Re: /etc/config.scm issues after modifying

[Ian Eure]

Hi Patrick,

Patrick Pippen <plpippen4@gmail.com> writes:

> https://paste.debian.net/1327458
>
> Getting this error: /etc/config.scm:23:0 :  error: 
> %desktop-services:  invalid field specifier 
>
> I made these modifications trying to 1) not use substitutes and 
> compile from source and add bspwm so that I can login into it 
> via the default login manager.
>
> Is this not really correct way to do this or am I going about it 
> the wrong way?

You have three errors in your configuration, all related.  The 
first is that your parens are unbalanced, which causes 
%desktop-services to end up at the wrong level of nesting.  This 
is what causes the error you get, because you’re initializing the 
fields of operating-system, and %desktop-services is not a valid 
specification of a field name and value.

The second is that %my-services is a list of services, but you 
wrap it in a second list on line 45.  The third is that you have 
%desktop-services in your service list on line 53, but are also 
including a modified version of %desktop-services.  This would 
cause an error about duplicate services.

You want to fix the parens and remove the (service %my-services) 
from line 45, and replace %desktop-services with %my-services on 
line 53.  Your services should look like this:

   (services
    (append
     (list
      (service xfce-desktop-service-type)
      (service cups-service-type)
      (set-xorg-configuration
       (xorg-configuration (keyboard-layout keyboard-layout))))
     ;; This is the list of services we are appending to.
     %my-services))

You may have other paren-balancing issues in there.  If you’re 
using an editor with decent Lisp support, the simplest way to fix 
this is to reindent the whole file (in Emacs: C-x h C-M=\) and 
eyeball it.  Any issues will be reasonably evident in the 
indentation of each field.

Best,

 — Ian