Beyond Linux® From Scratch (systemd Edition) - Version r13.0-1327

Chapter 33. GNOME Libraries and Desktop

gnome-session-50.1

Introduction to GNOME Session

The GNOME Session package contains the GNOME session manager.

[Note]

Note

This package is known to build and work properly using an LFS 13.1 platform.

Package Information

GNOME Session Dependencies

Required

gnome-desktop-44.5, json-glib-1.10.8, Mesa-26.1.7, Systemd-261.2 (runtime), and UPower-1.91.3

Optional

xmlto-0.0.29, and libxslt-1.1.45 with docbook-xml-4.5 and docbook-xsl-nons-1.79.2 (to build the documentation)

Installation of GNOME Session

Install GNOME Session by running the following commands: 

mkdir build &&
cd    build &&

meson setup --prefix=/usr              \
            --buildtype=release        \
            -D man=false               \
            -D docbook=false           \
            ..                         &&
ninja

This package does not come with a test suite.

Now, as the root user: 

ninja install

If you generated the documentation, move it to a versioned directory: 

mv -v /usr/share/doc/gnome-session{,-50.1}

Command Explanations

--buildtype=release: Specify a buildtype suitable for stable releases of the package, as the default may produce unoptimized binaries.

-D man=false -D docbook=false: These parameters disable building documentation. Omit them if you have built the optional dependencies.

-D x11=true: This option enables support for X11 sessions. X11 support is deprecated and will be removed in GNOME 50.

Starting GNOME

The easiest way to start GNOME is to use a display manager. GDM-50.2 is the recommended display manager.

It is also possible to start GNOME from the command line. However, you must still have GDM-50.2 installed for the desktop to work. In previous releases of GNOME, gnome-shell would start without it installed, but this changed in 48.0. GDM does not need to be enabled to start gnome-shell from the command line.

To start GNOME without a display manager you need to determine your session ID, using loginctl. Once it is done, issue (we suppose the session ID is 1): 

systemctl --user set-environment XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland XDG_SESSION_ID=1 &&
systemctl --user start gnome-session@gnome.target

Contents

Installed Programs: gnome-session, gnome-session-inhibit, and gnome-session-quit
Installed Libraries: None
Installed Directories: /usr/share/doc/gnome-session-50.1 and /usr/share/gnome-session

Short Descriptions

gnome-session

is used to start up the GNOME Desktop environment

gnome-session-inhibit

is used to inhibit certain GNOME Session functionality while executing the given command

gnome-session-quit

is used to end the GNOME Session