Set users up with example SALT files

[zaz]

The user configures their main Template VM how they want it, including installing packages and other customization. If they are using multiple templates, or if they switch to a new Template VM, their changes are lost. The solution is to use SALT.

The problem

Most users are not familiar with SALT and, while the Qubes SALT guide is a good introduction, it can still take hours to work out how to use it.

Furthermore, I want to back up these SALT files, so they need to be in the home directory. The solution I have for this is a directory ~/fs/srv/salt and a script to copy everything under ~/fs/ to the respective location under /. I do see you have a file /srv/salt/qubes/user-dirs.sls that may be designed to fix this problem, but I'm not sure how it works.

I've spent many hours trying to get this to work, and helping other users who have related issues.

The solution

Create some working, but disabled SALT files in the user's home directory. Add comments with instructions to enable them.

E.g. A state that installs all the packages in Fedora but not Fedora-minimal, a state that sets up an alternative keyboard layout (see Issue #8035).

The value

It's much easier to modify something that already works than to create something from scratch. If we start off with some SALT files that perform common functions like installing packages, common configurations, etc, the user can either enable, copy, or modify them.