Gnome 49 and /etc/xdg/autostart/*.desktop issue

athan · 2025-10-20 00:52:34

According to Gnome 49 specs, gnome-session-service can no longer rely on /etc/xdg/autostart/*.desktop for automatic startup, but all of these must be replaced by systemd services.
However, Arch still seems to populate /etc/xdg/autostart/ with .desktop entries, resulting in the following errors appearing in the journal when Gnome 49 starts up.

gnome-session-service[2936]: App gnome-keyring-secrets.desktop sets X-GNOME-Autostart-Phase, but gnome-session no longer manages session services
gnome-session-service[2936]: App at-spi-dbus-bus.desktop sets X-GNOME-Autostart-Phase, but gnome-session no longer manages session services
gnome-session-service[2936]: App xdg-user-dirs.desktop sets X-GNOME-Autostart-Phase, but gnome-session no longer manages session services
gnome-session-service[2936]: App gnome-keyring-pkcs11.desktop sets X-GNOME-Autostart-Phase, but gnome-session no longer manages session services

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to check whether these auto-starting services in Arch - Gnome are now handled via systemd-xdg-autostart-generator, in which case they simply need to be deleted from /etc/xdg/autostart/ to eliminate the errors.

Any experience with this issue? I wonder if it's known to Arch Gnome maintainers...

seth · 2025-10-20 07:09:24

Arch doesn't populate anything, the only thing eg. https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … type=heads does is to add Cinnamon to the list of supported desktops.
pacman -Qo /etc/xdg/autostart/xdg-user-dirs.desktop
doesn't seem to be in the repos?

The files probably should™ not be removed at all (because non-gnome DEs exist, no matter the denial of gnome developers…) but the X-GNOME-Autostart-Phase probably should™.
Incidentally those files are also all curated and provided by gnome… https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-ke … type=heads

Last edited by seth (2025-10-20 08:21:31)

athan · 2025-10-20 07:37:50

My mistake, when I said "Arch still seems to populate /etc/xdg/autostart/", I meant the Arch Gnome desktop, of course.
In any case, it now seems that this requires the use of systemd services for every autostart entry, including xdg-user-dirs.desktop.

Yeah, yeah, I know, Gnome devs are arrogant and so on, that's my opinion too, but in any case, it's still an essential and popular DE in Arch, so I guess its devs and maintainers should take care of such oversights.

Last edited by athan (2025-10-20 07:43:09)

lawmurray · 2025-10-20 08:07:27

See this thread on GNOME's Discourse where I asked about this.

To summarise that, Autostart is still supported, but not autostart in earlier phases using X-GNOME-Autostart-Phase, because it was a gnome-session-specific thing and they've now replaced that with systemd for session management from GNOME 49. The behavior is that .desktop files with a X-GNOME-Autostart-Phase entry produce errors as you see, and are not executed. It may be possible to remove X-GNOME-Autostart-Phase for particular .desktop files, but it will depend on whether the autostart truly needed to happen earlier in the session start (in which case it needs to be replaced with a systemd service), or it was just preferred, in which case you may get away with it. Under the old setup, removing is the same as setting X-GNOME-Autostart-Phase=Application if I remember correctly.

Last edited by lawmurray (2025-10-20 08:12:11)

seth · 2025-10-20 08:19:58

No problem.

I don't think this here is critical at all (check whether gkr starts but it likely will) but someone will have to file a bug against the affected desktop services (gnome-keyring-* and at-spi-dbus-bus.desktop are gnome things, https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x8 … user-dirs/ is from https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xdg/xdg-user-dirs )
You found this, so you get to bark at it - just pick the right tree

Fwwi, the problem w/ the gnome developers is not that they're arrogant.
I know a whole slew of people who're ridiculously arrogant - and that I've a shit-ton of respect for.

Edit: from that discourse is seems removing the key is a bad idea because then you'll get the systemd service and gnome will try to autostart the entry still.
File a bug and tell them to figure how they want to resolve this - the keyring and at-spi entries are gnome territory anyway and they can then file a patch on that pattern for xdg-user-dirs
nb. that removing the file will likely break other DEs so maybe just remove the gnome visibility?

Last edited by seth (2025-10-20 08:31:04)

athan · 2025-10-20 09:41:00

lawmurray wrote:

See this thread on GNOME's Discourse where I asked about this.

Thank you for pointing out that discussion.
I would say it was somewhat enlightening, although Adrian Vovk avoided giving a clear answer as to what will or should be done with the X-GNOME-Autostart-Phase entries.
The problem with Gnome developers is that out of the blue they adopt new practices without first having ascertained what new problems they create.

seth wrote:

Fwwi, the problem w/ the gnome developers is not that they're arrogant.
I know a whole slew of people who're ridiculously arrogant - and that I've a shit-ton of respect for.

Yeah, I totally get what you mean...

Last edited by athan (2025-10-20 09:43:42)

Arch Linux

#1 2025-10-20 00:52:34

Gnome 49 and /etc/xdg/autostart/*.desktop issue

#2 2025-10-20 07:09:24

Re: Gnome 49 and /etc/xdg/autostart/*.desktop issue

#3 2025-10-20 07:37:50

Re: Gnome 49 and /etc/xdg/autostart/*.desktop issue

#4 2025-10-20 08:07:27

Re: Gnome 49 and /etc/xdg/autostart/*.desktop issue

#5 2025-10-20 08:19:58

Re: Gnome 49 and /etc/xdg/autostart/*.desktop issue

#6 2025-10-20 09:41:00

Re: Gnome 49 and /etc/xdg/autostart/*.desktop issue

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