Create a custom session

minnie_eg amany.elguindy@gmail.com 2012 Jana Svarova jana.svarova@gmail.com 2013 Petr Kovar pknbe@volny.cz 2014 Create a custom session by installing a desktop session file. Create a custom session minnie_eg

This assumes the reader knows how to edit files as the root user and how to navigate through the manual page. By the end of this page, the reader will be able to create custom sessions with different options.

To create your own session with customized configuration, follow these steps:

Create a .desktop file in /etc/X11/sessions/new-session.desktop. Make sure that the file specifies the following entries:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Type=Application
Name=Custom session
Comment=This is our custom session
Exec=gnome-session --session=new-session

The Exec entry specifies the command, possibly with arguments, to execute. You can run the custom session with the gnome-session --session=new-session command.

For more information on the parameters that you can use with gnome-session, see the gnome-session man page.

Create a custom session file in /usr/share/gnome-session/sessions/new-session.session where you can specify the name and required components for the session:

[GNOME Session]
Name=Custom Session
RequiredComponents=gnome-shell-classic;gnome-settings-daemon;

Note that any item that you specify in RequiredComponents needs to have its corresponding .desktop file in /usr/share/applications/.

After configuring the custom session files, the new session will be available in the session list on the GDM login screen.

Known issues

On a Debian or Debian-based system, the following error may occur:

Xsession: unable to launch "" Xsession --- "" not found; falling back to default session.

Should this happen to you, follow these steps to change the /etc/X11/Xsession.d/20x11-common_process-args file:

Change STARTUP_FULL_PATH=$(/usr/bin/which "$1"|| true) to STARTUP_FULL_PATH=$(/usr/bin/which $1 || true)

Change STARTUP="$1" to STARTUP=$1