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 [1] Veronica Explains
 
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 [11]intentional tech
 
 It's time to talk about my writerdeck
 
 [12] vkc
 
 [13]vkc
 
 23 May 2026 — 10 min read
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 A picture of a laptop with a tty screen running vim, the screen is filled with
 the words from a video script.
 
 tldr:
 
   • I installed console-only Debian on an old laptop (no desktop OS at all)
   • I added some packages to make it work better for writing:
       □ network-manager for connecting to hotspots while I'm away
       □ kmscon for custom fonts and more than 16 colors in the tty
       □ tmux for a nice status bar and rudimentary screen tiling, as well as
         acpi and light for battery and backlight details, respectively
       □ neovim as my editor and vim-vimwiki to give myself a personal wiki
       □ syncthing to sync and backup my work
 
 I have an attention problem.
 
 A couple of weeks ago, I decided to convert my old laptop into a [15]writerdeck
 , a dedicated writing device free from the distractions of the modern internet.
 
 Lots of folks build really elaborate offline devices for this, and I'd love to
 do that... someday. Right now I have no shortage of projects and the point is
 to get writing, so I used what I had: a six-year-old laptop which still runs
 great, has plenty of power, but isn't getting much use anymore.
 
 Crucially, this laptop has an excellent keyboard, and a matte screen, which
 makes it awesome to type on for long stretches, and functional enough in the
 daylight (I like to sit outside with my dog and write). It's also a [16]
 System76 Galago Pro (not sponsored), which means it's already Linux friendly
 and has great support in the kernel.
 
 Setting up a tty instead of a desktop
 
 Now, you could certainly just use a regular desktop OS and keep it offline,
 although that's easier said than done. I don't think you can fully remove the
 browsers from a modern Mac or Windows PC. At least not in a supported way.
 
 Of course, I'm a Linux user, and I have any number of options. I could have
 gone with a simple desktop or window manager and just not installed a browser,
 but I wanted something that really broke the desktop OS muscle memory and
 forced me into thinking about my words with intention.
 
 I opted for a tty-based setup, using [17]Debian (Trixie at the time of
 writing). Console only- no x11 or Wayland, no desktop getting in my way.
 
 Installing Debian is easy enough. I use the text-based installer mode, and for
 this writerdeck, I opted to skip full-disk encryption (there's nothing on this
 device that isn't going to be public anyway).
 
 Folks always tell me they get hung up on things because they don't set
 themselves up with sudo on Debian. If you're coming from Mint or Ubuntu or
 virtually any other desktop-oriented distro, this could trip you up. If you
 want to use sudo for admin tasks, skip adding a root password. That'll disable
 root and set you up as a sudo user.
 
 A Debian TUI installer screen showing the "set up users and passwords" dialog
 (for setting a root password).Leave this blank if you want to use a sudo user!
 A lot of folks don't know about this quirk and get into trouble if they're
 coming from other distros.
 
 On the desktop setup screen, I chose to remove all desktop features, because
 again, I want this thing to be a minimal device. Just me and the words, no GUI
 getting in my way.
 
 A Debian TUI installer screen showing the "software selection" dialog (for
 installing a desktop environment).I removed the selection for "Debian desktop
 environment" and "GNOME" here. This way it's just a tty.
 
 When things wrap up, you'll be greeted with a bland console login. Perfect
 place to get started.
 
 A Debian tty login prompt. Black background with a login prompt in small white
 text.It's boring. Perfect.
 
 Installing network-manager
 
 After signing in for the first time and making sure I was up-to-date with a
 quick sudo apt update and a sudo apt upgrade, I chose to replace the regular
 network stack with the network-manager package. Mainly to get access to the
 very good curses tool nm-tui for connecting to networks.
 
 nm-tui is a thousand times easier than editing config files for setting up
 network devices. And while I will be working mostly offline with this device
 when I'm away from home, I do appreciate the ability to connect it to the
 network to back up files should the need arise.
 
 After installing network-manager with sudo apt install network-manager, you can
 use nm-tui to scan for available Wi-Fi networks and get hooked up. Depending on
 your hardware, you might also have WAN access here. Pretty cool.
 
 A network manager TUI screen. It's a curses screen that offers a small amount
 of network configuration options.Having a TUI for networking is a nice
 quality-of-life improvement.
 
 Installing neovim and kmscon
 
 I couldn't wait any longer, I installed neovim as soon as I could with sudo apt
 install neovim. I didn't want to edit with nano. Nothing personal, I'm just a
 vim user all the way now.
 
 Normally I use traditional vim but I opted for neovim as I'm trying to get to
 know it a bit more.
 
 Then, I installed kmscon, which for Debian Trixie needed to be added from
 backports.
 
 First, I updated my Debian source list by editing the file at /etc/apt/
 sources.list to add the following two lines:
 
 deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ trixie-backports main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
 deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ trixie-backports main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
 
 A quick sudo apt update and then I can simply run sudo apt install -t
 trixie-backports kmscon. This will install the kmscon package from backports,
 as well as its dependencies, and set it to automatically start on boot. Next
 reboot, you'll see the familiar tty, but now it's scalable with ctrl-plus and
 ctrl-minus, like most modern web browsers.
 
 From here, I have a totally functional writerdeck. I could be done here and be
 reasonably satisfied with an offline, pleasant writing experience. But I wanted
 a few more nicities which I've grown accustomed to.
 
 tmux for multiplexing and a pretty status bar
 
 Next, I installed tmux for basic terminal tiling and a pretty status bar. This
 is packaged for Debian (and virtually everyone else), and is installed with
 sudo apt install tmux.
 
 I also installed acpi for battery details, and light to control the screen
 backlight. You can install these at the same time with sudo apt install acpi
 light. I set these up in my .tmux.conf file, which is kept in your home
 directory. Here's how I used them.
 
 ACPI for battery readouts
 
 Once the acpi package is installed, you should be able to see your battery with
 acpi -b (assuming your laptop has a battery which is detected with acpi, which
 has worked so far on every laptop I've tried in my house).
 
 So, to get the specific percentage and nothing more, you can pipe acpi -b into
 grep like so:
 
 acpi -b | grep -m1 -o -P '.{0,2}%'
 
 This grep is a bit hard to understand, so let's break it down:
 
   • -m1 says stop reading the file after one line. I did this because some
     laptops I've used have multiple batteries, and I only care about the
     primary battery. You can probably leave this out if acpi -b only returns a
     single line.
   • -o prints only the matched parts of the line. I don't want a large printout
     with the remaining time. You might!
   • -P interprets the pattern as a Perl-compatible regular expression. Then '.
     {0,2}%' gets us the percent sign and the two numbers preceding the percent.
     (This won't show "100%" but I can live with that, because this laptop
     doesn't get there anymore.)
 
 I wanted to replace the default details in the tmux status bar with a battery
 readout, so I do so with the following in my .tmux.conf:
 
 # give me a battery readout instead of the time
 set-window-option -g status-right "#(acpi -b | grep -m1 -o -P '.{0,2}%')"
 
 Light for brightness
 
 Next, we can use the very simple light command we installed earlier to control
 the brightness. On my laptop, F8 and F9 have brightness indicators printed on
 the keys, so it's a perfect fit.
 
 light -U 10 decreases the brightness by ten percent, and light -A 10 increases
 it.
 
 So, to bind F8 and F9 to decrease/increase brightness control, I simply add
 this to my .tmux.conf:
 
 # keybinding for brightness
 bind -n F8 run-shell 'light -U 10' # decrease
 bind -n F9 run-shell 'light -A 10' # increase
 
 Now, next time I start tmux, I'll have brightness controls. Very neat!
 
 Additional tmux customization
 
 Lastly, I like the status line for tmux at the top of the screen, because
 neovim puts a status line at the bottom of the screen. That's achieved by
 adding set -g status-position top to the .tmux.conf file.
 
 Also, I have a habit of specifying the color. I think it's green by default but
 I set it anyway (I might change it in the future, who knows) with set -g
 status-style bg=green.
 
 So, my final tmux.conf looks like this:
 
 # bar position and color
 set -g status-position top
 set -g status-style bg=green
 
 # keybinding for brightness
 bind -n F8 run-shell 'light -U 10' # decrease
 bind -n F9 run-shell 'light -A 10' # increase
 
 # give me a battery readout instead of the time
 set-window-option -g status-right "#(acpi -b | grep -m1 -o -P '.{0,2}%')"
 
 This isn't a tmux lesson, but by default, to do a split, you use Ctrl-B to
 break out of regular mode and into the tmux command mode, and then the % key to
 split vertically, or " to split horizontally. Ctrl-B, then an arrow will move
 your focus between panes.
 
 Someday, I'll do a formal tmux lesson. Moving on!
 
 neovim and vimwiki
 
 I know a lot of folks won't want to use neovim or vim, opting instead for emacs
 or helix or micro or nano or blammo or something else I didn't mention (but
 someone's about to).
 
 That's great. I'm happy for you. I'm a vim user though, so that's what I set
 up.
 
 neovim includes some reasonably great colorschemes which you can try out with
 the :colorscheme option. I chose blue, which fit my retro vibe just fine, but
 you could pick anything you want or even write one yourself from scratch.
 
 I added that to my .config/nvim/init.vim file with colorscheme blue, and I also
 added set linebreak so that way words would wrap to the next line (I don't
 normally do this on my desktop but this thing's one job is writing).
 
 Lastly, I set up vimwiki, which I already covered in a separate [18]blog post.
 The only thing that's changed is instead of installing vimwiki with a plugin,
 on Trixie it's packaged, so you can install it with sudo apt install
 vim-vimwiki.
 
 Installing Syncthing
 
 I set up syncthing according to the [19]Syncthing docs, which are pretty good
 and I won't repeat those too much here.
 
 I set up syncthing to connect my writerdeck's vimwiki folder to my server's
 writing folder, which is a subdirectory inside another, more private vimwiki
 setup. I do it this way so that if there's sensitive notes in my desktop
 vimwiki, they don't sync to the writerdeck. If I had encryption on this device,
 I wouldn't mind that though, and I might set up password-based LUKS encryption
 just to gain access to my vimwiki diary on the writerdeck.
 
 The one place where I strayed from a stock syncthing setup is that because I
 don't have a desktop with a traditional browser, I had to set my syncthing web
 GUI to be [20]listening on all addresses instead of just 127.0.0.1. I don't
 love this approach, but again, this thing has nothing private on it. A better
 way would be to set up a SOCKS proxy and connect that way, but that's a topic
 for a future post.
 
 Setting it up to autologin
 
 The last thing I did to make this writerdeck my own was to set up automatic
 login.
 
 I want to be able to open this up and start writing quickly- autologin is a
 simple way to get there.
 
 Autologin with kmscon
 
 Because I installed kmscon, this is pretty easy, just update the (gasp) systemd
 service with sudo systemctl edit [email protected].
 
 Then, I just added the following:
 
 [Service]
 ExecStart=
 ExecStart=/usr/bin/kmscon --login -- /bin/login -f my_username_goes_here
 
 This tells kmscon to start what comes after the -- after --login. In my case,
 that's the default /bin/login program with the parameter -f and then my
 username.
 
 Launching tmux on boot
 
 After kmscon signs me in, I want tmux to automatically launch into vimwiki. But
 only if I'm on the main tty (the default virtual terminal).
 
 I can do this easily by adding a small bash if/then to my .bashrc:
 
 # Launch tmux if we aren't already running tmux and we're in the default tty
 if [ -z "${TMUX}" ] && [ $(tty) == "/dev/pts/0" ]; then
         exec tmux new-session -d 'vim -c VimwikiIndex' \; attach
 fi
 
 This works by checking to make sure we're not in tmux already (which would be
 recursive and bad), and it also makes sure we're in the first virtual tty. If
 those two conditions are met, then it launches a new tmux session with the
 command vim -c VimwikiIndex (which tells vim to connect to the Vimwiki index).
 It then attaches to that session.
 
 After using it for a few projects, I love it.
 
 I've had this thing going for a week or so now, and I've used it to write this
 blog post, the script for the companion video, and another future script I'm
 working up right now. And it's awesome.
 
 I may extend this idea with a spell checker, or perhaps set up a "writerdeck
 terminal" in my workspace using an old 486, to really bring myself back to a
 more intentional experience (with an even better keyboard!).
 
 The point is to write more, and to be less distracted doing so. I have always
 struggled immensely with the fact that the browser nags at me. I get
 notifications about apps needing my attention. My music player tells me the
 next song we're playing. It's all very convenient, and very distracting.
 
 I'm trying to be more intentional with my tech choices. I want devices that do
 one thing really well, and that when I'm done with that one thing, I can put
 them away, and do something else. I don't want everything to follow me around
 everywhere.
 
 If that's you, maybe you would benefit from a writerdeck. For me, it's been
 great. :)
 
 Update: This got a lot of attention and I wrote a [21]follow-up blog post
 answering questions from the internet.
 
 Read more
 
 [22] It's me, holding a laptop with a blue screen and lots of text in front of
 my face. The words "writerdeck FAQ" are superimposed to my side.
 
 Writerdeck: FAQ
 
 Folks have been asking me questions about my writerdeck setup. Here, I attempt
 to answer them.
 
 28 May 2026
 [23] A close-up of my smiling face, holding a phone with the GrapheneOS logo on
 it and the word "FAQ".
 
 Living with GrapheneOS: FAQ
 
 Over the last three years I've had a lot of folks ask me questions about using
 GrapheneOS. Let's answer them!
 
 04 Mar 2026
 [24] The four members of The Stop Bits sitting on a couch. Superimposed is the
 date "Feb 14, 2026" and the words "VCF SoCal // Orange, CA".
 
 Upcoming performance + quick housekeeping note
 
 I will be at VCF SoCal this Saturday, February 14, 2026, in Orange, CA, US!
 
 09 Feb 2026
 [25] A heavily dithered screenshot of the front page of veronicaexplains.net,
 which says "subscribing is awesome and so are you", and a "subscribe" field
 with an example email address in it.
 
 Wait, veronicaexplains.net?
 
 My website is now using Ghost instead of WordPress, and that means you can get
 me in your inbox. Everyone loves emails, right?
 
 05 Feb 2026
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 Linux mom, vintage tech enthusiast, nerdy musician.
 
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 [16] https://system76.com/?ref=veronicaexplains.net
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 [18] https://veronicaexplains.net/vimwiki-101/
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