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Topic: Whats the trouble with dbus? (Read 1717 times) previous topic - next topic
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Whats the trouble with dbus?

hi,
I have read on reddit and other forums that dbus is bloat and bad.
Even the documentation says DO NOT USE THIS C API!

It seems like dbus-broker is a better alternative to the original dbus daemon.
But the dbus-broker developers only target systemd.
And if someone ask for openrc support, they simply say: all linux systems should have systemd nowadays.

https://github.com/bus1/dbus-broker/issues/340

Systemd is slowly creeping into other software.
Is it possible to live without dbus?

Re: Whats the trouble with dbus?

Reply #1 –
Not too long ago I tried to create a desktop without dbus but came to the conclusion this is only possible if you are willing to live with legacy programs in key areas.

Hyperbola is a distro without dbus, but eg. this is their list of browser packages:
https://www.hyperbola.info/packages/?sort=&q=browser

So if you need firefox or chromium you are out of luck, also in other areas.
Iirc also GTK currently has a hard dependency on dbus.

artist

Re: Whats the trouble with dbus?

Reply #2 –
Dbus can however be slightly handicapped to work in just the user's session, effectively taking out the nosy system interface. You disable the system service (dinit has a problem with that currently so it's easier with other inits), then put some user service runtime like turnstile (or via a script?) to launch dbus alongside the session, yes i know it's not dbus-broker there either but as long as it works i don't care, it's solvable in the future. The only things lost are NetworkManager and co., (un/)mounting filesystems via gvfs, some pacman hook not working, and loading is finnicky in some DE's (yet to investigate that).
LE: dbus-broker itself is just a way to have it's "services" gvfs rtkit etc be managed by systemd as separate services, the problem is that like everything sysd related the process is complicated but not impossible to replicate.

Re: Whats the trouble with dbus?

Reply #3 –
When dbus doesn’t run on time I take the ebus. 🦾👼🏿👣
Cat Herders of Linux

Re: Whats the trouble with dbus?

Reply #5 –
Quote from: phoenix_king_rus – on
Quote from: cat herders of linux – on
When dbus doesn’t run on time I take the ebus. 🦾👼🏿👣
If only you could imagine how hilarious it sounds in Russian
Когда dbus не работает вовремя, я сажусь на ebus.


???

google translate is a mess.
Cat Herders of Linux

Re: Whats the trouble with dbus?

Reply #6 –
Living without dbus is possible, but it depends on your use case. It’s challenging for systems relying heavily on inter-process communication. Tools like s6 or runit can minimize systemd/dbus dependence, but they might require significant tweaks.