[gentoo-dev] [RFC] News Item v2: Desktop profile switching USE default to elogind

[Andreas Sturmlechner <asturm@gentoo.org>]

Title: Desktop profile switching USE default to elogind
Author: Andreas Sturmlechner <asturm@gentoo.org>
Posted: 2019-10-31
Revision: 1
News-Item-Format: 2.0
Display-If-Installed: sys-auth/consolekit
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/alpha/17.0/desktop
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/amd64/17.0/desktop
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/amd64/17.0/desktop/plasma
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/amd64/17.1/desktop
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/amd64/17.1/desktop/plasma
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/arm/17.0/armv4/desktop
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/arm/17.0/armv4/desktop/plasma
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/arm/17.0/armv4t/desktop
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/arm/17.0/armv4t/desktop/plasma
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/arm/17.0/armv5te/desktop
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/arm/17.0/armv5te/desktop/plasma
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/arm/17.0/armv6j/desktop
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/arm/17.0/armv6j/desktop/plasma
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/arm/17.0/armv7a/desktop
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/arm/17.0/armv7a/desktop/plasma
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/arm/17.0/desktop
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/arm/17.0/desktop/plasma
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/arm64/17.0/desktop
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/arm64/17.0/desktop/plasma
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/hppa/17.0/desktop
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/ia64/17.0/desktop
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/m68k/17.0/desktop
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/powerpc/ppc32/17.0/desktop
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/powerpc/ppc64/17.0/32bit-userland/desktop
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/powerpc/ppc64/17.0/64bit-userland/desktop
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/sh/17.0/desktop
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/sparc/17.0/64ul/desktop
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/sparc/17.0/desktop
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/x86/17.0/desktop
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/x86/17.0/desktop/plasma

Modern desktop environments make use of PAM session tracking for users, login 
sessions and seats. [1] The most user-visible part of that is device and file 
permissions management and reboot/shutdown handling without superuser rights.

Users with systemd can stop reading here and continue with their daily routine.

ConsoleKit2 is unmaintained upstream for almost two years [2]. There are many 
longstanding bugs and papercuts with consumers that aren't being fixed, not 
least because these code paths receive very little testing.

Enter the elogind project [3], which is a standalone logind implementation 
based on systemd code, currently maintained by a fellow Gentoo user. We have 
had sys-auth/elogind available in Gentoo since the beginning of 2017, and 
meanwhile it has gained support [4] in KDE Plasma, Gnome [5], Cinnamon, MATE 
and Xfce, as well as most other former consolekit consumers.

Consequently, the desktop profile is switching away from consolekit to elogind. 
Users of sys-auth/consolekit who selected a different profile should consider 
doing the same. A guide is available [6]. Migration is easy, but if run from 
within a consolekit session that session may become broken.

Rely either on the profile, or set USE="elogind -consolekit" in make.conf 
yourself. Make sure there is no consolekit debris in /etc/portage/package.use:

# grep -R consolekit /etc/portage/package.use

Rebuild all affected consumers and remove sys-auth/consolekit:

# emerge --ask --changed-use --deep @world
# emerge --depclean consolekit

Optional, but recommended in case of trouble such as missing reboot/shutdown 
capabilities in the DM:

# rc-update add elogind boot

For users of startx instead of one of the supported DMs, do not forget to 
update ~/.xinitrc accordingly (ck-launch-session is gone without replacement).

PS: Subsequently, this will lead to the last-riting of sys-power/pm-utils [7]
which is dead even longer than the original ConsoleKit(1) project. KDE Plasma 
users sticking with sys-auth/consolekit are then going to lose suspend from 
GUI without superuser rights.

[1] https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/ConsoleKit
[2] https://github.com/ConsoleKit2/ConsoleKit2
[3] https://github.com/elogind/elogind/blob/master/README.md
[4] https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=elogind-support
[5] https://blogs.gentoo.org/leio/2019/03/26/gnome-3-30/
[6] https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Elogind
[7] https://bugs.gentoo.org/659616