[Nix-dev] Background images of desktop managers

[Maximilian Bosch]

Hey there,

before I start with the actual topic I'd like to introduce myself as this
is the first time I submit something to the `nix-dev` mailing list: I'm
Maximilian Bosch from Munich, I work for the Mayflower GmbH and I started
using NixOS at the beginning of 2017 and submitted several PRs since then.

Right now I'm working on the following thing:
https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/26156

As the title says, I'd like to have some background image support for
window managers as well (XMonad in my case). Right now I solve this with
some ugly shell in the `sessionCommands` script, but I'd like to have a
more suitable solution for this.

Right now you can set an internal option in the {desktop,window}Managers,
but `bgSupport` isn't available for the windowManagers (see
https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/nixos/modules/services/x11/window-managers/default.nix,
https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/nixos/modules/services/x11/desktop-managers/default.nix
).

I decided to change this, please refer to the linked PR for more details
there.

Right now it works quite fine with `i3`, but when I tried to test it with
desktopManagers like `gnome3` or `xfce` (both of them have `bgSupport`
enabled ATM), I realized that they set their own background internally and
override the stuff declared by the `feh --bg-scale` call.

Therefore I'd like to know: is there any specific reason I'm missing why
desktopManagers have this bgSupport thign? It works fine with some
windowManagers (not all of them, `awesome` overrides the background as
well), but it seems to break with the desktopManagers.

And if that's just some legacy thing: can the bgSupport be removed from the
desktopManagers?

Have a great sunday and thanks in advance,

Maximilian Bosch
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