diff --git a/.github/workflows/hyprcosmic.yml b/.github/workflows/hyprcosmic.yml
index b5b3720..8f56c31 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/hyprcosmic.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/hyprcosmic.yml
@@ -131,24 +131,40 @@ jobs:
       - name: Install into a staging root
         run: just rootdir="$PWD/stage" install
 
-      # These assertions are the "three files, not seven" commit as something
-      # executable. Upstream's recipe wrote /usr/bin/cosmic-session and
-      # cosmic.desktop, which replaced the stock COSMIC session and left nothing
-      # to log into when the fork failed to start. The negative tests are the
-      # important half: it is the files that must NOT appear that made the old
-      # recipe dangerous.
-      - name: Assert it installs beside COSMIC, not over it
+      # Eight files: upstream's six, at upstream's paths, plus this fork's two.
+      # HyprCosmic replaces COSMIC rather than installing beside it, so nothing
+      # else on the machine provides the systemd target, the mimeapps list or
+      # the dconf profile -- a session that omits them starts, and then has no
+      # user target for the portals to attach to, which surfaces much later and
+      # much less clearly than a missing file would.
+      #
+      # Both session entries are asserted. Dropping cosmic.desktop would leave a
+      # machine whose only way in is the HyDE shell, and the last two lines are
+      # what stop the private libexec layout from creeping back.
+      - name: Assert it installs as the session, at upstream's paths
         run: |
           set -eux
-          test -x stage/usr/libexec/hyprcosmic/cosmic-session
+          test -x stage/usr/bin/cosmic-session
           test -x stage/usr/bin/start-hyprcosmic
+          test -x stage/usr/bin/start-cosmic
           test -f stage/usr/share/wayland-sessions/hyprcosmic.desktop
-          test ! -e stage/usr/bin/cosmic-session
-          test ! -e stage/usr/bin/start-cosmic
-          test ! -e stage/usr/share/wayland-sessions/cosmic.desktop
-          test ! -e stage/usr/share/applications/cosmic-mimeapps.list
+          test -f stage/usr/share/wayland-sessions/cosmic.desktop
+          test -f stage/usr/lib/systemd/user/cosmic-session.target
+          test -f stage/usr/share/applications/cosmic-mimeapps.list
+          test -f stage/usr/share/dconf/profile/cosmic
+          test ! -e stage/usr/libexec/hyprcosmic/cosmic-session
           find stage -type f -printf '%M %10s %P\n'
 
+      # Upstream rewrites DCONF_PROFILE to an absolute path in its own start
+      # script; this fork's searches for the profile at runtime instead. Both
+      # behaviours are deliberate, and the pair is easy to get backwards in a
+      # recipe that now installs both scripts.
+      - name: Assert the dconf rewrite hit start-cosmic and only start-cosmic
+        run: |
+          set -eux
+          grep -q 'DCONF_PROFILE=/usr/share/dconf/profile/cosmic' stage/usr/bin/start-cosmic
+          grep -q 'DCONF_PROFILE=cosmic$' stage/usr/bin/start-hyprcosmic
+
       - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
         with:
           name: cosmic-session-${{ matrix.distro }}
diff --git a/Justfile b/Justfile
index 8d9d32e..f4d0c6d 100644
--- a/Justfile
+++ b/Justfile
@@ -9,12 +9,6 @@ systemddir := usrdir / 'lib' / 'systemd' / 'user'
 sessiondir := usrdir / 'share' / 'wayland-sessions'
 applicationdir := usrdir / 'share' / 'applications'
 
-# The fork's own binary directory. It stays out of bindir for the same reason
-# the compositor does: the distro's cosmic-session owns /usr/bin/cosmic-session,
-# and overwriting it would break the stock session -- the one you need to log
-# into when this one will not start.
-privdir := usrdir / 'libexec' / 'hyprcosmic'
-
 default: build-release
 
 build-debug *args:
@@ -36,39 +30,55 @@ clean-dist: clean
 
 # Installs files into the system
 #
-# Three files, where upstream installs seven. The four that are gone are not
-# oversights -- each is owned by the distro's own cosmic-session package, and
-# writing them from here would make a HyprCosmic package conflict with it:
+# All six of upstream's, at upstream's paths, plus this fork's two. HyprCosmic
+# is a fork of COSMIC rather than something installed next to it, so a machine
+# that installs this gets its cosmic-session from here and there is nothing else
+# on disk to provide the target, the mimeapps list or the dconf profile.
 #
-#   data/start-cosmic          -> /usr/bin/start-cosmic
-#   data/cosmic-session.target -> systemd user target
-#   data/cosmic-mimeapps.list  -> the default-applications list
-#   data/dconf/profile/cosmic  -> the dconf profile
+# The two extra files are what make it a HyprCosmic install rather than a rebuilt
+# COSMIC one:
 #
-# None of them are things this fork changes, and a HyprCosmic session needs
-# stock COSMIC installed regardless, for the greeter, the portals and the
-# settings daemon. So it reads that package's copies rather than shipping rival
-# ones. `data/cosmic.desktop` is dropped for the same reason and replaced by
-# hyprcosmic.desktop, which is what puts the second entry on the greeter's menu
-# instead of overwriting the first.
+#   data/start-hyprcosmic  -> /usr/bin/start-hyprcosmic
+#   data/hyprcosmic.desktop -> a second entry on the greeter's menu
 #
-# Upstream's `sed` over DCONF_PROFILE is deliberately not carried across.
-# start-hyprcosmic searches /etc/dconf/profile and then XDG_DATA_DIRS for the
-# profile and exports the bare name only if it finds one; rewriting a prefix
-# into it would pin one location and break an administrator's /etc override.
-# The script says so at the point where it does the search.
+# Both session entries are installed, and both are served by these same
+# binaries. That is deliberate. Replacing COSMIC does not have to mean removing
+# its shell, and keeping cosmic.desktop costs one file while preserving the one
+# property worth keeping from the old beside-install layout: if the HyDE shell
+# will not start, there is still something on the greeter's menu that will.
 install:
     # main binary
-    install -Dm0755 {{ cargo-target-dir }}/release/cosmic-session {{ privdir }}/cosmic-session
+    install -Dm0755 {{ cargo-target-dir }}/release/cosmic-session {{ bindir }}/cosmic-session
 
-    # session start script
+    # session start scripts, this fork's and upstream's
     install -Dm0755 data/start-hyprcosmic {{ bindir }}/start-hyprcosmic
+    install -Dm0755 data/start-cosmic {{ bindir }}/start-cosmic
 
-    # session entry. Note that hyprcosmic.desktop names /usr/bin/start-hyprcosmic
-    # as an absolute Exec: a .desktop file has no way to interpolate a prefix,
-    # so building with prefix != /usr installs an entry that points at a path
-    # this recipe did not write.
+    # Upstream rewrites DCONF_PROFILE in its own start script to an absolute
+    # path under the build prefix. That is carried across for start-cosmic,
+    # because it is upstream's file and diverging from it here would be a change
+    # this fork has no reason to make.
+    #
+    # start-hyprcosmic is deliberately NOT sed'd. It searches /etc/dconf/profile
+    # and then XDG_DATA_DIRS and exports the bare profile name only if it finds
+    # one, which keeps an administrator's /etc override working; pinning a build
+    # prefix into it would break that. The script says so where it searches.
+    sed -i "s|DCONF_PROFILE=cosmic|DCONF_PROFILE={{ cosmic_dconf_profile }}|" {{ bindir }}/start-cosmic
+
+    # systemd user target
+    install -Dm0644 data/cosmic-session.target {{ systemddir }}/cosmic-session.target
+
+    # session entries. Note that both .desktop files name an absolute Exec under
+    # /usr/bin: a .desktop has no way to interpolate a prefix, so building with
+    # prefix != /usr installs entries pointing at paths this recipe did not write.
     install -Dm0644 data/hyprcosmic.desktop {{ sessiondir }}/hyprcosmic.desktop
+    install -Dm0644 data/cosmic.desktop {{ sessiondir }}/cosmic.desktop
+
+    # default applications
+    install -Dm0644 data/cosmic-mimeapps.list {{ applicationdir }}/cosmic-mimeapps.list
+
+    # dconf profile
+    install -Dm0644 data/dconf/profile/cosmic {{ rootdir }}/{{ cosmic_dconf_profile }}
 
 # Vendor Cargo dependencies locally
 vendor:
diff --git a/data/start-hyprcosmic b/data/start-hyprcosmic
index 5f4ebf6..3359093 100755
--- a/data/start-hyprcosmic
+++ b/data/start-hyprcosmic
@@ -56,15 +56,16 @@ if [[ -z "${HYPRCOSMIC_LOGIN_SHELL:-}" && -n "${SHELL:-}" && -x "${SHELL}" ]]; t
     esac
 fi
 
-# The forked binaries, installed alongside rather than over the stock ones.
+# The binaries. HyprCosmic replaces COSMIC rather than installing beside it, so
+# these are the ordinary paths -- this fork's cosmic-session *is* the machine's
+# cosmic-session, and there is no second copy under a private prefix.
 #
-# Pointing at /usr/bin/cosmic-session here would be a silent no-op: the system
-# binary has no profile module, so the session would come up as ordinary COSMIC
-# and the gating would look broken. Installing to a private prefix instead of
-# replacing /usr/bin also means `dnf update cosmic-session` cannot clobber the
-# fork, and the stock session entry keeps working as the escape hatch.
-HYPRCOSMIC_SESSION_BIN="${HYPRCOSMIC_SESSION_BIN:-/usr/libexec/hyprcosmic/cosmic-session}"
-HYPRCOSMIC_COMP_BIN="${HYPRCOSMIC_COMP_BIN:-/usr/libexec/hyprcosmic/cosmic-comp}"
+# Still named in variables rather than called bare. Two reasons: the check below
+# can then say which path was missing, and both stay overridable from the
+# environment, which is how the session is run out of a build tree without
+# installing it.
+HYPRCOSMIC_SESSION_BIN="${HYPRCOSMIC_SESSION_BIN:-/usr/bin/cosmic-session}"
+HYPRCOSMIC_COMP_BIN="${HYPRCOSMIC_COMP_BIN:-/usr/bin/cosmic-comp}"
 
 if [[ ! -x "$HYPRCOSMIC_SESSION_BIN" ]]; then
     echo "start-hyprcosmic: $HYPRCOSMIC_SESSION_BIN is missing or not executable" >&2