Tech Over Tea Bringing GNOME Back To Non-Systemd Distros | Swagtoy
Dec 26, 2025
Swagtoy, a software developer specializing in Gentoo and OpenRC projects, discusses the fallout from GNOME's decision to drop support for non-systemd systems. He dives into why Artix considered removing GNOME, misconceptions about its systemd dependency, and the practical challenges users face without integration. Swagtoy explains how he ported GNOME session to OpenRC, the significance of user services, and compares GNOME's approach to that of other desktop environments. He also shares insights about the philosophical choices of Gen2 and collaborations within the open-source community.
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Dynamic User DB Is Key For GDM Behavior
- GDM uses a single greeter user and relies on dynamic user-db features (login1 user db) to avoid multi-seat conflicts.
- elogind has upstream work but missing NSS plugin prevents user-db use for some distros yet.
Use Scoped Env For User Services
- Use OpenRC's LiveRC library to start and scope user services per-session instead of global env hacks.
- Set per-service environment scopes to avoid leaking variables across GNOME services.
GnomeShell User Service Example
- Swagtoy implemented OpenRC user services like GnomeShell-Wayland which literally call gnome-shell directly.
- That approach also enables potential GNOME shell restart without full logout on Wayland.