gnome-control-center/docs/BUILDING_WITH_TOOLBX.md

Building GNOME Settings in a Toolbx

Toolbx provides a Fedora-based development container that is ideal for developing GNOME Settings without risking messing up with your host operating system.

Create a Toolbx with:

 toolbox create --release <release-number>

(preferably choose the latest Fedora release)

After creation, you can enter your toolbx with

toolbox enter --release <release-number>

Install development packages for GNOME Settings

To install the development dependencies in GNOME Settings you can use:

sudo dnf install -y gnome-desktop4-devel libgweather4-devel \
                    gnome-settings-daemon-devel libnma-gtk4-devel \
                    colord-gtk4-devel
sudo dnf builddep gnome-control-center

Perform a local build

Inside the gnome-control-center repository you can prepare the build with:

meson setup _build

If all dependencies were satisfied, you should be able to build the project from inside the _build folder.

cd _build
ninja

At the first time you do this you should also run sudo ninja install so that gsettings and other resources are installed in system paths.

Running

With that, you can run GNOME Settings from its executable:

./shell/gnome-control-center

Tips

• If meson _build is still missing dependencies, you can check which dependencies we are using in our Fedora CI build for reference to what to install. See FDO_DISTRIBUTION_PACKAGES for the whole list of packages in https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-control-center/-/blob/main/.gitlab-ci.yml#L88

Additional packages for specific components

GNOME Settings should now open, but many components require additional packages inside the Toolbx to function properly.

• rygel and gnome-user-share for the Sharing Panel
• gnome-shell for Multitasking and the videos in Mouse
• flatpak for showing apps in Applications that are installed outside your Toolbx
• gnome-backgrounds and fedora-workstation-backgrounds to show some backgrounds in Appearance
• NetworkManager-{vpnc,openvpn,openconnect,pptp,ssh}-gnome for VPN functionality
• yelp and gnome-user-docs for showing help information (press F1)

To install all of these at once, you can use:

sudo dnf install -y rygel gnome-user-share gnome-shell flatpak \
                    gnome-backgrounds fedora-workstation-backgrounds \
                    NetworkManager-{vpnc,openvpn,openconnect,pptp,ssh}-gnome \
                    yelp gnome-user-docs