• nss-mdns
• libreoffice

This is the practical document/printing stack. It exists because a daily-driver laptop still needs to print, open forms, and deal with ordinary documents.

CAC and smart card tools

• opensc
• opensc-pkcs11
• pcsc-ccid
• pcsc-tools
• pcsclite

These are for smart card/CAC-related workflows.

System utilities

• btop — system monitor
• cronie — cron daemon
• rsync — file sync and backup tool
• unzip — archive extraction
• setxkbmap — keyboard layout
• dbus — desktop/system messaging needed by some programs

These are small pieces that make the system practical.

Things to review later

• whether qutebrowser should become the primary browser
• whether abduco and dvtm are actually staying long term
• whether all printing packages are still needed
• whether LibreOffice should stay or only be installed when needed
• whether the CAC/smart card stack is still required
• what packages should be part of a rebuild script

Rebuild note

A future version of this note should turn into a small package manifest and rebuild script.

For now, this page is just a record of what is installed and why.