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Support for the X Window graphical display system—specifically
Xorg—is provided by the (gnu services xorg) module. Note that
there is no xorg-service procedure. Instead, the X server is
started by the login manager, by default the GNOME Display Manager (GDM).
GDM of course allows users to log in into window managers and desktop environments other than GNOME; for those using GNOME, GDM is required for features such as automatic screen locking.
To use X11, you must install at least one window manager—for
example the windowmaker or openbox packages—preferably
by adding it to the packages field of your operating system
definition (see system-wide packages).
GDM also supports Wayland: it can itself use Wayland instead of X11 for
its user interface, and it can also start Wayland sessions. The former is
required for the latter, to enable, set wayland? to #t in
gdm-configuration.
This is the type for the GNOME
Desktop Manager (GDM), a program that manages graphical display servers and
handles graphical user logins. Its value must be a gdm-configuration
(see below).
GDM looks for session types described by the .desktop files in
/run/current-system/profile/share/xsessions (for X11 sessions) and
/run/current-system/profile/share/wayland-sessions (for Wayland
sessions) and allows users to choose a session from the log-in screen.
Packages such as gnome, xfce, i3 and sway provide
.desktop files; adding them to the system-wide set of packages
automatically makes them available at the log-in screen.
In addition, ~/.xsession files are honored. When available, ~/.xsession must be an executable that starts a window manager and/or other X clients.
auto-login? (default: #f)default-user (default: #f)When auto-login? is false, GDM presents a log-in screen.
When auto-login? is true, GDM logs in directly as
default-user.
debug? (default: #f)When true, GDM writes debug messages to its log.
gnome-shell-assets (default: ...)List of GNOME Shell assets needed by GDM: icon theme, fonts, etc.
xorg-configuration (default: (xorg-configuration))Configuration of the Xorg graphical server.
xsession (default: (xinitrc))Script to run before starting a X session.
dbus-daemon (default: dbus-daemon-wrapper)File name of the dbus-daemon executable.
gdm (default: gdm)The GDM package to use.
wayland? (default: #f)When true, enables Wayland in GDM, necessary to use Wayland sessions.
wayland-session (default: gdm-wayland-session-wrapper)The Wayland session wrapper to use, needed to setup the environment.
This is the type for the SLiM graphical login manager for X11.
Like GDM, SLiM looks for session types described by .desktop files and allows users to choose a session from the log-in screen using F1. It also honors ~/.xsession files.
Unlike GDM, SLiM does not spawn the user session on a different VT after logging in, which means that you can only start one graphical session. If you want to be able to run multiple graphical sessions at the same time you have to add multiple SLiM services to your system services. The following example shows how to replace the default GDM service with two SLiM services on tty7 and tty8.
(use-modules (gnu services)
(gnu services desktop)
(gnu services xorg))
(operating-system
;; ...
(services (cons* (service slim-service-type (slim-configuration
(display ":0")
(vt "vt7")))
(service slim-service-type (slim-configuration
(display ":1")
(vt "vt8")))
(modify-services %desktop-services
(delete gdm-service-type)))))
Data type representing the configuration of slim-service-type.
allow-empty-passwords? (default: #t)Whether to allow logins with empty passwords.
gnupg? (default: #f)If enabled, pam-gnupg will attempt to automatically unlock the
user’s GPG keys with the login password via gpg-agent. The
keygrips of all keys to be unlocked should be written to
~/.pam-gnupg, and can be queried with gpg -K
--with-keygrip. Presetting passphrases must be enabled by adding
allow-preset-passphrase in ~/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf.
auto-login? (default: #f)default-user (default: "")When auto-login? is false, SLiM presents a log-in screen.
When auto-login? is true, SLiM logs in directly as
default-user.
theme (default: %default-slim-theme)theme-name (default: %default-slim-theme-name)The graphical theme to use and its name.
auto-login-session (default: #f)If true, this must be the name of the executable to start as the default
session—e.g., (file-append windowmaker "/bin/windowmaker").
If false, a session described by one of the available .desktop
files in /run/current-system/profile and ~/.guix-profile
will be used.
Note: You must install at least one window manager in the system profile or in your user profile. Failing to do that, if
auto-login-sessionis false, you will be unable to log in.
xorg-configuration (default (xorg-configuration))Configuration of the Xorg graphical server.
display (default ":0")The display on which to start the Xorg graphical server.
vt (default "vt7")The VT on which to start the Xorg graphical server.
xauth (default: xauth)The XAuth package to use.
shepherd (default: shepherd)The Shepherd package used when invoking halt and
reboot.
sessreg (default: sessreg)The sessreg package used in order to register the session.
slim (default: slim)The SLiM package to use.
The default SLiM theme and its name.
This is the data type representing the SDDM service configuration.
display-server (default: "x11")Select display server to use for the greeter. Valid values are ‘"x11"’ or ‘"wayland"’.
numlock (default: "on")Valid values are ‘"on"’, ‘"off"’ or ‘"none"’.
halt-command (default #~(string-apppend #$shepherd "/sbin/halt"))Command to run when halting.
reboot-command (default #~(string-append #$shepherd "/sbin/reboot"))Command to run when rebooting.
theme (default "maldives")Theme to use. Default themes provided by SDDM are ‘"elarun"’, ‘"maldives"’ or ‘"maya"’.
themes-directory (default "/run/current-system/profile/share/sddm/themes")Directory to look for themes.
faces-directory (default "/run/current-system/profile/share/sddm/faces")Directory to look for faces.
default-path (default "/run/current-system/profile/bin")Default PATH to use.
minimum-uid (default: 1000)Minimum UID displayed in SDDM and allowed for log-in.
maximum-uid (default: 2000)Maximum UID to display in SDDM.
remember-last-user? (default #t)Remember last user.
remember-last-session? (default #t)Remember last session.
hide-users (default "")Usernames to hide from SDDM greeter.
hide-shells (default #~(string-append #$shadow "/sbin/nologin"))Users with shells listed will be hidden from the SDDM greeter.
session-command (default #~(string-append #$sddm "/share/sddm/scripts/wayland-session"))Script to run before starting a wayland session.
sessions-directory (default "/run/current-system/profile/share/wayland-sessions")Directory to look for desktop files starting wayland sessions.
xorg-configuration (default (xorg-configuration))Configuration of the Xorg graphical server.
xauth-path (default #~(string-append #$xauth "/bin/xauth"))Path to xauth.
xephyr-path (default #~(string-append #$xorg-server "/bin/Xephyr"))Path to Xephyr.
xdisplay-start (default #~(string-append #$sddm "/share/sddm/scripts/Xsetup"))Script to run after starting xorg-server.
xdisplay-stop (default #~(string-append #$sddm "/share/sddm/scripts/Xstop"))Script to run before stopping xorg-server.
xsession-command (default: xinitrc)Script to run before starting a X session.
xsessions-directory (default: "/run/current-system/profile/share/xsessions")Directory to look for desktop files starting X sessions.
minimum-vt (default: 7)Minimum VT to use.
auto-login-user (default "")User to use for auto-login.
auto-login-session (default "")Desktop file to use for auto-login.
relogin? (default #f)Relogin after logout.
This is the type of the service to run the
SDDM display manager. Its value
must be a sddm-configuration record (see below).
Here’s an example use:
(service sddm-service-type
(sddm-configuration
(auto-login-user "alice")
(auto-login-session "xfce.desktop")))
This data type represents the configuration of the SDDM login manager. The available fields are:
sddm (default: sddm)The SDDM package to use.
display-server (default: "x11")This must be either "x11" or "wayland".
auto-login-user (default: "")If non-empty, this is the user account under which to log in automatically.
auto-login-session (default: "")If non-empty, this is the .desktop file name to use as the auto-login session.
This data type represents the configuration of the Xorg graphical display
server. Note that there is no Xorg service; instead, the X server is started
by a “display manager” such as GDM, SDDM, and SLiM. Thus, the configuration
of these display managers aggregates an xorg-configuration record.
modules (default: %default-xorg-modules)This is a list of module packages loaded by the Xorg
server—e.g., xf86-video-vesa, xf86-input-keyboard, and so on.
fonts (default: %default-xorg-fonts)This is a list of font directories to add to the server’s font path.
drivers (default: '())This must be either the empty list, in which case Xorg chooses a graphics
driver automatically, or a list of driver names that will be tried in this
order—e.g., ("modesetting" "vesa").
resolutions (default: '())When resolutions is the empty list, Xorg chooses an appropriate screen
resolution. Otherwise, it must be a list of resolutions—e.g., ((1024
768) (640 480)).
keyboard-layout (default: #f)If this is #f, Xorg uses the default keyboard layout—usually US
English (“qwerty”) for a 105-key PC keyboard.
Otherwise this must be a keyboard-layout object specifying the keyboard
layout in use when Xorg is running. See Keyboard Layout, for more
information on how to specify the keyboard layout.
extra-config (default: '())This is a list of strings or objects appended to the configuration file. It is used to pass extra text to be added verbatim to the configuration file.
server (default: xorg-server)This is the package providing the Xorg server.
server-arguments (default: %default-xorg-server-arguments)This is the list of command-line arguments to pass to the X server. The
default is -nolisten tcp.
Tell the log-in manager (of type login-manager-service-type) to use
config, an <xorg-configuration> record.
Since the Xorg configuration is embedded in the log-in manager’s
configuration—e.g., gdm-configuration—this procedure provides a
shorthand to set the Xorg configuration.
Return a startx script in which the modules, fonts, etc. specified
in config, are available. The result should be used in place of
startx.
Usually the X server is started by a login manager.
Add package, a package for a screen locker or screen saver whose command is program, to the set of setuid programs and add a PAM entry for it. For example:
(screen-locker-service xlockmore "xlock")
makes the good ol’ XlockMore usable.
Next: Printing Services, Previous: Unattended Upgrades, Up: Services [Contents][Index]