Ansible Role - potos_dconf

This role works for me, but does not satisfy the potos acceptance rules yet:

• the automated checks are currently failing
• meta is not up to date

dconf is the official way to manage gnome user and system settings and override gnome or distribution specific settings.

Lock Down not supported (yet)

By default, gnome interprets all dconf settings as defaults that can be overriden by the user. Such user specific settings are stored in ~/.config/dconf.

It is possible to lock down settings, so users cannot change them any more.

Development hints

Be aware that the following commands can return different values depending on the user session you are logged in right now.

• dconf dump / lists all settings that are explicitly set somewhere. Default values are not shown.
• gsettings list-recursively lists really all variables currently known and their values. Use this to search for a certain setting, translate it back to dconf format and then implement it here.

Example Playbook

As this role is tested via Molecule one can use that playbook as a starting point:

---

- name: Converge
  hosts: all
  gather_facts: yes
  tasks:
    - name: run role
      ansible.builtin.include_role:
        name: 'ansible-role-potos_dconf'

Role Variables

There are two ways to use this role to configure system wide dconf default settings.

• by setting potos_dconf_20_advanced_wm_settings to true. This activates a preconfigured set of dconf options. Look at the file 20_advanced_wm_settings.j2 to see what is actually configured. Most likely you don't like my very personal settings. In this case, you could expand this role an adding another template/variable.

• and/or setting potos_dconf_30_gnome_terminal_profiles to true. This activates another set of dconf' options: Three gnome-terminal` profiles are defined:

  • potos-bright: black on off-white, default profile
  • potos-dark: white on black
  • potos-green-dark: green on black

• and/or use the potos_dconf_custom list variable to configure arbitrary settings. This can be used as starting point for implementing your own preconfigured set.

You can use both ways in the same config, but: WARNING When the same dconf setting is set multiple times, it is currently undefined what entry will win.

potos_dconf_custom

Each element of the potos_dconf_custom variable must contain

• a dconf_path value
• a settings list that contains one or more dicts for the settings in that path, each dict containing
• the name of the setting
• the typed value of the setting, i.e. exactly one of
  • value_bool: true or false
  • value_uint32: an positive nteger
  • value_string: a string
  • value_list_of_strings: a list of strings

This can look like this:

---

potos_dconf_custom:
  - dconf_path: "org/gnome/desktop/interface"
    settings:
      - name: "clock-show-seconds"
        value_bool: true
  - dconf_path: "org/gnome/desktop/session"
    settings:
      - name: "idle-delay"
        value_uint32: "120"
  - dconf_path: "org/gnome/shell"
    settings:
      - name: "favorite-apps"
        value_list_of_strings:
          - "amsel-menu.desktop"
          - "Local.desktop"
          - "Internet.desktop"

There is no checking on the values whatsoever. You have to know what you do and test each setting carefully.

The default variables are defined in defaults/main.yml:

---

potos_dconf_20_advanced_wm_settings: false

potos_dconf_30_gnome_terminal_profiles: false

potos_dconf_custom:
  - dconf_path: "org/gnome/shell"
    settings:
      - name: "favorite-apps"
        value_list_of_strings:
          - "org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop"
          - "libreoffice-writer.desktop"
          - "snap-store_ubuntu-software.desktop"
          - "yelp.desktop"

Another option is to use ansible-doc to read the argument specification:

ansible-doc --type role -r . main ansible-role-potos_dconf

Requirements

N/A

License

See LICENSE

Author Information

Project Potos