From dc068955692811b99c954e2d948516639babf935 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Craig Jennings <c@cjennings.net>
Date: Tue, 19 May 2026 07:33:26 -0500
Subject: fix(archsetup): write desktop defaults as a system dconf db
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The previous block ran two `sudo -u $user dbus-launch dconf write …` calls during install to set GTK file-chooser and GNOME interface defaults. Both exited 1 on a headless install. The user had no real session bus, so dconf couldn't create `~/.config/dconf/user`. They also showed up in the 2026-05-11 / 16 / 18 VM-run error summaries.

I rewrote the block to compile a system-wide dconf db under `/etc/dconf/db/site.d/`. `dconf update` runs as root and needs no D-Bus. Settings apply to every user and can still be overridden per-user. Bonus: portal-gtk reads these on first login without the ~50s settings-proxy timeout the prior code aimed to prevent but couldn't deliver, since the per-user writes failed during install.
---
 archsetup | 43 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----------------
 1 file changed, 26 insertions(+), 17 deletions(-)

diff --git a/archsetup b/archsetup
index 53679b8..d044d1c 100755
--- a/archsetup
+++ b/archsetup
@@ -934,24 +934,33 @@ user_customizations() {
     (sudo -u "$username" update-desktop-database "/home/$username/.local/share/applications" \
                                 >> "$logfile" 2>&1 ) || true
 
-    # install dconf before writing GTK/GNOME desktop settings (provides dconf)
+    # GTK and GNOME desktop interface settings — read by GTK apps and
+    # xdg-desktop-portal-gtk. Written as a system-wide dconf db rather than
+    # per-user dbus-launch dconf writes: the system path needs no session
+    # bus (which the prior approach lacked during install, exit-1ing both
+    # blocks), and portal-gtk reads the settings on first login without
+    # the ~50s settings-proxy timeout. Users can still override per-user.
     pacman_install dconf
-
-    # GTK file chooser settings (stored in dconf, can't be stowed)
-    action="configuring GTK file chooser" && display "task" "$action"
-    (sudo -u "$username" dbus-launch dconf write /org/gtk/settings/file-chooser/sort-directories-first true \
-                                >> "$logfile" 2>&1 ) || error_warn "$action" "$?"
-
-    # GNOME desktop interface settings (required for fast xdg-desktop-portal-gtk startup)
-    # Without these, portal-gtk waits ~50s for a settings proxy timeout
-    action="configuring GNOME interface settings in dconf" && display "task" "$action"
-    (sudo -u "$username" dbus-launch bash -c "
-        dconf write /org/gnome/desktop/interface/color-scheme \"'prefer-dark'\"
-        dconf write /org/gnome/desktop/interface/gtk-theme \"'Adwaita-dark'\"
-        dconf write /org/gnome/desktop/interface/icon-theme \"'Papirus-Dark'\"
-        dconf write /org/gnome/desktop/interface/cursor-theme \"'Bibata-Modern-Ice'\"
-        dconf write /org/gnome/desktop/interface/cursor-size 24
-    " >> "$logfile" 2>&1 ) || error_warn "$action" "$?"
+    action="configuring system dconf defaults" && display "task" "$action"
+    (
+        install -d -m 0755 /etc/dconf/profile /etc/dconf/db/site.d
+        cat > /etc/dconf/profile/user <<'EOF'
+user-db:user
+system-db:site
+EOF
+        cat > /etc/dconf/db/site.d/00-archsetup-defaults <<'EOF'
+[org/gtk/settings/file-chooser]
+sort-directories-first=true
+
+[org/gnome/desktop/interface]
+color-scheme='prefer-dark'
+gtk-theme='Adwaita-dark'
+icon-theme='Papirus-Dark'
+cursor-theme='Bibata-Modern-Ice'
+cursor-size=24
+EOF
+        dconf update
+    ) >> "$logfile" 2>&1 || error_warn "$action" "$?"
 
     action="marking dotfile dir as safe.directory" && display "task" "$action"
     if git config --global --add safe.directory "$user_archsetup_dir" >> "$logfile" 2>&1; then
-- 
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