Desktop Manager

Desktop Manager is infrastructure that other RobOS apps call. You normally do not open it.

At the current commit node --check packages/desktop-manager/main.js fails: line 571 uses await inside a callback that is not async, so the app cannot start from the repository until that is fixed.

What it does

• App registry and launcher. main.js lists the apps (id, label, description, category) and how to start each one: electron <APP_BASE>/<id> with --no-sandbox --disable-gpu --disable-dev-shm-usage. APP_BASE defaults to /usr/local/share/robos and can be set with ROBOS_APP_BASE.
• Watchdog. Every 3 seconds it checks the apps marked keepAlive (notifications, robos-toast, desktop-widgets, git-login-manager and robos-desktop) and restarts any that stopped. A client can pause and resume this per app.
• Tray icon. The tooltip shows the unread count from ~/.config/robos/notifications.json. Clicking the icon opens the Notifications Center.
• Config Sync in the background. When a Config Sync backup vault is connected and Sync automatically is on, it syncs the vault about 20 seconds after login, every 5 minutes (the vault’s auto.intervalMinutes), and about 15 seconds after a backed-up file under ~/.config/robos or ~/.robos changes. It applies only plans with no conflicts; a conflict, a missing vault key or a vault it cannot open becomes one sticky “Config Sync needs you” notification that opens Preferences on the Backup vault tab. The logic is robos-lib/config-sync-auto.js.
• Pass-lock reminder. After onboarding is complete, it checks the GPG agent every 15 seconds and posts a sticky “Pass store locked” notification when the password store locks.
• Socket server. One JSON message per connection.

Socket protocol

The socket is at $ROBOS_DM_SOCKET if set, otherwise $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/robos-dm.sock (usually /run/user/<uid>/robos-dm.sock), with /tmp/robos-dm-<uid>.sock as a fallback. It is created with mode 600. Send one JSON object, then close the write side. These keys are handled:

Example, the same call the built-in “Restart RobOS Taskbar” skill uses:

node -e "const s=require('net').connect('/run/user/'+process.getuid()+'/robos-dm.sock',()=>{s.write(JSON.stringify({launch:'robos-desktop'}));s.end();});"

Status window

The window has tabs for Apps & Services, Socket IPC Console, Notifications and Watchdog Supervisor. It is created hidden and only shown when ROBOS_DEMO_SHOW=1 or ROBOS_TEST=1 is set, which is meant for tests and demos.

Source: packages/desktop-manager.