Bug 765523 – xfce-base/xfwm4-4.16.1: USE flag xcomposite removed, compositing permanently enabled in ebuild?

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: RESOLVED FIXED

[Description Klaus Kusche 2021-01-15 11:20:27 UTC]

When moving from 4.16.0 to 4.16.1, the xcomposite USE flag has been removed 
from the ebuild, and the ebuild now permanently configures --enable-compositor .

Why? Compositing is a *very* bad idea in our environment,
users should not be able to enable it.

(This is for a server serving many remote desktop sessions.
Compositing significantly increases network load / delay for remote sessions,
and it increases CPU load, because remote sessions don't use GPU acceleration.)

[Comment 1 Ionen Wolkens 2021-01-15 11:35:23 UTC]

Is disabling it in settings not sufficient? Usage isn't forced. e.g.
xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/use_compositing -s false

[Comment 2 Klaus Kusche 2021-01-15 11:48:28 UTC]

(In reply to Ionen Wolkens from comment #1)
> Is disabling it in settings not sufficient? Usage isn't forced. e.g.
> xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/use_compositing -s false

This has two drawbacks:

1. Default is on, which means we either have to rely on users to turn it off,
or have to run some script whenever new users are added
(these are student accounts at a university, so userids come and go each term).

2. Even when turned off, users can turn it back on.

[Comment 3 Michał Górny 2021-01-16 17:17:56 UTC]

David, could you make a patch reverting that part of your change?

[Comment 4 David Michael 2021-01-16 17:45:40 UTC]

I added it to https://github.com/gentoo/gentoo/pull/19079 .

[Comment 5 Larry the Git Cow 2021-01-16 19:03:18 UTC]

The bug has been closed via the following commit(s):

https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/commit/?id=15bd01769228fe8a1503625bb188a86dcfebe443

commit 15bd01769228fe8a1503625bb188a86dcfebe443
Author:     David Michael <[e-mail]>
AuthorDate: 2021-01-16 17:41:39 +0000
Commit:     Michał Górny <[e-mail]>
CommitDate: 2021-01-16 19:03:13 +0000

    xfce-base/xfwm4: restore xcomposite USE flag
    
    Closes: https://bugs.gentoo.org/765523
    Package-Manager: Portage-3.0.12, Repoman-3.0.2
    Signed-off-by: David Michael <[e-mail]>
    Closes: https://github.com/gentoo/gentoo/pull/19079
    Signed-off-by: Michał Górny <[e-mail]>

 xfce-base/xfwm4/xfwm4-4.16.1.ebuild | 12 +++++++-----
 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)