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nixos/display-managers/startx: init #47773

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merged 1 commit into from Oct 10, 2018
Merged

nixos/display-managers/startx: init #47773

merged 1 commit into from Oct 10, 2018

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xeji
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@xeji xeji commented Oct 3, 2018 •
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Motivation for this change

This defines the startx dummy display manager that allows running X as a normal user.
The X server is started manually from a VT using startx. It is possible to start multiple X sessions from different VTs.

Session startup commands must be provided by the user in ~/.xinitrc, which is NOT automatically generated. This lack of integration with the desktopManager and windowManager settings and other NixOS options is intentional, to keep it simple and give users full control over their X session, independent of system-wide settings.

Here's how I use it with my minimal dwm desktop:

  services.xserver = {
    enable = true;
    displayManager.startx.enable = true;
    desktopManager.default = "none";
    desktopManager.xterm.enable = false;
    windowManager.dwm.enable = true;  # as a convenient way to install the dwm package
  };

A minimal ~/.xinitrc without any extra initialisations may look like:

exec dwm
Things done
  • writing this on a NixOS system using it.

@xeji
nixos/display-managers/startx: init
f52d9f3 
Dummy display manager that allows running X as a normal user.
The X server is started manually from a vt using `startx`.
Session startup commands must be provided by the user
in ~/.xinitrc, which is NOT automatically generated.
@xeji
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xeji commented Oct 3, 2018

Combining this with pam-autologin would be a lightweight alternative to our current auto display manager. cc @oxij

Mic92
Mic92 reviewed Oct 3, 2018
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nixos/modules/services/x11/display-managers/startx.nix
displayManager.lightdm.enable = lib.mkForce false;
};
systemd.services.display-manager.enable = false;
environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [ xorg.xinit ];
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orthogonal to this pr it would be nice to have something similar for wayland based sessions.

@oxij
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oxij commented Oct 4, 2018 via email

@xeji
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xeji commented Oct 4, 2018

Will reusing .xsession script just work, can I just put exec .xsession in .xinitrc?

Yes. On my system I use home-manager to generate .xsession and do that.

Why displayManager.lightdm.enable = lib.mkForce false;?

lightdm is enabled by default here. I don't like the logic above that line as it's non-modular and don't want to add another display manager to it. That's why I chose mkForce. The default mechanism needs refactoring, but let's leave that for another PR.

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oxij commented Oct 5, 2018 via email

@xeji xeji merged commit af6e246 into NixOS:master Oct 10, 2018
@xeji xeji deleted the p/dm-startx branch October 10, 2018 21:07
@ivan ivan mentioned this pull request Jan 1, 2019
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@shazow
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shazow commented Jan 1, 2019

If I'm not mistaken, one issue with this solution that xserver.dpi gets ignored?

@xeji
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xeji commented Jan 1, 2019

If I'm not mistaken, one issue with this solution that xserver.dpi gets ignored?

Yes. You can pass X server options manually to startx: startx -- -dpi 100. The global options are intentonally ignored to give each user control over how they want to run the X server. That's why I call it a dummy display manager.

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shazow commented Jan 1, 2019

@xeji Got it, thanks.

@rnhmjoj rnhmjoj mentioned this pull request Aug 12, 2019
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6.topic: nixos 8.has: module (update) 10.rebuild-darwin: 0 10.rebuild-linux: 0
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