bug: "The name ca.desrt.dconf was not provided by any .service files"

[the-argus]

Are you following the right branch?

• [X] My Nixpkgs and Home Manager versions are in sync

Is there an existing issue for this?

• [X] I have searched the existing issues

Issue description

When using gtk.enable = true I now get the following at the end of my home manager activation:

Activating dconfSettings
error: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name ca.desrt.dconf was not provided by any .service files

This did not happen in the past, as of a few weeks ago. I believe the point at which it changed was when I installed and uninstalled the gnome desktop environment. I suspect some state remains from that.

You can find my system configuration at github.com/the-argus/nixsys More specifically in user/argus/gtk. To see my gnome settings, check modules/desktops/gnome.nix.

This is not related to issue #1444 as I have tried removing ~/.config/dconf/user to no avail.

Maintainer CC

@rycee (maintainer) @polykernel (comitter who most recently touched the gtk.nix file in this repo)

System information

- system: `"x86_64-linux"`
 - host os: `Linux 5.18.13, NixOS, 22.05 (Quokka), 22.05.20220722.e3583ad`
 - multi-user?: `yes`
 - sandbox: `yes`
 - version: `nix-env (Nix) 2.8.1`
 - channels(root): `"nixos"`
 - nixpkgs: `/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos`

[the-argus]

Okay update, I was able to fix the issue by adding home.packages = [ pkgs.dconf ] when using gtk.enable. That line should be added to the gtk module.

[polykernel]

Hello, I believe this should be handled at the NixOS level with the option programs.dconf.enable.

See https://nix-community.github.io/home-manager/index.html#_why_do_i_get_an_error_message_about_literal_ca_desrt_dconf_literal_or_literal_dconf_service_literal.

[the-argus]

Why not cut the problem at the root, at least in this case, and enable dconf in the HM gtk module?

[berbiche]

Why not cut the problem at the root, at least in this case, and enable dconf in the HM gtk module?

Home Manager modules cannot set NixOS options as they do not have access to the configuration even when Home Manager is used as a NixOS module.

Home Manager also tries to not to set anything at the system-level to retain a separation from NixOS. This makes it possible to use the Home Manager module with nix-darwin and possibly future platforms.

[Animeshz]

For non-NixOS, Installing dconf on host fixed this, while adding pkgs.dconf to home.packages didn't.