Description of Changes

Quick summary:

Timezone and locale settings moved to features
Timezone and locale can now be adjusted at runtime via COSMIC tools or any other tools.
Changes take effect immediately (timezone), after session restart (locale session config), or after system reboot (if system locale override is enabled).

Detailed changes:

1. Timezone and locale module changes:
   • Timezone (ghaf.services.timezone):
     • Timezone changes are now monitored via systemd instead of a long-running dbus monitor
     • Added explicit timezone.propagate option to control propagation via givc
     • Changed the behavior of timezone.enable to instead control runtime mgmt of timezone on the target system
     • Enabling timezone.propagate now sets time.timeZone to null, which enables runtime mgmt
   • Locale(ghaf.services.locale):
     • Added explicit locale.propagate option to control propagation via givc
     • Changed the behavior of locale.enable to instead control runtime mgmt of locale on the target system
     • Implemented system locale overriding (shell, greeter, etc.) via locale.overrideSystemLocale (naming suggestions welcome).
     • Added persistent locale settings storage at /var/lib/locale/.locale-env, which will be imported by the global .profile at boot if locale.overrideSystemLocale == true.
     • Renamed locale handler services to better reflect their responsibilities
2. Moved timezone and locale modules under features umbrella:
   • Can now be enabled on any VM via global config features
   • Timezone module (runtime mgmt) enabled on all sysvms by default
   • Locale module enabled on gui-vm by default
   • Locale and timezone propagation, and system locale overriding enabled only on gui-vm by default
   • Changed global config time.timeZone to null by default
3. Fixed ghaf-intro not starting automatically:
   • Was caused by incorrect desktop entry naming
   • Changed to be launched via ghaf-open, which will determine the correct desktop entry automatically

Type of Change

• New Feature
• Bug Fix
• Improvement / Refactor

Related Issues / Tickets

Closes/fixes:

• Locale and language settings (SSRCSP-8063)
• Getting started guide does not open automatically (SSRCSP-8061)

Checklist

• Clear summary in PR description
• Detailed and meaningful commit message(s)
• Commits are logically organized and squashed if appropriate
• Contribution guidelines followed
• Ghaf documentation updated with the commit - https://tiiuae.github.io/ghaf/
• Author has run make-checks and it passes
• All automatic GitHub Action checks pass - see actions
• Author has added reviewers and removed PR draft status

Testing Instructions

Applicable Targets

• Orin AGX aarch64
• Orin NX aarch64
• Lenovo X1 x86_64
• Dell Latitude x86_64
• System 76 x86_64

Installation Method

• Requires full re-installation
• Can be updated with nixos-rebuild ... switch
• Other:

Test Steps To Verify:

1. Boot into Ghaf and begin the COSMIC initial setup flow
2. Verify timezone and locale (language) pages show up in the initial setup
3. Choose some custom timezone and locale and proceed until initial setup is finished
4. Verify ghaf-intro opens automatically
5. Verify gui-vm and other sysvms timezones are set to whatever you chose in initial setup
6. Restart the session or reboot to verify locale changes have taken effect as well:
   • The login screen should display the date and time in the appropriate locale format (e.g. Finnish if Finnish locale was selected)
   • The DE apps and tools should show some signs of translation and time formatting based on the locale as well
7. Verify locale and timezone can be adjusted freely within COSMIC Settings app, with changes taking effect:
   • Timezone changes take effect immediately
   • Locale changes take effect on session restart or reboot