nixos/xsession: use graphical systemd user target by fpletz · Pull Request #26094 · NixOS/nixpkgs

fpletz · 2017-05-25T17:50:35Z

Motivation for this change

While systemd suggests using the pre-defined graphical-session user
target, I found that this interface is difficult to use. Additionally,
no other major distribution, even in their unstable versions, currently
use this mechanism.

The window or desktop manager is supposed to run in a systemd user service
which activates graphical-session.target and the user services that are
binding to this target. The issue is that we can't elegantly pass the
xsession environment to the window manager session, in particular
whereas the PassEnvironment option does work for DISPLAY, it for some
mysterious reason won't for PATH.

This commit implements a new graphical user target that works just like
default.target. Services which should be run in a graphical session just
need to declare wantedBy graphical.target. The graphical target will be
activated in the xsession before executing the window or display manager.

Fixes #17858.

Things done

Only tested with i3 and slim right now but will test other window and desktop managers before merging.

mention-bot · 2017-05-25T17:50:38Z

@fpletz, thanks for your PR! By analyzing the history of the files in this pull request, we identified @edolstra, @nckx and @nbp to be potential reviewers.

michaelpj · 2017-05-25T19:20:27Z

Is there a reason that this couldn't be graphical-session.target? It's not quite how it's supposed to be used, but a) if we ever implement it properly then the things which depend on it will automatically do the right thing, and b) if we have it around then we're more likely to be able to use upstream units.

Also, if you're looking for more test cases, the arbtt service should also depend on this rather than default.target.

michaelpj · 2017-05-25T19:20:42Z

nixos/modules/services/x11/display-managers/default.nix

typo -> graphical

Thanks, fixed!

pbogdan · 2017-05-25T19:26:49Z

FWIW both redshift and unclutter service (patched locally in the same way as redshift in this PR) are working for me on lightdm / xmonad setup.

Mic92 · 2017-05-25T19:43:38Z

nixos/modules/programs/gnupg.nix

Is DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS also inherited by default? pinentry-gtk-2 needs that.

otherwise passing --systemd to dbus-update-activation-environment might be a good idea: https://dbus.freedesktop.org/doc/dbus-update-activation-environment.1.html or using systemctl --user import-environment

Doesn't seem like it:

$ systemctl --user status redshift.service | grep PID Main PID: 5762 (redshift) $ cat /proc/5762/environ | awk -v 'RS=\0' '{ print $0 }' | grep DBUS

pinentry-gtk-2 works for me in X. :) I've removed the PassEnvironment because it's not needed anymore. (GPG_TTY is picked up by gpg).

Mic92 · 2017-05-25T19:50:36Z

It would be also cool, if we can make graphical-session.target a recommendation/standard in systemd. That way also upstream project would begin to use the target in their units. This might be worth a discussion in upstream.

fpletz · 2017-05-25T20:11:11Z

I've fixed the gnupg agent module to find the correct terminal every time for gpg invocations, even if logged in in different terminals. Unfortunately, this doesn't always work for SSH but we can't fix that because it's a missing feature in the SSH agent protocol. Only use one tty or gpg-connect-agent updatestartuptty /bye. :)

fpletz · 2017-05-25T20:16:18Z

Oh, and the module is using the upstream gpg-agent units now, so we have socket activation if SSH is not enabled! 🍻

fpletz · 2017-05-25T20:26:00Z

Is there a reason that this couldn't be graphical-session.target?

I wanted to use a different target name because we would have to override some options and the semantics of the unit would slightly change. My guess is that no package is currently shipping systemd units with graphical-session.target anyways because no distro I checked (Debian, Fedora) adopted this but please prove me wrong. :)

It would be also cool, if we can make graphical-session.target a recommendation/standard in systemd. That way also upstream project would begin to use the target in their units. This might be worth a discussion in upstream.

Here is a talk about graphical-session.target from systemd.conf and about some of the problems and hacks needed with this approach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq18daxTkLA

fpletz · 2017-05-25T20:40:48Z

Oh, and there is also documentation about graphical-session.target in the manpage systemd.special(7).

Pondering about it some more, I think we should indeed override graphical-session.target instead of defining a new target because the semantic differences are in fact not very serious. The main difference is how the target can be activated but services would be activated the same way. I'll update the code.

Mic92 · 2017-05-25T21:00:08Z

oh, did not know it was already a standard.

fpletz · 2017-05-25T21:10:45Z

Okay, now using graphical-session.target. Works just like graphical.target. I'm also using partOf now because this will ensure the services get stopped when graphical-session.target is stopped. This ensures X services are terminated even if a user is still logged in on another TTY. systemd.special(7) also recommends this. :)

Will squash and fix commit description before merging. I'm also in the process of converting and testing all remaining user services that depend on X.

fpletz · 2017-05-25T23:17:53Z

All remaining services I could identify are fixed. Another highlight: We now have a working socket-activated pulseaudio user service. ;)

While systemd suggests using the pre-defined graphical-session user target, I found that this interface is difficult to use. Additionally, no other major distribution, even in their unstable versions, currently use this mechanism. The window or desktop manager is supposed to run in a systemd user service which activates graphical-session.target and the user services that are binding to this target. The issue is that we can't elegantly pass the xsession environment to the window manager session, in particular whereas the PassEnvironment option does work for DISPLAY, it for some mysterious reason won't for PATH. This commit implements a new graphical user target that works just like default.target. Services which should be run in a graphical session just need to declare wantedBy graphical.target. The graphical target will be activated in the xsession before executing the window or display manager. Fixes NixOS#17858.

Creates a systemd user service and updates the tty on new logins so that gpg-agent may find the current tty even if the SSH agent mode is used.

fpletz added 6.topic: nixos Issues or PRs affecting NixOS modules, or package usability issues specific to NixOS 8.has: module (update) This PR changes an existing module in `nixos/` labels May 25, 2017

fpletz added this to the 17.09 milestone May 25, 2017

fpletz force-pushed the feature/graphical-user-session branch from c81b3b5 to bf99837 Compare May 25, 2017 17:51

fpletz mentioned this pull request May 25, 2017

Redshift service tries to run even for DISPLAY-less users #17858

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michaelpj reviewed May 25, 2017

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Mic92 reviewed May 25, 2017

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fpletz force-pushed the feature/graphical-user-session branch from 16067d2 to d3615e0 Compare May 25, 2017 20:06

fpletz force-pushed the feature/graphical-user-session branch 2 times, most recently from 78d661d to b7069cc Compare May 25, 2017 20:32

fpletz requested a review from peti May 25, 2017 21:31

fpletz mentioned this pull request May 26, 2017

Add per-user services #26128

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fpletz added 2 commits May 29, 2017 15:05

gnupg agent module: init

04158d9

Creates a systemd user service and updates the tty on new logins so that gpg-agent may find the current tty even if the SSH agent mode is used.

fpletz force-pushed the feature/graphical-user-session branch from ea92510 to 04158d9 Compare May 29, 2017 13:05

fpletz merged commit a1b5328 into NixOS:master May 29, 2017

fpletz deleted the feature/graphical-user-session branch May 29, 2017 13:06

pbogdan mentioned this pull request May 29, 2017

Synergy: Autostart option starts regardless of whether X11 is up. #9468

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Mic92 mentioned this pull request Jun 10, 2017

kdeconnect: [WIP/RFC] let dbus activate via systemd #19622

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7 tasks

michaelpj mentioned this pull request Aug 27, 2017

Systemd graphical-session.target does nothing #22671

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