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View Full Version : [xubuntu] Window Manager Not Working In My Profile Only



NoSalt
August 26th, 2014, 03:12 PM
Hello All,

I was using XUbuntu 12.04 and everything was working great. As I use this machine as a server, I do not log into the desktop very often, and I do most of my updates over the network via SSH. I am not sure if my problem happened after an update, but one day I logged into my account and the window manager was not working. None of the windows I opened had any title bars, along with the accompanying min/max, close, etc. buttons. I also cannot right-click on the desktop and I cannot switch to a different desktop using the desktop switcher. I created a new account and logged in with that, and everything works perfectly. A few days ago, I got prompted to upgrade to 14.04, so I did in the hopes that whatever was "broken" would be fixed with the update. As it turns out, that was not the case. The update went well, and I still have my issue in my profile only. Whenever I log in as another user, everything works great. I did a brief Google search for the issue and the only thing I could find was the command "xfce4 --replace", but I do not seem to have the "xfce4" command. I have a lot of "xfce4-xxxx" commands, but no "xfce4" by itself. Does anybody know what could be causing this, and possibly have a fix for me?

Thanks for taking the time to read. Have a great day. :-)

ajgreeny
August 26th, 2014, 04:40 PM
Is xfwm4 running in the Settings-manager ->Session and Startup ->Session tab?

If it is not listed you need to start it with alt+F2, command xfwm4 and then check that it is showing and has the Restart Style of "Immediately". If it is running perhaps a restart will help, though I presume from what you say that this still happens after a reboot of your system?

NoSalt
August 26th, 2014, 04:50 PM
Yes ... I have rebooted multiple times and the problem persists. It wouldn't be so frustrating if it weren't only my profile that is messed up.

ajgreeny
August 26th, 2014, 08:43 PM
Yes ... I have rebooted multiple times and the problem persists. It wouldn't be so frustrating if it weren't only my profile that is messed up.
And what about xfwm4 running?

NoSalt
August 26th, 2014, 10:23 PM
I'm not sure what you're asking. When I "ps aux | grep xfce4" I get the following processes:

xfce4-session
xfce4-power-manager
xfce4-panel
xfce4-volumed

However, I do not have a binary named "xfce4" which I can run as "xfce4 --replace". All my binaries in /usr/bin are "xfce4-xxxxxxx".


I just re-read your question. When I "ps aux | grep xfwm4" I get nothing.

ajgreeny
August 27th, 2014, 10:48 PM
Run command which xfwm4 to see if it is even installed? If not install it and then logout and in again, unless, of course, you are running a different window manager such as openbox or compiz and wish to continue using that one.

NoSalt
August 28th, 2014, 03:33 PM
Running "which xfwm4" I get "/usr/bin/xfwm4".

So I tried running "xfwm4 --replace" again, but apparently I cannot do this via Putty, while at work. I'll give it a shot when I get home.

NoSalt
August 29th, 2014, 02:35 PM
Ok ... so I finally got home and tried "xfce4 --replace", and it worked perfectly! So my two questions are (1) Why did this work (i.e., what went wrong to make this work), and (2) How do I prevent this from happening again, say when I restart the server again?

Thanks again to all who took the time to read and respond.

ajgreeny
August 30th, 2014, 05:23 PM
As it is a server does the xsession start by default or do you usually boot to cli? A gui xsession is not the way most servers are run and could be the cause of the problem.

Try removing all the saved sessions in ~/.cache/sessions if there are any which you can do from the Settings-manager ->Sessions and Startup and make sure that you have not set the system to remember sessions when shutting down.

Hopefully that will do it.