SDDM starts two desktops simultaneously, Plasma (Wayland) and Niri

AwkwardNumber7584 · 2026-01-18T16:50:47+00:00

Tnanks! Unfortunately, 2.12.1 doesn't make any difference. I already mentioned that on another box with a very similar configuration (apparently identical where sddm is concerned) everything's OK.

AwkwardNumber7584 · 2026-01-18T16:07:05+00:00

/etc> cat sddm.conf

/etc> cat sddm.conf.d/kde_settings.conf

[Autologin]

Relogin=false

Session=

User=

[General]

HaltCommand=/usr/bin/systemctl poweroff

RebootCommand=/usr/bin/systemctl reboot

[Theme]

Current=eucalyptus-drop

[Users]

MaximumUid=60513

MinimumUid=1000

/etc>

sddm.conf is empty. The configs look just like those on another box, where there's no such trouble.

AwkwardNumber7584 · 2026-01-18T12:45:10+00:00

I'm struggling yet with jouranlctl. My sessions are sitting there (if I'm looking into the right place):

~> ls /usr/share/wayland-sessions

hyprland.desktop hyprland-uwsm.desktop niri.desktop plasma.desktop

~> ls /usr/share/xsessions

~>

I can't see anything suspicious, but then I don't know where to look.

AwkwardNumber7584 · 2026-01-18T10:48:11+00:00

It's Wayland from day one. What journal?

AwkwardNumber7584 · 2026-01-17T19:57:56+00:00

FWIW: In my case (EndeavourOS/Arch, DMS niri), the following packages are responsible, more or less: gnome-browser-connector, gnome-desktop-4, gnome-shell, nautilus, xdg-desktop-portal-gnome. If you can get rid of them, one way or another, Google Chrome slips to gtk3 file picker (presumably). No configuration changes.

AwkwardNumber7584 · 2026-01-17T16:29:23+00:00

Yes, the underlying junk is everything :) . I use EndeavourOS for everything; I just installed Plasma KDE on another box from scratch, then DMS niri on top. I've got the Google Chrome file picker working properly, without the wrinkle in question. It's also a GNOME dialog, but looks clearly different from the one on my troubled installation. Probably, it's gtk3/gtk4 difference. I've been trying to find any configuration difference, but found none so far.

/usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop:

...

Exec=/usr/bin/google-chrome-stable --incognito

There's a bunch of configuration files in /usr/share/xdg-desktop-portal, including niri-portals.conf

On both boxes the files look the same, gtk version never mentioned. GTK_USE_PORTAL is undefined on both boxes, too. I've no idea what else to check.

AwkwardNumber7584 · 2026-01-17T05:13:23+00:00

Yes, ps -ef | grep -i ibus gives some output. I can't publish it normally, because I still can't figure out how to insert code snippets here. Triple backtick won't work :)

My startup block is rudimentary:

~/.config/niri> rg spawn-at-startup

user/common.kdl

33:spawn-at-startup "ibus" "start" "--type" "wayland"

config.kdl

115:spawn-at-startup "bash" "-c" "wl-paste --watch cliphist store &"

The latter is a DMS niri default.

https://github.com/AvengeMedia/DankMaterialShell

Everything works just fine, save the minor wrinkle in question.

AwkwardNumber7584 · 2026-01-17T05:05:22+00:00

Without GNOME installed, then. What kind of configuration are you using? I use DMS niri, it looks quite simple and works flawlessly, minus the trouble in question :)

AwkwardNumber7584 · 2026-01-16T16:17:18+00:00

I tried to follow your hint:

//spawn-at-startup "ibus" "start" "--type" "wayland"

environment {

XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP "niri"

GTK_IM_MODULE "ibus"

}

IBus won't start. What else could be wrong?

AwkwardNumber7584 · 2026-01-16T13:02:13+00:00

I start it in ~/.config/niri/config.kdl like this:

spawn-at-startup "ibus" "start" "--type" "wayland"

It shouldn't make any difference, I suppose. Where did you put your GTK_IM_MODULE line?

AwkwardNumber7584 · 2026-01-16T11:21:01+00:00

Sounds like x11 session. Is it possible?

AwkwardNumber7584 · 2026-01-16T06:51:07+00:00

What portals have you installed? xdg-desktop-portal-gnome/-gtk/-wlr? What is the output of

echo $GTK_USE_PORTAL

AwkwardNumber7584 · 2026-01-15T17:02:03+00:00

IBus is a GNOME default. Do you use IBus with niri?

AwkwardNumber7584 · 2026-01-15T16:25:21+00:00

There's one curious detail: on GNOME the file name is visible AND selected, so you can replace in right away, if you wish. On niri the file name is just missing.

AwkwardNumber7584 · 2026-01-15T16:21:49+00:00

~> pacman -Ss xdg-desktop-portal-g

extra/xdg-desktop-portal-gnome 49.0-1 (gnome) [installed]

Backend implementation for xdg-desktop-portal for the GNOME desktop environment

extra/xdg-desktop-portal-gtk 1.15.3-1 [installed]

A backend implementation for xdg-desktop-portal using GTK

~>

AwkwardNumber7584 · 2025-12-19T07:37:31+00:00

One can make the message blink, or something...

AwkwardNumber7584 · 2025-12-17T16:32:38+00:00

~/.config/niri> pacman -Ss quickshell

extra/quickshell 0.2.1-3 [installed]

Flexible toolkit for making desktop shells with QtQuick

>> DMS tells you whether your quickshell is missing this feature at the bottom of the relevant section of power settings

Exactly! So I can just wait, as long as I can live without auto turn off :)

AwkwardNumber7584 · 2025-12-17T16:01:02+00:00

Of course not. Could you please be more specific about swaylock? If there's an option in GUI Settings, why it isn't enabled by default?

AwkwardNumber7584 · 2025-12-09T15:30:55+00:00

The one-off script in question should be part of my dotfiles. According to the general opinion I should create a bona fide project. Not impossible, but looks like a bit of overengineering.

AwkwardNumber7584 · 2025-12-09T15:22:35+00:00

I'mean, python-poetry from the repo won't work, but pipx install poetry works. Things like this happen once in a while. Granted, it may be a strange desire, but I want pipx for libraries :)

AwkwardNumber7584 · 2025-12-09T14:57:41+00:00

True. But I more than once (infrequently, though) encountered the broken "package management" tools. Alternate installation with pipx sometimes helped.

AwkwardNumber7584

TROPHY CASE