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# 4. The first fifteen minutes |
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You have signed in and the screen is mostly empty: a bar across the top, a |
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wallpaper colour behind it, and nothing else. That is correct. Alloy opens no |
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windows for you. |
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Throughout this manual **Mod** means the Super key (the one between Ctrl and |
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Alt on most keyboards). |
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## The screen that greets you once |
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The first time you log in, a terminal opens on `alloy setup`. It offers two |
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enrollments, both optional: |
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- **Private network** (Tailscale), so this machine can reach your others. |
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- **File sync** (Syncthing), so your files follow you onto this machine. |
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Skipping is fine and reversible. `alloy mesh` and `alloy sync` do the same |
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enrollments later. Press `q` when you are done. The screen appears once; typing |
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`alloy setup` by hand always opens it again. |
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## Open a terminal |
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Mod+Return |
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That is shop, running nushell. It is where you will spend most of your time. |
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If you would rather find a graphical app by name than type a binary: |
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Mod+D |
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That is the launcher: a fuzzy picker over installed desktop entries, running in |
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a floating terminal. Two keys, two jobs. `Mod+Return` is for typing commands, |
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`Mod+D` is for the apps whose binary name nobody remembers. |
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## Move a window around |
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Open two or three terminals with `Mod+Return`. They tile automatically. |
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- `Mod+H/J/K/L` moves focus left, down, up, right. |
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- `Mod+Shift+H/J/K/L` moves the window itself. |
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- `Mod+Q` closes the focused window. |
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- `Mod+F` makes it fullscreen. |
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- `Mod+1` through `Mod+4` switch workspaces; `Mod+Shift+1` and friends send the |
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window with you. |
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Chapter 5 has the whole list. Those six get you through the day. |
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## Meet the console |
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alloy |
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is not a command by itself. Every surface is a verb: |
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alloy net # wifi and connections |
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alloy audio # outputs, inputs, and which stream goes where |
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alloy display # scale, rotation, which outputs are on |
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alloy settings # time, hostname, locale, theme, and app configs |
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alloy pkg # what is installed and where it lives |
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alloy update # what image is booted, what is staged, how to go back |
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Every one of them has the same shape: Tab moves between panes, arrow keys or |
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`j`/`k` move within a list, Enter acts, Esc cancels, `q` quits, `?` shows help. |
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Every action prints the command it ran in a pane at the bottom. That is |
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deliberate. The console is not hiding the CLI from you, it is showing you which |
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one to learn. |
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## Get online |
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alloy net |
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Pick your network, press Enter. Joining a network you have never joined before |
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needs authorization the console does not yet ask for, so for a brand new wifi |
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network use: |
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run0 nmcli device wifi connect "Network Name" --ask |
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`run0` is how you become root on Alloy. There is no `sudo` habit to keep here. |
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## Set the volume |
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The Fn keys work: volume up, down, mute, and the media keys, all with an |
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on-screen indicator. For anything more precise, `alloy audio` shows every |
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stream and every device and lets you move one onto the other. |
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## Take a screenshot |
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- `Print` captures the whole output. |
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- `Shift+Print` selects a region. |
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- `Ctrl+Print` captures the active window. |
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- `Mod+Print` opens the most recent capture in satty to annotate it. |
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Captures land in `~/Pictures/Screenshots` and raise a notification saying so. |
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## Lock the screen |
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Mod+Ctrl+L |
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The session also dims after four and a half minutes, locks at five, and turns |
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the displays off at ten. A closed lid always locks before suspending. |
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## Then what |
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- Chapter 7 if you want to install software. Read it before reaching for a |
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package manager; the answer is not `dnf`. |
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- Chapter 11 if the light theme is not what you want at night. |
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- Chapter 12 if this machine should share files with your other ones. |
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