NOT Solved: Wheezy Xfce 4.8 - VERY SLOW First Thunar startup

[ComputerBob]

I upgraded my main PC's Xfce 4.6 to Xfce 4.8 this morning.

Now, every time I start Thunar for the first time after a new boot, it takes about 30 seconds to appear, and then about 10 seconds later, a second instance of it appears.

After that, Thunar appears instantly every time I start it during that same session. But if I shut-down or restart my PC, Thunar again takes about 30 seconds to start up, and a second instance of it appears about 10 seconds later.

Google searches seem to indicate that people running other distros are also experiencing this problem.

On advice in a different forum, I deleted the ~/.config/Thunar folder and restarted my PC, but that didn't help -- it created a new Thunar folder, but the long delay and the double-Thunars are still there every time I run Thunar for the first time in a session.

[vbrummond]

That is.. interesting. I will check this out on Sid and see if it happens here.

[vbrummond]

Very strange... I installed it in virtualbox from sid and it works fine. Might be an upgrade thing if you updated to it. It asked me "what file manager I wanted to use". I picked thunar, and it works fine.

[ComputerBob]

More info: http://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=5959

[secipolla]

It's certainly something in your configuration or something that you have installed.
For example, Thunar started to manage shared networks in its latest version. If you have that set up then it could influence.
You could also examine (just to be sure) the other related configs in your home folder like ~/.cache/Thunar or the Xfce ones in ~/.cache, ~/.config or ~/.local. Just try to figure what they are before deleting them.
Then it may be a bug...

[ComputerBob]

In the thread to which I linked, the Xfce developer indicates that it is an unresolved bug that was reported on March 3, 2011.

But, so far, no one can tell me if it only affects those of us who upgraded from Xfce 4.6 to Xfce 4.8 -- so I don't know if it would be worth the time and trouble to blow away my two Wheezy Xfce PCs and reinstall/reconfigure Wheezy Xfce 4.8 on them from scratch.

Of course, that's not an option right now, since the Wheezy weekly iso builds are missing from the Debian download page again.

[secipolla]

Don't reinstall only because of that. It doesn't make sense for me. The fact that you have upgraded only means you have old configs in your home folder so if you want to start from scratch then simply delete every Xfce related stuff in it (back up before as you may want to keep some things like your custom thunar actions - ~/.config/Thunar/uca.xml ).
If Thunar was messed system wide then the bug would probably be with the package that would have failed to clear old files, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
You could, for example, after a fresh boot, instead of starting thunar run 'gksu thunar' and see if it also takes 30 seconds to appear. If it doesn't then the failure is in some config in your home folder.

[ComputerBob]

You could, for example, after a fresh boot, instead of starting thunar run 'gksu thunar' and see if it also takes 30 seconds to appear. If it doesn't then the failure is in some config in your home folder.

Good idea!

Yesterday, I ran thunar from a terminal as a normal user, and got the same problems (with no feedback or error message), but I didn't think to run thunar in a root terminal, to determine if the problem is in my home folder.

I'll try that when I get home from work.

BTW, the new Thunar doesn't include any of my previous custom actions, so I suspect that they were deleted during the Xfce upgrade. If so, I'll try copying them from my secondary PC (that's still running Xfce 4.6).

UPDATE: In the link that I posted above, the Xfce core developer says that his system suffers from this problem, too, and it doesn't depend on how you install Xfce. That makes me feel better! I told him about your suggestion, in case he has time to try it before I have time to do it.

[ComputerBob]

I went home for lunch and did the following:

1. Rebooted my PC.
2. Opened a terminal.
3. Entered "su" to get root permissions.
4. Entered "thunar" to start Thunar.
5. Thunar started immediately.
6. Closed Thunar.
7. Closed the terminal.
8. Started Thunar as normal user.
9. 30-second delay before Thunar appeared, with a second Thunar appearing several seconds later.

I think that confirms that whatever is causing the problem is in my user profile!

[wmittz]

Mine does the same thing. After a fresh reboot no matter if I use the desktop icon or I use the app menu it still takes about 30 seconds. After that it is normal.
Running Sid, amd64. Did a fresh install of Squeeze about a month and a half ago with XFCE 4.6. and then upgraded.

[MoaTib]

I upgraded from 4.6 to 4.8 (in fact, 4.4 to 4.6 to 4.8 ) and it works fine here.

Edit:
https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7373
http://foo-projects.org/pipermail/xfce/ ... 28628.html

[ComputerBob]

I upgraded from 4.6 to 4.8 (in fact, 4.4 to 4.6 to 4.8 ) and it works fine here.

Edit:
https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7373
http://foo-projects.org/pipermail/xfce/ ... 28628.html

Yup, all of that information is already in the Xfce forum thread to which I linked above. The problem only affects some users (including the Xfce Core Developer) and it isn't affected by whether you install from scratch or upgrade from Xfce 4.6 to 4.8.

But the fact that it affects the Xfce Core Developer on his PC tells me that someone who knows what they're doing is going to be working on figuring out what's causing the problem.

[guoxh]

Same problem here, on a fresh installation.

[ComputerBob]

According to the Xfce Core Developer, the problem has been fixed:

http://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=5959

UPDATE: Despite what the developer claimed, the problem has NOT been fixed for anyone who uses Wheezy and network shares. See that xfce.org thread for details.

[visnotjl]

It seems to be a problem depending on the right sequence of parameters in /etc/nsswitch.conf.
After setting the line: [hosts: files wins dns] thunar starts in a hurry and the "network" link works out of the box.

[ComputerBob]

It seems to be a problem depending on the right sequence of parameters in /etc/xsswitch.conf.
After setting the line: [hosts: files wins dns] thunar starts in a hurry and the "network" link works out of the box.

As I replied to your similar posting about the problem in my thread at the XFCE forums:

Thanks for posting that information - I really do appreciate it.

However, I try to never make undocumented and unsupported changes to my system without understanding exactly why I'm doing it, and without understanding the possible unintended consequences that those changes might have on OTHER system functionality, security, etc.

Can you provide that information, and do you know of anyone else who's using your solution?

[visnotjl]

I must not post when I am in a hurry!
I made a typo in this thread too!
The configuration file to alter is "/etc/nsswitch.conf". Putting "wins" just after "files" and before every other parameter, in the "hosts" line, does not disable anything. The system works as expected (be careful not to delete the "dns" parameter otherwise browsers will not have network names translated).+

[ComputerBob]

Although it may appear to work well for you, it looks to me like the change and addition that you have done to your systems are undocumented and unsupported.

So even though you seem very confident about what you've done, I wouldn't want to follow your instructions unless the Thunar/XFCE dev(s) "gave their blessing" to what you've suggested.

But I thank you and wish you well -- and I sincerely hope that the proper devs will study your suggestion and tell us for sure if it's going to be a real, documented/supported "solution" to the Thunar problem.

[herbie643]

The one thing I would love to know is this, "How the heck did you figure out that nsswitch.conf was the issue?"
I did it on mine and it works.
Now I trundle on trying to figure out how to get rid of the Grey screen when I log on. Sorry for the segue, couldn't resist.