Mabox XDG Autostart: what are these?

Basic Help & Support
1

Hello, I just had a look at my Mabox XDG Autostart Editor to see what all is in there. There is a lot more enabled than I was expecting. Does anyone know what these unknown entries are? What should we do with them?

  • Baloo File Daemon - Checking Baloo - ArchWiki this should have a config file in ~/.config/baloofilerc for Frameworks 5 (including Plasma 5), or ~/.kde4/share/apps/config/baloofilerc in the kdelibs 4.x world (old Plasma). But we’re not using Plasma, are we? This config file does not exist. Is this just left over from some other package install and can be disabled?

  • Cadence session startup - no info found.

  • Geoclue Demo agent - Looks like this is for giving location info to apps which need it, like redshift. Many can disable this, according to Reddit

  • GMenuDBusMenuProxy - Unsure what this is for in Mabox.

  • Plasma Desktop Workspace - are we even using Plasma?

  • xapp-sn-watcher - Appears to be a Linux Mint tool for the system tray? Is this needed in Mabox?

  • Zeitgeist Datahub - Ask Ubuntu says not to disable, while Ubuntu Forums shows users having trouble with it and disabling. Is there a policy for Mabox?

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Hi @rdtsc :slight_smile:

Shortly… as I’m busy at the moment.
You can remove all above if you don’t need/use those services. To do so just open filemanager and go to ~/.config/autostart then delete desktop files.
(Those files are copied from /etc/xdg/autostart/ during Mabox’s Openbox session start and those desktop files comes from installed packages.)

I will write more about how this works in Mabox later :wink:

3

XDG Autostart

The XDG Autostart specification defines a method for autostarting ordinary desktop entries on startup.

The Autostart directories in order of preference are:

  • user-specific: ~/.config/autostart
  • system-wide: /etc/xdg/autostart

System-wide desktop entries can be overridden by user-specific entries with the same filename.

More: Desktop Application Autostart Specification

Mabox GUI for XDG autostart

To make life a little easier for users, Mabox provides a simple GUI for editing XDG autostart files.
How does it work?

  1. When starting an Openbox session, system files are copied from /etc/xdg/autostart to ~/.config/autostart/
  2. Mabox GUI editor allows you to easily manage these files (enable/disable) without having to manually edit them
  3. Mabox also provides some custom files for various services, e.g. for running: gkrellm, gkrellm in dock, conky session, gxkb
  4. Unfortunately, the function of cleaning these files after uninstalling packages has not been implemented yet. So over time, there may be some leftovers there.

All xdg autostart files available after fresh installation on screenshot below…

Mabox_XDG_Autostart
Mabox_XDG_Autostart1600×900 226 KB

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