Cannot log in to GNOME on foreign distro with Guix

Evan Straw wrote on 22 Dec 2020 06:38

Recipients:(address . bug-guix@gnu.org)

Message-ID:87v9cu4cyg.fsf@gmail.com

Hello,

I'm running Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS with Guix installed on top as a package

manager.

Toggle snippet (13 lines)

evan@navi:~$ guix describe

Generation 30 Dec 21 2020 13:21:53 (current)

guix f00e68a

repository URL: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git

branch: master

commit: f00e68ace070fd5240a4b5874e61c26f6e909b6c

personal bd255b1

repository URL: https://git.sr.ht/~estraw/guix-channel

branch: master

commit: bd255b10b22e612971bd8daf9c2ab3d3014a0b7c

One day, I went to log in after rebooting my PC (I had performed a `guix

pull` the same day) and upon entering my password, I was just brought

immediately back to the login screen. Checking the system journal, I

found that gnome-session is outputting several errors like

Toggle snippet (34 lines)Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session[24407]: gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.A11ySettings'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session[24407]: gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Color'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.A11ySettings'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Color'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session[24407]: gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Datetime'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Datetime'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session[24407]: gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Housekeeping'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Housekeeping'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session[24407]: gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Keyboard'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Keyboard'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session[24407]: gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.MediaKeys'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.MediaKeys'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session[24407]: gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Power'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Power'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session[24407]: gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.PrintNotifications'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session[24407]: gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Rfkill'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session[24407]: gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.ScreensaverProxy'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.PrintNotifications'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Rfkill'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.ScreensaverProxy'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Sharing'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session[24407]: gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Sharing'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session[24407]: gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Smartcard'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Smartcard'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session[24407]: gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Sound'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Sound'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session[24407]: gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Wacom'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Wacom'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session[24407]: gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.XSettings'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session[24407]: gnome-session-binary[24407]: CRITICAL: We failed, but the fail whale is dead. Sorry....
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session-binary[24407]: WARNING: Unable to find required component 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.XSettings'
Dec 17 22:27:14 navi gnome-session-binary[24407]: CRITICAL: We failed, but the fail whale is dead. Sorry....

When I disable the shell script in /etc/profile.d/ that exports
necessary environment variables for Guix, the problem disappears, and I
am able to log in again, which makes me suspect that maybe some of the
environment variables that Guix sets are confusing GNOME somehow. I'm
not sure if it is caused by one of the packages I have installed from
Guix, but I know that when I limit my profile to only Emacs and the
Emacs packages I have installed from Guix, I am able to log in
again. When I add a package (like stumpwm) that needs to set
XDG_DATA_DIRS, the problem seems to reappear. I also was able to
reproduce the problem on another machine I have that runs the same
operating system and also has Guix.

Is this a bug, or is it possible I've just misconfigured something?
Please let me know if I'm missing any needed information and I'll do my
best to provide it.

-- Evan Straw <evan.straw99@gmail.com>

Carlo Zancanaro wrote on 22 Dec 2020 12:42

Recipients:(name . Evan Straw)(address . evan.straw99@gmail.com)(address . 45360@debbugs.gnu.org)

Message-ID:87tuseoyn2.fsf@zancanaro.id.au

Hi Evan!

On Tue, Dec 22 2020, Evan Straw wrote:

Toggle quote (3 lines)

> ... When I add a package (like stumpwm) that needs to set

> XDG_DATA_DIRS, the problem seems to reappear. ...

I think I've had this problem in the past. I'm currently running

on a foreign distribution, and I have this in my ~/.profile file:

# XDG_DATA_DIRS often starts off empty, but an empty value is

# interpreted as this value. Loading a profile can set it,

though,

# which effectively ignores the default value. We want it to

# instead add to the default, so we set it here to the default

# value.

if [ -z "$XDG_DATA_DIRS" ]; then

export XDG_DATA_DIRS="/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/"

I think I took the default value from

https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/latest/ar01s03.html

where it says:

If $XDG_DATA_DIRS is either not set or empty, a value equal to

/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/ should be used.

I hope that helps!

Toggle quote (3 lines)

> Is this a bug, or is it possible I've just misconfigured

> something?

We should consider this a bug, because Guix's attempt to add to

the XDG_DATA_DIRS environment variable clobbers the default value

that foreign distributions are relying on.

We should at least document this in the manual, maybe in "(guix)

Application Setup".

Carlo

Ricardo Wurmus wrote on 22 Dec 2020 13:34

Recipients:(name . Carlo Zancanaro)(address . carlo@zancanaro.id.au)

Message-ID:87blemnho1.fsf@elephly.net

Carlo Zancanaro <carlo@zancanaro.id.au> writes:

Toggle quote (6 lines)

>> Is this a bug, or is it possible I've just misconfigured something?

> We should consider this a bug, because Guix's attempt to add to the

> XDG_DATA_DIRS environment variable clobbers the default value that

> foreign distributions are relying on.

Is this something we can avoid by patching … something to use a

Guix-specific variable? This variable can cause a lot of trouble when

using Guix on foreign distros, but I don’t know how we can prevent

system software from loading stuff from XDG_DATA_DIRS for Guix and vice

versa without renaming the variables.

A related question: should Guix software ignore XDG_DATA_DIRS when set

by the system? Or is it enough to make it respect an *additional*

variable like GUIX_XDG_DATA_DIRS, which we would have Guix set?

Toggle quote (3 lines)

> We should at least document this in the manual, maybe in "(guix)

> Application Setup".

If it’s an easy workaround: yes. But if it’s a bug we can actually fix

I’d rather see it fixed :)

Ricardo

Nicolas Goaziou wrote on 22 Dec 2020 14:40

Recipients:(name . Ricardo Wurmus)(address . rekado@elephly.net)

Message-ID:87v9cuez7y.fsf@nicolasgoaziou.fr

Hello,

Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net> writes:

Toggle quote (22 lines)> Carlo Zancanaro <carlo@zancanaro.id.au> writes:

>> We should consider this a bug, because Guix's attempt to add to the
>> XDG_DATA_DIRS environment variable clobbers the default value that
>> foreign distributions are relying on.
>
> Is this something we can avoid by patching … something to use a
> Guix-specific variable?  This variable can cause a lot of trouble when
> using Guix on foreign distros, but I don’t know how we can prevent
> system software from loading stuff from XDG_DATA_DIRS for Guix and vice
> versa without renaming the variables.
>
> A related question: should Guix software ignore XDG_DATA_DIRS when set
> by the system?  Or is it enough to make it respect an *additional*
> variable like GUIX_XDG_DATA_DIRS, which we would have Guix set?
>
>> We should at least document this in the manual, maybe in "(guix)
>> Application Setup".
>
> If it’s an easy workaround: yes.  But if it’s a bug we can actually fix
> I’d rather see it fixed :)

I don't think this would be a sufficient workaround anyway. It seems
related to bug 35308 (http://issues.guix.info/35308) where
GI_TYPELIB_PATH is also involved.

Regards,
-- 
Nicolas Goaziou

Evan Straw wrote on 30 Dec 2020 03:29

Recipients:(address . 45360@debbugs.gnu.org)

Message-ID:87ft3okove.fsf@gmail.com

Hello,

I have more information on this bug. Apologies for the delay. I've been

able to narrow the problem down to a single package - when I install

sbcl, I am unable to log in, and when I uninstall sbcl, the problem

disappears, and I am able to log in normally. Even using a profile with

only the sbcl package, the problem occurs. I checked out the package

definition for sbcl and it seems to set both XDG_CONFIG_DIRS and

XDG_DATA_DIRS, so maybe that's where the problem is? I'm not really sure

what causes this, however; that's just a guess.

Hope this helps narrow it down more. If I can provide any more

information please let me know.

-- Evan

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