I stopped using %desktop-services years ago. I have been using just %base-services and appending the rest I needed (without GDM for Xfce): <https://codeberg.org/SameExpert/guix-modules/src/commit/8a84f410dcb5443f14d20e885da0e30e7f873bf4/same-expert/system/guix.scm#L378>
I feel like %desktop-services is bloated and limited, needing more flexibility. I would prefer making it a procedure taking an argument, something like I have in my module: <https://codeberg.org/SameExpert/guix-modules/src/commit/8a84f410dcb5443f14d20e885da0e30e7f873bf4/same-expert/system/guix.scm#L460> On June 8, 2026 9:16:01 p.m. IST, Andreas Enge <[email protected]> wrote: >Hello Danny, > >it has been ages, but after almost one year I have come back to trying >a configuration with XFCE, but without GDM. (Actually building mutter >and so on ever so often is not a huge pain point, mainly annoying.) >Without success... > >Actually XFCE provides the binary startxfce4, which I suppose >advantageously replaces startx to do what its name indicates. > >Am Sat, Jun 14, 2025 at 11:11:35PM +0200 schrieb Danny Milosavljevic: >> (modify-services (remove (lambda (service) >> (or >> (eq? (service-kind service) sddm-service-type) >> (eq? (service-kind service) >> gdm-service-type))) >> %desktop-services) > >Thanks for the detailed explanation! I tried this and also a simple >(modify-services (delete gdm-service-type %desktop-services)) >and then stumbled upon: > >Am Sat, Jun 14, 2025 at 04:34:02PM +0200 schrieb Liliana Marie Prikler: >> However, the basic >> configuration also has the set-xorg-configuration "service", which will >> often inadvertently pull in GDM (see [1]). > >(thanks, Liliana!). After also removing set-xorg-configuration, >apparently GDM was gone for good, but I entered a boot loop: >typed my password to unlock the disk, the Grub menu appeared, it started >with the default entry, then the machine would reboot. > >Could this be linked to the new mechanism where one types the disk >encryption password only once? Or is it an unrelated problem? >Luckily the Grub menu did appear, so I could boot into an older >generation. > >Andreas > > Sughosha
