Subject: Re: bug#48796: Guix on Debian 11 - Cant run or find applications from Guix in Desktop Menus

From: Giovanni Biscuolo <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 04 May 2022 10:31:53 +0200

Hi Liliana Marie,

Giovanni Biscuolo <[email-masked]> writes:

[...]

> There is obviously a non zero chance it depends on my poor
> understanding, please forgive me in this case.

my "workaround" is an instance of this case, sorry (see below)

[...]

> Yes: there is something in the default systemd/xsession configuration
> of Debian 11 that resets XDG_DATA_DIR.

I'm still pretty sure this is what's happening, but i still don't know
why

> Please is there some user with a default Debian 11 xsession

[...]

>>> The main point of this workaround is that I configure XDG_DATA_HOME,
>>> described in the specifications:
>> And that is evil.
>
> Please can you expand what do you mean with "evil"?

I'll answer myself: because XDG_DATA_HOME (and $XDG_CONFIG_HOME
obviously) must be writeable by user (processes) to store data (and
config); Guix profiles are (and obviously must be) write-only (they are
stateless, while data and config are (obviously) /status/.

My workaround simply messes up /every/ application that follows the XDG
standard (not all, but many) to save data and config,
e.g. TelegramDesktop

The one and ONLY solution to this problem is to get XDG_DATA_DIR
properly configured; Guix does this if $HOME/.guix-profile/etc/profile
is sourced in the user profile, but as I told "something" resets
XDG_DATA_DIR (AFAIU by default on Debian 11) in the "desktop manager"
profile to a "hardcoded" value.

I reverted the "workaround" and now my XDG_DATA_HOME points to the
default value $HOME/.local/share: applications are happy again but again
I cannot see Guix installed applications in the LXDE menu

[...]

>> Other than that, restarting your shell (if running on X) might be a
>> more lightweight way of refreshing the menu.
>
> Restarting the shell means restarting the desktop environment?
>
> I know how to do it with i3 (reload config) but I don't know hot to do
> it with LXDE (or mate, Gnome3, ecc.)

I tried "bash -l -c 'lxpanelctl restart'" but applications still don't
appear

[...]

I'm still lost in environment :-(

Thanks! Gio'

-- 
Giovanni Biscuolo

Xelera IT Infrastructures