Package: i3
Version: 4.19.1-1
Severity: wishlist
X-Debbugs-Cc: smheidr...@weltenfunktion.de
systemd defines a special (user) target called graphical-session.target [1]
which should be active when the user is logged into a graphical session.
Currently, when I'm logged into a default i3 session (entered via GDM), this
target is inactive:
$ systemctl --user status graphical-session.target
● graphical-session.target - Current graphical user session
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/graphical-session.target; static)
Active: inactive (dead)
Docs: man:systemd.special(7)
If I understood the clarifications in a thread [2] on systemd's mailing list
and the linked slides [3] correctly, this target should be activated by
specifying the session in question as a systemd service with BindsTo=graphical-
session.target and launching this service from the relevant
/usr/share/xsessions/*.desktop instead of launching the session directly.
In i3's case, the /usr/share/xsessions/i3.desktop session definition is
provided by the i3-wm package and just launches i3 directly. This makes perfect
sense, as systemd isn't mandatory on Debian and the aforementioned session-as-
service mechanism wouldn't work at all for people using SysVinit. But perhaps
there could be two session definitions, one with and one without an associated
systemd service?
An objection I expect is that users should just write their own session files
if they need this "feature", but the same would apply to the default
/usr/share/xsessions/i3.desktop file, which is only included for compatibility
with common display/login managers. Ditto for the argument that this is out of
scope for a window manager and gets into desktop environment territory.
Besides, it's not merely a missing feature but a bug (not necessarily in the i3
package but somewhere in the Debian distribution): Promises that are made in
systemd's documentation [1] are not kept when using distribution-provided
graphical session definitions.
Unfortunately, the only precedent for this type of session file in other window
manager or desktop environment packages I could find is in the gnome-session-
common package (apt-file search session.target), so perhaps it would in fact be
better to provide this via a separate package? There are a bunch of packages
for the Openbox window manager that do nothing but provide sessions for running
it along with the non-WM processes of common desktop environments (openbox-
gnome-session, openbox-lxde-session, openbox-kde-session, ...), so a package
providing only a session file for running i3 in a systemd-compatible manner
doesn't sound totally unreasonable to me. This could then be suggested by the
i3 package.
Let me know your thoughts.
Kind regards
[1]:
https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.special.html#graphical-
session.target
[2]: https://systemd-devel.freedesktop.narkive.com/J9pItAjq/graphical-session-
targets-as-standard#post10
[3]: https://people.debian.org/~mpitt/systemd.conf-2016-graphical-session.pdf
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 11.2
APT prefers stable-updates
APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'oldstable-updates'), (500,
'oldoldstable'), (500, 'stable'), (500, 'oldstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386
Kernel: Linux 5.10.0-10-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU threads)
Kernel taint flags: TAINT_OOT_MODULE, TAINT_UNSIGNED_MODULE
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=C.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled
Versions of packages i3 depends on:
ii i3-wm 4.19.1-1
Versions of packages i3 recommends:
ii dunst 1.5.0-1
ii i3lock 2.13-1+b1
ii i3status 2.13-3
ii suckless-tools 46-1
i3 suggests no packages.
