Archlinux TemplateVM: Dependency of zenity (as part of qubes-vm-gui) changed into a lot more packages

[schnurentwickler]

Qubes OS version:

R3.2

Affected TemplateVMs:

archlinux

---

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

newest upgrade (pacman -Suy)

Expected behavior:

For a small VM template, only the basics of needed packages should be installed for a working and small "sys-net".

Actual behavior:

The package qubes-vm-gui depends on zenity which now depends on webkit2gtk with the dependencies: gst-plugins-bad and their full load of decoders. (over 150MB of it!) Unnecessary for a sys-net VM.

General notes:

Is it possible to avoid the dependency of zenity/webkit2gtk for qubes-vm-gui?

[schnurentwickler]

This probably also affects archlinux templates in Qubes 4.0, if qubes-vm-gui also depends on zenity/webkit2gtk there.

[schnurentwickler]

This probably also affects archlinux templates in Qubes 4.0, if qubes-vm-gui also depends on zenity/webkit2gtk there.

[na--]

I'm not sure if zenity is actually needed by the qubes-vm-gui package, but it seems used by some of the services in qubes-vm-core. I think that most things will still work if you force uninstall it from the template, but I would not want it removed as a package dependency at this point just to save some space.

It seems that the correct solution if to compile zenity with --disable-webkitgtk in the PKGBUILD, like they do for the fedora package. There seems to be a dead issue for this in the Archlinux bugtracker, so I doubt it will happen in the original package anytime soon.

For the moment I think your best bet is to build your own zenity package. Copy the original PKGBUILD, remove the webkit2gtk dependency, add --disable-webkitgtk to ./configure, add provides and conflicts relations to zenity, run makepkg and install your package. This should be fairly low-maintenance unless gnome decide to suddenly develop a lot of new zenity features :)

[na--]

I'm not sure if zenity is actually needed by the qubes-vm-gui package, but it seems used by some of the services in qubes-vm-core. I think that most things will still work if you force uninstall it from the template, but I would not want it removed as a package dependency at this point just to save some space.

It seems that the correct solution if to compile zenity with --disable-webkitgtk in the PKGBUILD, like they do for the fedora package. There seems to be a dead issue for this in the Archlinux bugtracker, so I doubt it will happen in the original package anytime soon.

For the moment I think your best bet is to build your own zenity package. Copy the original PKGBUILD, remove the webkit2gtk dependency, add --disable-webkitgtk to ./configure, add provides and conflicts relations to zenity, run makepkg and install your package. This should be fairly low-maintenance unless gnome decide to suddenly develop a lot of new zenity features :)

[ptitdoc]

Or maybe it is possible to make it optional ? (meaning the package is built with webkit2gtk as a makedependency but not necessarily installed)

[ptitdoc]

Or maybe it is possible to make it optional ? (meaning the package is built with webkit2gtk as a makedependency but not necessarily installed)

[schnurentwickler]

zenity probably needs to stay as a dependency of qubes-vm-gui. (because zenity in fedora stays webkitfree)
--- But think about the future of Qubes-OS: If Xorg is obselete, zenity is not as important in VMs especially with a new qubes controller ---
And webkit2gtk will not be removed as dependency of zenity in archlinux: https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/50548
So, maybe someone will launch a zenity-webkitfree version in archlinux or we need to build it ourselves.
Not a bug of qubes, but a circumstance with qubes-vm-gui. Closed.

[schnurentwickler]

zenity probably needs to stay as a dependency of qubes-vm-gui. (because zenity in fedora stays webkitfree)
--- But think about the future of Qubes-OS: If Xorg is obselete, zenity is not as important in VMs especially with a new qubes controller ---
And webkit2gtk will not be removed as dependency of zenity in archlinux: https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/50548
So, maybe someone will launch a zenity-webkitfree version in archlinux or we need to build it ourselves.
Not a bug of qubes, but a circumstance with qubes-vm-gui. Closed.