Some configuration options for gnome not working

[ishan9299]

Describe the bug
Some options for gnome configuration don't work.

I have disabled xterm and excluded gnome-software in my configuration but it is still installed in my system.

config I am using

  environment = {
    systemPackages = with pkgs; [
      gnome3.gnome-tweaks
    ];
    # Exclude some gnome packages
    gnome3.excludePackages = with pkgs; [
      gnome3.gnome-music
      gnome3.gnome-contacts
      gnome3.gnome-maps
      gnome3.totem
      gnome3.yelp
      gnome3.epiphany
      gnome3.eog
      gnome3.gedit
      gnome3.geary
      gnome3.gnome-software
      gnome-photos
    ];
  };

  qt5.platformTheme = "gnome";
  programs.dconf.enable = true;
  services.flatpak.enable = true;
  xdg.portal.enable = true;
  xdg.portal.gtkUsePortal = true;
  xdg.portal.extraPortals = with pkgs; [
    xdg-desktop-portal-gtk
    xdg-desktop-portal-wlr
  ];

Xterm shouldn't be installed if it is disabled. If gnome-software is installed by default for flatpak then I think that it should be an option and shouldn't override gnome3.excludePackages.

~ 
❯ whereis xterm
xterm: /nix/store/l1y7gc8gjj1h56k16zb7xpxx0q88bzjp-system-path/bin/xterm

~ 
❯ whereis gnome-software
gnome-software: /nix/store/l1y7gc8gjj1h56k16zb7xpxx0q88bzjp-system-path/bin/gnome-software

Notify maintainers
@jtojnar
@worldofpeace
@vcunat
@r-ryantm

Metadata
Please run nix-shell -p nix-info --run "nix-info -m" and paste the result.

• system: "x86_64-linux"
• host os: Linux 5.10.7, NixOS, 21.03.20210117.68398d2 (Okapi)
• multi-user?: yes
• sandbox: yes
• version: nix-env (Nix) 2.4pre20201205_a5d85d0
• nixpkgs: /nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos

Maintainer information:

# a list of nixpkgs attributes affected by the problem
xterm
gnome-software
attribute:
# a list of nixos modules affected by the problem
module:
services.xserver.desktopManager.xterm.enable
environment.gnome3.excludePackages

[jtojnar]

GNOME Software is actually installed by Flatpak module (introduced in #101516) so excludePackages does not handle it. Maybe it should.

Do not see services.xserver.desktopManager.xterm.enable in your config, maybe double check it is disabled using nixos-option program. Either way, it should be unrelated to GNOME.

[ishan9299]

I have enabled it, sorry didn't post the snippet.

    xserver = {
      enable = true;
      layout = "us"; # keyboard layout
      desktopManager = {
        gnome3.enable = true;
        xterm.enable = false;
      };
    } 

[ishan9299]

GNOME Software consumes a lot of memory even if it is not launched and is quite slow also there are alternatives that are being worked on like Souk. So people in future might want to switch the gui for flatpak. If handling by exclude package doesn't look like a good solution then adding a module for flatpak to choose to install the software center would be better.

[ishan9299]

I used this services.flatpak.guiPackages = lib.mkForce []; # don't install gnome-software. Maybe just add the documentation for this option since it is not present in man configuration.nix.