gnome-boxes (41.2-bp154.1.152) does not start when called from the Gnome
applications menu, cursor briefly changes to loading but then back with no
further response.

The installed org.gnome.Boxes.desktop file has the line:
DBusActivatable=true

But the required service file for this to work is packaged in a separate
package 'gnome-shell-search-provider-boxes' which is not a requirement of
gnome-boxes. Installing with recommends has resolved this issue for me, as does
commenting out the line in the .desktop file (but I am not aware of the
consequences of this).