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#1 2026-06-11 05:08:48

ldierk
Member
Registered: 2025-11-29
Posts: 2

[SOLVED] xdg-desktop-portal.service not working after update

[ALPM] upgraded xdg-desktop-portal (1.20.4-1 -> 1.22.0-1)

After doing this upgrade I noticed that dark mode in my cinnamon Desktop stopped working. Looking at the logs revealed that my xdg-desktop-portal.service is failing with the following message:

Jun 10 22:44:54 archlinux systemd[1185]: Dependency failed for Portal service.
Jun 10 22:44:54 archlinux systemd[1185]: xdg-desktop-portal.service: Job xdg-desktop-portal.service/start failed with result 'dependency'.


$ systemctl --user start xdg-desktop-portal.service
A dependency job for xdg-desktop-portal.service failed. See 'journalctl -xe' for details.

$journalctl -xe
Jun 11 07:02:50 archlinux systemd[1185]: Current graphical user session is inactive.
Jun 11 07:02:50 archlinux systemd[1185]: Dependency failed for Portal service.


Starting $ /usr/lib/xdg-desktop-portal from the shell brings back dark mode as a workaround.

[edit]
For now the workaround mentioned in the github issue linked by wekauwau works for me:

$ systemctl --user edit xdg-desktop-portal.service --drop-in=override
$ cat /home/ldierk/.config/systemd/user/xdg-desktop-portal.service.d/override.conf
[Unit]
Requisite=
Requires=graphical-session.target

[edit2]
The solution posted by tekstryder also works for me, so I mark this solved.

$ systemctl --user edit --full xdg-desktop-portal.service

$ systemctl --user cat xdg-desktop-portal.service
# /home/ldierk/.config/systemd/user/xdg-desktop-portal.service
[Unit]
Description=Portal service
PartOf=graphical-session.target
#Requisite=graphical-session.target   # removed = workaround
Requires=dbus.service
After=dbus.service graphical-session-pre.target

[Service]
Type=dbus
BusName=org.freedesktop.portal.Desktop
ExecStart=/usr/lib/xdg-desktop-portal
Slice=session.slice

Last edited by ldierk (2026-06-11 15:04:47)

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#2 2026-06-11 06:21:52

wekauwau
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Registered: 2026-06-11
Posts: 1

Re: [SOLVED] xdg-desktop-portal.service not working after update

Maybe it's related to this

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#3 2026-06-11 06:38:56

ldierk
Member
Registered: 2025-11-29
Posts: 2

Re: [SOLVED] xdg-desktop-portal.service not working after update

I have to admit that I don't fully understand the issue you linked, but my environment probably fits the description.

graphical-session.target and xdg-desktop-portal.service reside in /usr/lib/systemd/user/.
xdg-desktop-portal.service has a requisite of graphical-session.target.
There is no systemd service for cinnamon. I assume lightdm is starting it.

root      115907     754  0 Jun10 ?        00:00:00 lightdm --session-child 12 20
ldierk    116029  115907  0 Jun10 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/cinnamon-session/cinnamon-session-binary --session cinnamon

$ cat /usr/lib/systemd/user/xdg-desktop-portal.service
[Unit]
Description=Portal service
PartOf=graphical-session.target
Requisite=graphical-session.target
After=graphical-session.target

[Service]
Type=dbus
BusName=org.freedesktop.portal.Desktop
ExecStart=/usr/lib/xdg-desktop-portal
Slice=session.slice

$ cat /usr/lib/systemd/system/lightdm.service
[Unit]
Description=Light Display Manager
Documentation=man:lightdm(1)
Conflicts=getty@tty1.service
After=getty@tty1.service systemd-user-sessions.service plymouth-quit.service acpid.service

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/lightdm
Restart=always
IgnoreSIGPIPE=no
BusName=org.freedesktop.DisplayManager

[Install]
Alias=display-manager.service

Last edited by ldierk (2026-06-11 06:47:56)

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#4 2026-06-11 13:48:09

tekstryder
Member
Registered: 2013-02-14
Posts: 563

Re: [SOLVED] xdg-desktop-portal.service not working after update

I filed an Arch issue yesterday to see if the maintainer will consider patching out the Requisite=graphical-session.target:

• https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … rk_items/4

It hasn't been rejected outright at least.

And yes as @wekauwau found, the relevant upstream issue is:

• https://github.com/flatpak/xdg-desktop- … ssues/1983

Caused by this MR:

• https://github.com/flatpak/xdg-desktop-portal/pull/1830

For now you can just use a drop-in. I stole the Ubuntu patch method:

~ ❯ systemctl --user cat xdg-desktop-portal.service                                                 
# /home/tekstryder/.config/systemd/user/xdg-desktop-portal.service
[Unit]
Description=Portal service
PartOf=graphical-session.target
#Requisite=graphical-session.target   # removed = workaround
Requires=dbus.service
After=dbus.service graphical-session-pre.target

[Service]
Type=dbus
BusName=org.freedesktop.portal.Desktop
ExecStart=/usr/lib/xdg-desktop-portal
Slice=session.slice

Just remember to zap that file away if we get a distro-patched pkgrel bump.

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#5 2026-06-13 18:43:20

tekstryder
Member
Registered: 2013-02-14
Posts: 563

Re: [SOLVED] xdg-desktop-portal.service not working after update

For Sway users, the drop-in workaround is no longer required:

• https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … 37ebef70bb

This accomodates the x-d-p change by creating sway-session.target which binds to graphical-session.target.

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#6 2026-06-14 19:46:57

JustMCW
Member
Registered: 2026-06-14
Posts: 1

Re: [SOLVED] xdg-desktop-portal.service not working after update

I have also encountered this issue on hyprland after the update.

It has successfully fixed by starting my hyprland session with:

 dbus-run-session start-hyprland

instead of just start-hyprland. This ensures graphical-session.target to run, which was a dependency of xdg-desktop-portal.

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#7 2026-06-14 22:36:09

tekstryder
Member
Registered: 2013-02-14
Posts: 563

Re: [SOLVED] xdg-desktop-portal.service not working after update

JustMCW wrote:
 dbus-run-session start-hyprland

instead of just start-hyprland.

Yikes. Please, no.

That method should never be used for a variety of reasons (do your research), but foremost is that services launched by Hyprland won't inherit a sane systemd user session environment

To see just how broken a session you've created, let's compare the process trees:

$ start-hyprland

 
zsh───start-hyprland───Hyprland─┬─gammastep
                                ├─hypridle
                                └─ptyxis───ptyxis-agent───zsh───pstree

systemd─┬─(sd-pam)
        ├─at-spi-bus-laun───dbus-broker-lau───dbus-broker
        ├─at-spi2-registr
        ├─dbus-broker-lau───dbus-broker
        ├─dconf-service
        ├─gvfsd
        ├─gvfsd-fuse
        ├─pipewire
        ├─wireplumber
        ├─xdg-desktop-por
        ├─xdg-desktop-por
        ├─xdg-document-po───fusermount3
        └─xdg-permission-

$ dbus-run-session start-hyprland

 
at-spi-bus-laun───dbus-daemon

at-spi2-registr

dconf-service

gvfsd

gvfsd-fuse

zsh───dbus-run-sessio─┬─dbus-daemon
                      └─start-hyprland───Hyprland─┬─gammastep
                                                  ├─hypridle
                                                  └─ptyxis───ptyxis-agent───zsh───pstree

systemd─┬─(sd-pam)
        ├─dbus-broker-lau───dbus-broker
        ├─pipewire
        └─wireplumber

xdg-desktop-por

xdg-desktop-por

xdg-document-po───fusermount3

xdg-permission-

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#8 2026-06-18 13:51:25

tekstryder
Member
Registered: 2013-02-14
Posts: 563

Re: [SOLVED] xdg-desktop-portal.service not working after update

tekstryder wrote:

For Sway users, the drop-in workaround is no longer required:

• https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … 37ebef70bb

This accommodates the x-d-p change by creating sway-session.target which binds to graphical-session.target.

In a similar vein, hyprland users can apply this patch...

• https://github.com/hyprwm/Hyprland/comp … ion-target

...which works in the same way.

As Hyprland and Sway are my only environments, I've ditched my drop-in service and will just carry the hyprland patch going forward.

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#9 Today 13:55:56

the_isz
Member
Registered: 2009-04-14
Posts: 282

Re: [SOLVED] xdg-desktop-portal.service not working after update

tekstryder wrote:

For Sway users, the drop-in workaround is no longer required:

• https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … 37ebef70bb

This accomodates the x-d-p change by creating sway-session.target which binds to graphical-session.target.

Hi!

I'm using sway (version 1:1.12-3, logging in via sddm) and I still see the exact issue OP has reported, i.e. `journalctrl --user -u xdg-portal-portal.service` contains:

systemd[606]: Dependency failed for Portal service.
systemd[606]: xdg-desktop-portal.service: Job xdg-desktop-portal.service/start failed with result 'dependency'.

Could I be doing something wrong or does the workaround not (fully) work?

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#10 Today 15:33:42

tekstryder
Member
Registered: 2013-02-14
Posts: 563

Re: [SOLVED] xdg-desktop-portal.service not working after update

the_isz wrote:

logging in via sddm

And when you don't?

What is the portal service behavior when you start your Sway session directly from a TTY?

$ sway

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#11 Today 16:35:04

the_isz
Member
Registered: 2009-04-14
Posts: 282

Re: [SOLVED] xdg-desktop-portal.service not working after update

tekstryder wrote:
the_isz wrote:

logging in via sddm

And when you don't?

What is the portal service behavior when you start your Sway session directly from a TTY?

$ sway

Thanks for your quick response!

When I start sway directly from a TTY, the behavior is exactly the same.

Do you want me to try anything else?

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#12 Today 16:53:59

tekstryder
Member
Registered: 2013-02-14
Posts: 563

Re: [SOLVED] xdg-desktop-portal.service not working after update

Logging in with SDDM disabled provide the outputs of:

$ pacman -Qiikk sway
$ pacman -Qs portal
$ systemctl --user status xdg-desktop-portal.service xdg-desktop-portal-gtk.service

EDIT:

-and-

sort <(journalctl -b --user --no-hostname -t xdg-desktop-portal-gtk --no-pager "$@") <(journalctl -b --user --no-hostname -t xdg-document-portal --no-pager "$@") <(journalctl -b --user --no-hostname -t /usr/lib/xdg-desktop-portal --no-pager "$@") <(journalctl -b --user --no-hostname -t systemd --no-pager "$@" | grep -i portal)

Last edited by tekstryder (Today 17:03:38)

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#13 Today 17:29:28

tekstryder
Member
Registered: 2013-02-14
Posts: 563

Re: [SOLVED] xdg-desktop-portal.service not working after update

As for my Arch packaging issue, latest comment (compositor-agnostic):

• https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … ote_500710

Balló György wrote:

Since it breaks so many desktop environments, and there is no easy way to fix all of them to provide the graphical-session.target, I'm going to apply this patch proposed by an upstream maintainer:
https://github.com/flatpak/xdg-desktop-portal/pull/2027

Ultimately this will take the same patching approach as Ubuntu. 

diff --git a/desktop-portal/xdg-desktop-portal.service.in b/desktop-portal/xdg-desktop-portal.service.in
index 1029f5901..d7a9e8b55 100644
--- a/desktop-portal/xdg-desktop-portal.service.in
+++ b/desktop-portal/xdg-desktop-portal.service.in
@@ -4,7 +4,8 @@
 [Unit]
 Description=Portal service
 PartOf=graphical-session.target
-Requisite=graphical-session.target
+Requires=dbus.service
+After=dbus.service
 After=graphical-session.target
 
 [Service]

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