dbus[X] was added to RDEPEND because virt-manager incorrectly used dbus-launch instead of dbus-run-session when saving configuration on X11. This is not the case anymore and saving configuration works for x11-forwarded sessions without dbus[X]. Related bug: https://bugs.gentoo.org/793182 also slightly related: https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2016/08/msg00554.html Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Install virt-manager 2. emerge -C virt-manager and rebuild dbus without USE=X. Don't run --depclean 3. Download virt-manager 4.1.0 release from github and start it over ssh with X11 forwarding