Tray, login and quitting
Your node can be paid only while it runs. So the desktop app keeps running when you close its window, lives in the tray, and starts when you log in. This page shows how to look in on it, and how to stop it when you want to.
The tray
Click Dassie's icon in the tray to open its menu. The first line says how your node is doing, and the app brings it up to date every few seconds.
| The menu says | What it means |
|---|---|
| Not set up yet | Open the wallet and set your node up with your recovery phrase. |
| Online |
Your node is connected to its relay, the machine through
which other wallets reach your address: by default the
dassiepay.net front door.
How others reach you
explains it.
|
| Connecting… | It is dialing its relay, as it does right after it starts and after a short drop. Give it a minute. |
| Offline: the relay is unreachable | It has been trying its relay for a while and gets no answer. Check your internet connection. Your node keeps trying. |
| Running, without a relay |
Your node runs, and keeps no relay, so nobody reaches it at
its name. You see this with DASSIE_RELAY set
empty, and then nothing is wrong. You also see it with a
hostname set in the wallet, since a node with a hostname
keeps no default relay: clear the hostname. In both cases,
dassie status and the wallet's Network page say
that DASSIE_RELAY names none.
How others reach you
explains both.
|
| Stopped | The node stopped. Quit the app and start it again. |
Below that line are three entries:
- Open wallet opens the window again, or brings it to the front.
- Start at login turns starting at login on or off.
- Quit Dassie stops your node and the app.
Closing the window
Closing the window only closes the window. Your node and the tray icon stay, and the memory the window used is freed. Open the wallet again from the tray, or start Dassie again from your applications: a second start only shows the window of the app that runs already.
The exception is a node that has stopped. Then the window says why, and closing it quits the app.
Start at login
When it is on, the app starts when you log in, in the tray, without a
window. It does this with an autostart entry, the standard way Linux
desktops start programs at login:
~/.config/autostart/land.dassie.desktop.desktop.
-
It is on from the first start if you installed the
app, so that
dassie-desktopis on yourPATH. It is off if you ran it withnix run, since the path that runs from can go away. Your choice is remembered from that first start, so turn it on in the tray if you installed the app after trying it. - You can change it in either place: the tray's Start at login, or your desktop's own settings for programs that start at login. The app notices when you remove or turn off its entry there, and leaves it off.
- While it is on, the app writes the entry again at each start, so that it always names the app as it is installed now.
Quitting
Quit Dassie closes the window and stops your node the same
way dassie daemon stops on a server: it finishes what it
is doing, within a bound, and then the app exits. That can take a
few seconds.
Logging out or shutting down quits the app the same way, since your session sends it the signal to end. If the session sends a second one while the node is still stopping, the app ends at once.
While the app is not running, your node is offline:
- Nobody can pay you at your node's name.
- You cannot send payments either.
- Your money stays where it is. Your node picks up where it left off when you start it again.
If you want your node reachable all day, leave the app running, or run your node on a server instead: Pick your setup compares the two.
Without a tray
Some desktops show no tray icons, GNOME among them unless you add an extension for them, such as AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support. The app runs all the same, and keeps running when you close its window. Then:
-
To open the window, start Dassie again from your applications, or
run
dassie-desktop. -
To quit, end the process, which stops the node cleanly:
pkill -TERM -f dassie-desktop. -
To turn off starting at login, use your desktop's settings for
programs that start at login, or delete
~/.config/autostart/land.dassie.desktop.desktop.
One node per user
The app runs one node, your user's. A second start shows the first
app's window and starts nothing. Underneath, one node at a time owns a
data directory, so a dassie daemon that you start as the
same user, on the same data, refuses to start while the app runs,
and the app refuses while that one runs.
If the node stops on its own, the window says why. If the tray says Stopped, quit the app and start it again: that starts the node again, from where it was.
Why it works this way: a node on a laptop is reachable only while it runs.
