Re: SLiM graphical login manager and keyboard layout

[Diego Nicola Barbato]

Hello Tanguy,

Tanguy Le Carrour <address@hidden> writes:

[...]

> I'm struggling to set the keyboard layout as, apparently,
> slim-service-type is not supposed to be extended as gdm-service-type is.

You can set the keyboard layout directly in the slim-configuration like
this:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(service slim-service-type
         (slim-configuration
          (xorg-configuration
           (keyboard-layout keyboard-layout))))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

> I guess it's only a matter of copying (and adapting) the `(extend …)` and
> `(compose …)` blocks from `gdm-service-type` to `slim-service-type`. But it's
> just a guess. I've tried to define `my-slim-service-type` in my system config,
> but failed!

It's a good guess: I tried this a while back and it works, if there is
only one instance of slim-service-type:

>From be8f7e45384bb0676ea88f4cb488dd23114436f5 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Diego Nicola Barbato <address@hidden>
Date: Fri, 27 Sep 2019 11:24:38 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] services: slim: Allow using 'set-xorg-configuration' with
 SLiM.

Fixes <https://bugs.gnu.org/37422>.

* gnu/services/xorg.scm (slim-service-type)[compose, extend]: New fields.
---
 gnu/services/xorg.scm | 15 +++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 15 insertions(+)

diff --git a/gnu/services/xorg.scm b/gnu/services/xorg.scm
index 1d55e388a1..1b78550825 100644
--- a/gnu/services/xorg.scm
+++ b/gnu/services/xorg.scm
@@ -589,6 +589,21 @@ reboot_cmd " shepherd "/sbin/reboot\n"
                        ;; avoid bad surprises.
                        (service-extension profile-service-type
                                           (const (list xterm)))))
+
+                ;; For convenience, this service can be extended with an
+                ;; <xorg-configuration> record.  Take the first one that
+                ;; comes.
+                (compose (lambda (extensions)
+                           (match extensions
+                             (() #f)
+                             ((config . _) config))))
+                (extend (lambda (config xorg-configuration)
+                          (if xorg-configuration
+                              (slim-configuration
+                               (inherit config)
+                               (xorg-configuration xorg-configuration))
+                              config)))
+
                 (default-value (slim-configuration))))
 
 (define-deprecated (slim-service #:key (slim slim)
-- 
2.23.0

If there are multiple SLiM services, it doesn't work, because "[t]here
can be only one instance of an extensible service type" (according to
'Service Types and Services' in the manual).

Because of that I believe making slim-service-type extensible would be
more confusing than useful, which is why I didn't pursue this further.
Maybe it should be mentioned in the manual that 'set-xorg-configuration'
doesn't work with SLiM?

Regards,

Diego