GNOME/Internals

This page is intended for explaining the internal architecture of GNOME as well as sharing GNOME hacks.

Changing Required Components

The file /usr/share/gnome-session/sessions/gnome.session contains a line at the bottom of the file starting with RequiredComponents=, which lists services that GNOME will expect to be able to start. If it can't start one of these components, it will display a fatal error (sick computer) at startup and GNOME will not start.

Some of these so-called 'required' components can be turned off. For example, org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.UsbGuard can be turned off. To do this, first remove the reference to this component from the RequiredComponents line in the gnome.session file. Then, move /etc/xdg/autostart/org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.UsbGuard to a backup location, such as /root. The next time you log into your GNOME session, you will see that the gsd-usbguard process is no longer running, yet GNOME started just fine (since this component is no longer marked as 'required'.)

Optional Components

Components of GNOME that have been safely turned off include:

org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.UsbGuard

This component 'guards' USB ports and informs you when someone has attached a USB device when your computer is asleep. It also does some disabling of USB devices when the system is asleep.

org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Wacom

Implements functionality for tablets (assumption.)

org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.SmartCard

Implements smart card support (assumption.)