Can this project replace gnome-session, xfce-session etc?

[fpemud]

I always hope to have a DE independent session manager.
Can this project replace gnome-session, xfce-session ... since it is also a X11 session manager?

BTW, may this project absorb the function of wireplumber?
So that all session related background operation can be combined into one single user service and the configuration can be summaried into one place.

[jcrd]

Thanks for your interest in this project!

I am not especially familiar with gnome-session or xfce-session but it looks like they both primarily deal with starting relevant components of their DE, which is not something sessiond handles directly. Instead, this startup orchestration is implemented using systemd user services.

sessiond is not intended to be a drop-in replacement for a given DE's session manager but rather to facilitate session management without a DE, i.e. when using only a window manager.
This doesn't require any specific window manager integration per se, but to make the most use of features such as idle inhibiting and backlight/audio sink control, the WM should interact with sessiond's DBus service. For example, this library allows awesomeWM to interface with sessiond.

Regarding wireplumber, as of v0.6.0 sessiond can control the volume level and mute state of wireplumber-based audio sinks, and will automatically mute them when the session is locked.
There are no plans to add other wireplumber-related features.

I hope this answers your questions, and feel free to ask more.

[fpemud]

Hi, apologize for not following up with you last year and have a grateful thanks for your detailed reply.

I'm still seeking for a DE neutral session manager.
In wayland world, some people are using systemd user service to do this job (link), but their solution is not able to support "multiple sessions for the same user" due to the limitation of systemd. It seems systemd has no plan to solve it.
I know sessiond is based on systemd user service too. Can sessiond support this scenario? Such as logging in twice on different seats or logging in locally and remotely (using xrdp and starting a separate X session) simultaneously.

[jcrd]

It should work in theory so long as systemd starts a user instance per login, but I have not tested this use case.