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1# GNOME Desktop {#chap-gnome}
2
3GNOME provides a simple, yet full-featured desktop environment with a focus on productivity. Its Mutter compositor supports both Wayland and X server, and the GNOME Shell user interface is fully customizable by extensions.
4
5## Enabling GNOME {#sec-gnome-enable}
6
7All of the core apps, optional apps, games, and core developer tools from GNOME are available.
8
9To enable the GNOME desktop use:
10
11```nix
12{
13 services.desktopManager.gnome.enable = true;
14 services.displayManager.gdm.enable = true;
15}
16```
17
18::: {.note}
19While it is not strictly necessary to use GDM as the display manager with GNOME, it is recommended, as some features such as screen lock [might not work](#sec-gnome-faq-can-i-use-lightdm-with-gnome) without it.
20:::
21
22The default applications used in NixOS are very minimal, inspired by the defaults used in [gnome-build-meta](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-build-meta/blob/48.0/elements/core/meta-gnome-core-apps.bst).
23
24### GNOME without the apps {#sec-gnome-without-the-apps}
25
26If you’d like to only use the GNOME desktop and not the apps, you can disable them with:
27
28```nix
29{ services.gnome.core-apps.enable = false; }
30```
31
32and none of them will be installed.
33
34If you’d only like to omit a subset of the core utilities, you can use
35[](#opt-environment.gnome.excludePackages).
36Note that this mechanism can only exclude core utilities, games and core developer tools.
37
38### Disabling GNOME services {#sec-gnome-disabling-services}
39
40It is also possible to disable many of the [core services](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/b8ec4fd2a4edc4e30d02ba7b1a2cc1358f3db1d5/nixos/modules/services/x11/desktop-managers/gnome.nix#L329-L348). For example, if you do not need indexing files, you can disable TinySPARQL with:
41
42```nix
43{
44 services.gnome.localsearch.enable = false;
45 services.gnome.tinysparql.enable = false;
46}
47```
48
49Note, however, that doing so is not supported and might break some applications. Notably, GNOME Music cannot work without TinySPARQL.
50
51### GNOME games {#sec-gnome-games}
52
53You can install all of the GNOME games with:
54
55```nix
56{ services.gnome.games.enable = true; }
57```
58
59### GNOME core developer tools {#sec-gnome-core-developer-tools}
60
61You can install GNOME core developer tools with:
62
63```nix
64{ services.gnome.core-developer-tools.enable = true; }
65```
66
67## Enabling GNOME Flashback {#sec-gnome-enable-flashback}
68
69GNOME Flashback provides a desktop environment based on the classic GNOME 2 architecture. You can enable the default GNOME Flashback session, which uses the Metacity window manager, with:
70
71```nix
72{ services.desktopManager.gnome.flashback.enableMetacity = true; }
73```
74
75It is also possible to create custom sessions that replace Metacity with a different window manager using [](#opt-services.desktopManager.gnome.flashback.customSessions).
76
77The following example uses `xmonad` window manager:
78
79```nix
80{
81 services.desktopManager.gnome.flashback.customSessions = [
82 {
83 wmName = "xmonad";
84 wmLabel = "XMonad";
85 wmCommand = "${pkgs.haskellPackages.xmonad}/bin/xmonad";
86 enableGnomePanel = false;
87 }
88 ];
89}
90```
91
92## Icons and GTK Themes {#sec-gnome-icons-and-gtk-themes}
93
94Icon themes and GTK themes don’t require any special option to install in NixOS.
95
96You can add them to [](#opt-environment.systemPackages) and switch to them with GNOME Tweaks.
97If you’d like to do this manually in dconf, change the values of the following keys:
98
99```
100/org/gnome/desktop/interface/gtk-theme
101/org/gnome/desktop/interface/icon-theme
102```
103
104in `dconf-editor`
105
106## Shell Extensions {#sec-gnome-shell-extensions}
107
108Most Shell extensions are packaged under the `gnomeExtensions` attribute.
109Some packages that include Shell extensions, like `gpaste`, don’t have their extension decoupled under this attribute.
110
111You can install them like any other package:
112
113```nix
114{
115 environment.systemPackages = [
116 pkgs.gnomeExtensions.dash-to-dock
117 pkgs.gnomeExtensions.gsconnect
118 pkgs.gnomeExtensions.mpris-indicator-button
119 ];
120}
121```
122
123Unfortunately, we lack a way for these to be managed in a completely declarative way.
124So you have to enable them manually with an Extensions application.
125It is possible to use a [GSettings override](#sec-gnome-gsettings-overrides) for this on `org.gnome.shell.enabled-extensions`, but that will only influence the default value.
126
127## GSettings Overrides {#sec-gnome-gsettings-overrides}
128
129Majority of software building on the GNOME platform use GLib’s [GSettings](https://developer.gnome.org/gio/unstable/GSettings.html) system to manage runtime configuration. For our purposes, the system consists of XML schemas describing the individual configuration options, stored in the package, and a settings backend, where the values of the settings are stored. On NixOS, like on most Linux distributions, dconf database is used as the backend.
130
131[GSettings vendor overrides](https://developer.gnome.org/gio/unstable/GSettings.html#id-1.4.19.2.9.25) can be used to adjust the default values for settings of the GNOME desktop and apps by replacing the default values specified in the XML schemas. Using overrides will allow you to pre-seed user settings before you even start the session.
132
133::: {.warning}
134Overrides really only change the default values for GSettings keys so if you or an application changes the setting value, the value set by the override will be ignored. Until [NixOS’s dconf module implements changing values](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/54150), you will either need to keep that in mind and clear the setting from the backend using `dconf reset` command when that happens, or use the [module from home-manager](https://nix-community.github.io/home-manager/options.html#opt-dconf.settings).
135:::
136
137You can override the default GSettings values using the
138[](#opt-services.desktopManager.gnome.extraGSettingsOverrides) option.
139
140Take note that whatever packages you want to override GSettings for, you need to add them to
141[](#opt-services.desktopManager.gnome.extraGSettingsOverridePackages).
142
143You can use `dconf-editor` tool to explore which GSettings you can set.
144
145### Example {#sec-gnome-gsettings-overrides-example}
146
147```nix
148{
149 services.desktopManager.gnome = {
150 extraGSettingsOverrides = ''
151 # Change default background
152 [org.gnome.desktop.background]
153 picture-uri='file://${pkgs.nixos-artwork.wallpapers.mosaic-blue.gnomeFilePath}'
154
155 # Favorite apps in gnome-shell
156 [org.gnome.shell]
157 favorite-apps=['org.gnome.Console.desktop', 'org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop']
158 '';
159
160 extraGSettingsOverridePackages = [
161 pkgs.gsettings-desktop-schemas # for org.gnome.desktop
162 pkgs.gnome-shell # for org.gnome.shell
163 ];
164 };
165}
166```
167
168## Frequently Asked Questions {#sec-gnome-faq}
169
170### Can I use LightDM with GNOME? {#sec-gnome-faq-can-i-use-lightdm-with-gnome}
171
172Yes you can, and any other display-manager in NixOS.
173
174However, it doesn’t work correctly for the Wayland session of GNOME Shell yet, and
175won’t be able to lock your screen.
176
177See [this issue.](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/56342)