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dbbolton
May 21st, 2008, 06:06 AM
I installed Xfce by installing the 'xfce4' package on Ubuntu 8.04. When I choose the Xfce session from GDM and login, I just get a blank screen with the mouse pointer. I can't right click or anything. I just have to press ctrl+alt+backspace to get back to GDM. However, sometimes the session seems to load normally. Does anyone know what could be causing this?

Here is my /usr/share/xsessions/xfce4.desktop file:



[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
# The names/descriptions should really be better
Name=Xfce Session
Name[fr]=Session Xfce
Name[et]=Xfce 4 sessioon
Name[fi]=Xfce 4 -istunto
Name[he]=Xfce 4
Name[ko]=Xfce 4 세션
Name[nl]=Xfce 4 Sessie
Name[ru]=Сеанс Xfce 4
Name[zh_TW]=Xfce 4 工作階段
Comment=Use this session to run Xfce as your desktop environment
Comment[et]=kasuta seda sessiooni, et Xfce käivituks sinu töökeskkonnana
Comment[fi]=Valitse tämä istunto käyttääksesi Xfce:tä työpöytäympäristönäsi
Comment[fr]=Sélectionner cette session pour utiliser Xfce comme environnment graphique
Comment[he]=השתמש בזה כדי להפעיל את Xfce כשולחן העובדה שלך
Comment[ko]=사용자 데스크탑 환경으로 Xfce를 이용합니다.
Comment[nl]=Deze optie start de Xfce 4 Desktop Environment
Comment[ru]=Запускает рабочую среду Xfce
Comment[zh_TW]=使用這個工作階段載入 Xfce 4 作為您的桌面環境
Exec=startxfce4
Icon=
Type=Application
X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=xfce-utils

HunterSBuntu
May 21st, 2008, 12:47 PM
I'm having the same problem.

I don't have solution to offer unfortuntaly.

There are a few threads with people having this problem but no one has posted any explanation of what could be causing it yet as far as I can see.

geoff123
May 21st, 2008, 01:49 PM
I noticed the same thing and it only happens occasionally. When it does, I an Ctrl-alt-backspace and then try again which usually works on the second try.

dbbolton
May 21st, 2008, 08:30 PM
Perhaps a bug report should be filed, although I suspect that this problem has to do with the Hardy packages and not Xfce itself.

ninjabob7
May 23rd, 2008, 12:36 AM
Same problem. I installed xubuntu-desktop, and it worked fine for a while. Now it only works occasionally. I get a blank "XFCE blue" screen with the mouse pointer.
In my case, I can still run XFCE by choosing the Failsafe Terminal session and running xfce4-session, but it's getting very annoying. I don't even know where to start diagnosing.

raskolnikov_kr
May 23rd, 2008, 05:49 AM
I noticed the same thing and it only happens occasionally. When it does, I an Ctrl-alt-backspace and then try again which usually works on the second try.

I same problerom too.
I use Ctrl-Alt-Backspace and try again twice, then i in xfce4.
what can i do?
i think how reinstall gdm.
somebody tell me
how to reinstall gdm.
or how to kill gdm, then use xdm or slim.

geoff123
May 25th, 2008, 04:09 AM
Looks like this has already been reported as a bug..
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/221657

yaztromo
May 29th, 2008, 11:36 AM
I just installed xubuntu-desktop and it did work a few times. Now I'm having the same problem and occaisonally gnome does it too.

yaztromo
May 29th, 2008, 11:56 AM
Actually, just been thinking. Would just doing a fresh install of xubuntu get round the problem. Sounds like you guys all installed xubuntu after you install ubuntu?

dbbolton
May 29th, 2008, 06:24 PM
Actually, just been thinking. Would just doing a fresh install of xubuntu get round the problem. Sounds like you guys all installed xubuntu after you install ubuntu?
I didn't install xubuntu or the 'xubuntu-desktop' package. I installed the 'xfce4' package, and I have tried purging it, then reinstalling it, to no avail.

ninjabob7
June 2nd, 2008, 09:29 PM
Actually, just been thinking. Would just doing a fresh install of xubuntu get round the problem. Sounds like you guys all installed xubuntu after you install ubuntu?

For me, this wouldn't work. This computer has 3 users, and I'm the only one that uses XFCE. Yes, I guess I could install Xubuntu and then ubuntu-desktop over that, but that's a lot of work.

Is anyone else using the NVIDIA proprietary driver? I'm wondering if this might be related to that. I also noticed recently that glx isn't working anymore, but it has the same problem without XFCE running.

It seems like it works from a cold start but not otherwise, but I haven't tested that yet.

yaztromo
June 3rd, 2008, 07:35 AM
For me, this wouldn't work. This computer has 3 users, and I'm the only one that uses XFCE. Yes, I guess I could install Xubuntu and then ubuntu-desktop over that, but that's a lot of work.

Is anyone else using the NVIDIA proprietary driver? I'm wondering if this might be related to that. I also noticed recently that glx isn't working anymore, but it has the same problem without XFCE running.

It seems like it works from a cold start but not otherwise, but I haven't tested that yet.

I'm using the Intel graphics driver so I don't think it's driver related. Also it isn't reproducible every time since another machine I have has installed the xubuntu-desktop package and it works okay.

When I get chance I will reinstall the affected machine afresh and see if that helps. Would really like to stop using Gnome.

ninjabob7
June 14th, 2008, 07:35 PM
Found a workaround! In /usr/share/xsessions/xfce4.desktop, change

Exec=startxfce4
to

Exec=xfce4-session
This means the bug is either in startxfce4 or the default settings (the config file does not exist on my system.)

Michael%S
June 15th, 2008, 10:45 AM
Thank you! I was starting to think of a clean install and was just about to open a thread of my own when I saw this. Works like a charm, so far. :D

ninjabob7
June 25th, 2008, 11:32 PM
We could still use a real solution for this. With my workaround, the wallpaper sometimes does not come up. This isn't too big of a deal for me, since I don't have any desktop icons, but seems to indicate that there is a difference between startxfce4 and xfce4-session which may be important.

xerodeth
October 2nd, 2008, 04:52 AM
so not sure if anyone still needs help with this... but this is what works for me. in your home dir there should be a folder called .cache, go into that folder and delete the sessions folder and the xfce4. i removed both these folders and the desktop came back as well as wallpaper.

wag2639
October 4th, 2009, 08:57 PM
so not sure if anyone still needs help with this... but this is what works for me. in your home dir there should be a folder called .cache, go into that folder and delete the sessions folder and the xfce4. i removed both these folders and the desktop came back as well as wallpaper.

Thanks this worked.

micmath
October 5th, 2009, 10:23 AM
so not sure if anyone still needs help with this... but this is what works for me. in your home dir there should be a folder called .cache, go into that folder and delete the sessions folder and the xfce4. i removed both these folders and the desktop came back as well as wallpaper.

I can confirm that this does fix the problem for me too. Many thanks!