Title bars disappeared and other window manager breakage

[gaz514]

Hi all,

I came into work this morning to find XFCE's window manager completely broken: no title bars, unable to move windows around, and unable to focus on a window to type in it (terminal, browser address bar, etc.). I tried going into the preferences then window manager settings, but just got a blank panel. Deleting .config/xfce4 didn't solve the problem.

Any ideas? I'm thinking of just doing a clean install of Xubuntu, or more likely another Xfce-based distro, since my current setup (regular Ubuntu with Xubuntu also installed) is quite messed up (same startup applications being used for Gnome and Xfce, and various other issues). I can't remember whether I did any updates last Friday that might have broken it.

Interestingly I used to have similar issues with Xmonad when I used it - some features didn't work properly and I had to restart the WM to fix them. Never did find a proper solution.

Thanks.

[Copper Bezel]

Is the window manager broken, or just not running? Try running xfwm4 --replace. If that brings it back, then you can set it as a startup application (which, as you say, would also mean that Gnome would use XFWM) or save the session for future logins with the XFCE session manager (something that seems simpler but which I don't have any real experience with.)

[koen.lefever]

I have the same problem: no window borders, the "Window Manager" screen in the Settings Manager is empty, I cannot increase the number of workspaces (it jumps to one single workspace), text fields cannot get focus (well, the field I'm typing in now has the focus, everything I try to type into Synaptic or Xterm appears in this field on my browser - the scrollbars and menus in Synaptic however can get focus), other windows in the background cannot get focus...

Just before this happened, I installed "Goobox" and "asunder" with their dependencies from Synaptic, which asked me to restart my computer. After the install the WM was unusable. Uninstalling Goobox and asunder did not revert the situation.

I tried the "xfwm4 --replace" as suggested in the above mail, but that did not help, got error "(xfwm4:2069) GTK Warning: cannot open display."

[Toz]

From one of the xfce developers: http://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=6102

[koen.lefever]

From one of the xfce developers: http://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=6102

Thank you, Toz, the solution from your link, being "xfwm4 is not restored by the session manager - you can either start xfwm4 with Alt+f2 or clear the session cache (rm -r ~/.cache/sessions)", does solve the problem.

[graysky]

Found this a google search for "xfce4 no window bars" and wanted to say thanks! Same problem on my laptop. Clearing the session and manually running xfwm4 once did the trick!

[Budchekov]

Try running xfwm4 --replace.

Many thanks Copper Bezel, this was the simple answer to a seemingly endless headache !:)

[bkline]

I, too, am very grateful for the workarounds. I'd like to know what sorts of things could cause this problem, so I could perhaps avoid stumbling onto it in the future. Thanks!

[HousieMousie2]

From one of the xfce developers: http://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=6102

Thanks Toz! Worked like a charm!

[SnickerSnack]

I had this problem too. Honestly, I'm not sure how anyone is supposed to run commands when the problem is that you can't give focus to windows so that you can type in them. :confused:

Lucky for me (and maybe this is intended, but not said?) I use chromium, which is handled differently (not by the wm?) by default. I was able to use google to find this page and then copy/paste the command into the run dialog.

How are others using this?

[shebaw]

From one of the xfce developers: http://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=6102

Thank you Toz!

[Pokey_blue32]

I have had this happen now on LXDE AND GNOME...most annoying when it happens on GNOME. It unloads somehow and refuses to reload on start.

GNOME..I thought the OS was broken as it happened so randomly..now LDXE did it. It UNLOADED on me!
What I dont understand is HOW this happened..

FPC starts acting up(as apparent when QEMU chokes on my compiled OS...I have to FORCE a reboot from another GeTTY, as the WM refuses to do it...now this...

Hard enough to get LinuxMint or Ubuntu(let alone Debian) configured and responsive...now this?
PISSED off enough about all the incomplete WM changes lately(mostly GNOME3)....

...and WINDOWS does not make my life easier as I work with OPEN SOURCE...

[cybergalvez]

Thank you, Toz, the solution from your link, being "xfwm4 is not restored by the session manager - you can either start xfwm4 with Alt+f2 or clear the session cache (rm -r ~/.cache/sessions)", does solve the problem.

Thank you, I just had this problem and this fixed it for me

[bkline]

Anyone ever find out what's causing the problem in the first place?

[obaino]

I also experienced the same problem in Xubuntu 12.04.
xfwm4 --replace did the trick for me... but I am also interesting in finding out what causes the problem...

[Toz]

xfwm4 is crashing - you might be able to get some more info from ~/.xsession-errors, but you'd have to debug the process to try to get a better understanding. More information on debugging xfce & xfwm can be found here: http://spurint.org/projects/xfce4-debugging/. Most xfwm crashes tend to be random and not generated on demand, so it might be difficult to debug. However, if you do go through the debug steps, be sure to create a bug report here (https://bugzilla.xfce.org/) or here (https://bugs.launchpad.net/).

I remember reading somewhere that the developers were looking at adding in some code that would automatically restart it if it crashed, but can't find the reference. Not sure if its made it into the new 4.10 release. Unfortunately (or fortunately for me), xfwm doesn't crash on my computer so I can't debug it myself.

[spamhier]

From one of the xfce developers: http://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=6102

Thank you Toz. The problem still exists in xubuntu 12.04, but your solution also still works.

Regards,
SPamhier

[Toz]

Thank you Toz. The problem still exists in xubuntu 12.04, but your solution also still works.

Regards,
SPamhier

I'm glad it worked for you.

And welcome to the forums. Enjoy your stay.