Session: don't autostart Discover's notifier or IBus in the desktop

The nested Plasma session runs the system's XDG autostart entries. Discover's update
notifier (/etc/xdg/autostart/org.kde.discover.notifier.desktop) started
plasma-discover --mode update inside it, 520-620 MB resident and about 9% of a core,
with flatpak-system-helper and AppStream downloads behind it. IBus started a nested
ibus-daemon with kimpanel and ibus-extension-gtk3, which no app in the desktop can use:
KWin's input method is ft-textinput (zwp_input_method_v1, focus reports only; the VR
keyboard types through ft-screens' seat), and the session already drops QT_IM_MODULE,
GTK_IM_MODULE and XMODIFIERS. Nothing in Frametop talks to IBus.

Before Plasma starts, the session script copies both entries into
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/autostart with Hidden=true, which plasma-session honours for that
desktop only. It does this once ([Defaults] autostart=1 in frametoprc) and skips a name
the user already has a file for, so deleting the copy brings the program back. The
geoclue demo agent stays (it answers apps' location requests outside GNOME and idles at
0%), and orca's entry is OnlyShowIn GNOME-family desktops, so it never ran. Tested
against a temporary XDG_CONFIG_HOME, including an existing user ibus.desktop left alone.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
DeeJanuzandClaude Opus 5.5 committed 2026-10-03 09:18:31 -06:00
1 parent 5b6cfcd746
commit b7dfe4759e
3 files changed
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@@ -179,6 +179,8 @@ A podman container's monitor process (conmon) stays in the cgroup of whatever st
KWin renders with OpenGL through zink on Turnip, Vulkan on the same GPU vrcompositor needs to hit its frame time, and on the Frame that costs CPU too. The nested session started with KWin's defaults: blur and background contrast on (no `[Plugins]` group in its kwinrc) and animations at full length. Blur re-renders what's behind every translucent panel and menu each time it changes, and every animated frame is one more frame for KWin and ft-screens to draw and send. They're off by default in the Frametop desktop. The session script writes them before KWin starts, only where the desktop's own config has no value, once: System Settings deletes a setting put back to KDE's default rather than writing it, so without the marker in `frametoprc` a user who turned blur back on would lose it at the next start. The effect ids (`blur`, `contrast`) are the ones built into KWin 6.2.5 on SteamOS; KWin reads `<id>Enabled` from `[Plugins]`.
The nested session also runs the system's XDG autostart entries, being a KDE session. Discover's update notifier started `plasma-discover --mode update` in it (520 to 620 MB resident and about 9% of a core, plus `flatpak-system-helper` and AppStream downloads), and IBus started a daemon, the kimpanel panel and its GTK extension that nothing can use: KWin hands text input to the one input method it starts (`ft-textinput`), and the session drops `QT_IM_MODULE`, `GTK_IM_MODULE` and `XMODIFIERS`. The session hides both for this desktop only, with `Hidden=true` copies in its own autostart folder. The geoclue demo agent stays: it's what answers apps' location requests to Geoclue outside GNOME, and it costs nothing while idle. Orca's entry only starts in GNOME-family desktops.
Remote desktop is a chain (krdp, then FreeRDP inside Xvnc) because nothing on SteamOS serves KWin over VNC directly. Kept connected all the time, it cost about a core with nobody watching: krdpserver 55 to 78% (it encodes H.264 in software with openh264: VA-API finds no driver for the Frame's GPU in the container), FreeRDP 16 to 27%, Xvnc 6 to 11%, and the bridge's layout check every 5 seconds another 4%. krdp creates its screencast session per RDP connection and drops it when the connection closes (`SessionController::onNewConnection` in krdp 6.7), so an idle krdpserver costs nothing and can stay up; only the RDP connection has to go. The bridge connects FreeRDP when a VNC client appears and disconnects 45 seconds after the last one leaves. Xvnc has no hook for its clients, so the bridge counts established connections to its port with `ss`, woken early by Xvnc's log output; looking with `ss` once a second cost about 0.9% of a core in bash, against about 0.1% this way. `Xvnc -inetd` from a systemd socket would start a server per connection and lose sharing between viewers. The layout check (`ft-layout remote-view`, which scans `/proc` for plasmashell and runs `kscreen-doctor -j`) now runs only while FreeRDP runs, and then only after `kwinoutputconfig.json` or `frametop-layout.json` changes, with one check a minute in case a change touched neither.
Program names stay within 15 characters, because Linux truncates process names there and the scripts find programs with `pgrep -x` and `pkill -x`. That's why the prefix is `ft-`.
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@@ -26,6 +26,8 @@ kwriteconfig6 --file ~/.config/frametop/kwinrc --group Plugins --key contrastEna
kwriteconfig6 --file ~/.config/frametop/kdeglobals --group KDE --key AnimationDurationFactor 1
```
Two of the system's autostart programs don't start in this desktop: Discover's update notifier (`org.kde.discover.notifier`), which starts Discover to check for updates, and IBus (`ibus`), which can't reach the desktop's apps because KWin's input method is `input/ft-textinput`. The session script puts copies with `Hidden=true` in `~/.config/frametop/autostart` once (marked in `frametoprc`), and skips a name you already have a file for. Delete a copy to start that program again.
Settings are in two files, and Frametop Display Settings edits both. The screens (resolution, width in metres, scale, curve, which one has the taskbar) and their layout are in `~/.config/frametop-layout.json`. The backend, remote desktop, and pointer settings are in `~/.config/frametop.conf`; `session/frametop.conf.example` lists every key.
Restarting the desktop closes its windows. Before the unit stops, `session/keep-apps.sh` moves every program started in the desktop into a systemd scope of its own, so background work such as servers, tmux, and builds keeps running. An app that shuts down its own helper processes when its window closes will still lose them; run that kind of work outside the desktop, for example as a systemd user service.
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@@ -251,6 +251,23 @@ if [ "$(kreadconfig6 --file "$frametoprc" --group Defaults --key effects)" != 1
kwriteconfig6 --file "$frametoprc" --group Defaults --key effects 1
fi
# System autostart entries this desktop doesn't need, hidden for it alone by a copy with
# Hidden=true in its own autostart folder, once and unless there's a file of that name
# already. Discover's update notifier starts Discover itself to check for updates (about
# 600 MB and a share of a core, with Flatpak's helper and AppStream behind it); updates
# come with SteamOS and from Discover in the stock desktop. IBus can't reach the
# desktop's apps: KWin's input method is ft-textinput, and the session drops the
# variables that point apps at IBus or XIM. Deleting the copy brings an entry back.
if [ "$(kreadconfig6 --file "$frametoprc" --group Defaults --key autostart)" != 1 ]; then
for entry in org.kde.discover.notifier ibus; do
src=/etc/xdg/autostart/$entry.desktop dst=$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/autostart/$entry.desktop
[ -r "$src" ] && [ ! -e "$dst" ] || continue
mkdir -p "$(dirname "$dst")"
sed '/^\[Desktop Entry\]$/a Hidden=true' "$src" > "$dst"
done
kwriteconfig6 --file "$frametoprc" --group Defaults --key autostart 1
fi
# Profiles reopen apps (docs/profiles.md), so Plasma's own session restore stays off here;
# with both, apps would open twice.
kwriteconfig6 --file "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/ksmserverrc" --group General --key loginMode emptySession