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Gray screen on loading xfce session (xfwm4 suspected)

Graphical Environments, Managers, Multimedia & Desktop questions.
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-iak-
Posts: 27
Joined: 2017-10-16 17:02

Gray screen on loading xfce session (xfwm4 suspected)

#1 Post by -iak- »

Hi everyone.

I'm on Debian Buster with xfce. Whenever I login I see a grey screen that disappears only when the session has been fully loaded.

According to this page ( https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=10016 ) I should rebuild xfwm4 from git, in order to have it with MONITOR_ROOT_PIXMAP enabled.

I downloaded it from here, as suggested ( https://git.xfce.org/xfce/xfwm4/commit/ ... 0cd7ef1d18 ), then I did this:

Code: Select all

sudo apt remove xfwm4

Code: Select all

sudo ./autogen.sh
but after installation is finished I read

Code: Select all

Preparing package directory /home/iak/.progs/xfwm4-6caed779e627c368e2d3e578d1fad60cd7ef1d18...
Running glib-gettextize --force --copy...
Copying file po/Makefile.in.in

Please add the files
  codeset.m4 gettext.m4 glibc21.m4 iconv.m4 isc-posix.m4 lcmessage.m4
  progtest.m4
from the /usr/share/aclocal directory to your autoconf macro directory
or directly to your aclocal.m4 file.
You will also need config.guess and config.sub, which you can get from
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/config/.

Running intltoolize --automake --copy --force
Patching file 'po/Makefile.in.in'
Running libtoolize --force --copy...
libtoolize: putting auxiliary files in '.'.
libtoolize: copying file './ltmain.sh'
libtoolize: Consider adding 'AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS([m4])' to configure.ac,
libtoolize: and rerunning libtoolize and aclocal.
libtoolize: Consider adding '-I m4' to ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS in Makefile.am.
Running aclocal   -I /usr/share/xfce4/dev-tools/m4macros -I /usr/share/xfce4/dev-tools/m4macros...
Running autoheader...
Running automake --force-missing --add-missing --copy --gnu...
Running autoconf...

Running /home/iak/.progs/xfwm4-6caed779e627c368e2d3e578d1fad60cd7ef1d18/configure --enable-maintainer-mode ...
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking whether make supports nested variables... yes
checking whether UID '1000' is supported by ustar format... yes
checking whether GID '1000' is supported by ustar format... yes
checking how to create a ustar tar archive... gnutar
checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... yes
checking whether make supports nested variables... (cached) yes
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
checking for gcc... gcc
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking for suffix of executables... 
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking whether gcc understands -c and -o together... yes
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep
checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking for sys/types.h... yes
checking for sys/stat.h... yes
checking for stdlib.h... yes
checking for string.h... yes
checking for memory.h... yes
checking for strings.h... yes
checking for inttypes.h... yes
checking for stdint.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... yes
checking minix/config.h usability... no
checking minix/config.h presence... no
checking for minix/config.h... no
checking whether it is safe to define __EXTENSIONS__... yes
checking for library containing strerror... none required
checking for gcc... (cached) gcc
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... (cached) yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... (cached) yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... (cached) none needed
checking whether gcc understands -c and -o together... (cached) yes
checking dependency style of gcc... (cached) gcc3
checking whether NLS is requested... yes
checking for intltool >= 0.35... 0.51.0 found
checking for intltool-update... /usr/bin/intltool-update
checking for intltool-merge... /usr/bin/intltool-merge
checking for intltool-extract... /usr/bin/intltool-extract
checking for xgettext... /usr/bin/xgettext
checking for msgmerge... /usr/bin/msgmerge
checking for msgfmt... /usr/bin/msgfmt
checking for gmsgfmt... /usr/bin/msgfmt
checking for perl... /usr/bin/perl
checking for perl >= 5.8.1... 5.26.0
checking build system type... x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
checking host system type... x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
checking how to print strings... printf
checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /bin/sed
checking for fgrep... /bin/grep -F
checking for ld used by gcc... /usr/bin/ld
checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
checking for BSD- or MS-compatible name lister (nm)... /usr/bin/nm -B
checking the name lister (/usr/bin/nm -B) interface... BSD nm
checking whether ln -s works... yes
checking the maximum length of command line arguments... 1572864
checking how to convert x86_64-pc-linux-gnu file names to x86_64-pc-linux-gnu format... func_convert_file_noop
checking how to convert x86_64-pc-linux-gnu file names to toolchain format... func_convert_file_noop
checking for /usr/bin/ld option to reload object files... -r
checking for objdump... objdump
checking how to recognize dependent libraries... pass_all
checking for dlltool... no
checking how to associate runtime and link libraries... printf %s\n
checking for ar... ar
checking for archiver @FILE support... @
checking for strip... strip
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking command to parse /usr/bin/nm -B output from gcc object... ok
checking for sysroot... no
checking for a working dd... /bin/dd
checking how to truncate binary pipes... /bin/dd bs=4096 count=1
checking for mt... mt
checking if mt is a manifest tool... no
checking for dlfcn.h... yes
checking for objdir... .libs
checking if gcc supports -fno-rtti -fno-exceptions... no
checking for gcc option to produce PIC... -fPIC -DPIC
checking if gcc PIC flag -fPIC -DPIC works... yes
checking if gcc static flag -static works... yes
checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... yes
checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... (cached) yes
checking whether the gcc linker (/usr/bin/ld -m elf_x86_64) supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether -lc should be explicitly linked in... no
checking dynamic linker characteristics... GNU/Linux ld.so
checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
checking whether stripping libraries is possible... yes
checking if libtool supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build static libraries... no
checking for inline... inline
checking for ANSI C header files... (cached) yes
checking stropts.h usability... yes
checking stropts.h presence... yes
checking for stropts.h... yes
checking for daemon... yes
checking for setsid... yes
checking for opendir... yes
checking for ceil in -lm... yes
checking locale.h usability... yes
checking locale.h presence... yes
checking for locale.h... yes
checking for LC_MESSAGES... yes
checking for CFPreferencesCopyAppValue... no
checking for CFLocaleCopyCurrent... no
checking libintl.h usability... yes
checking libintl.h presence... yes
checking for libintl.h... yes
checking for ngettext in libc... yes
checking for dgettext in libc... yes
checking for bind_textdomain_codeset... yes
checking for msgfmt... (cached) /usr/bin/msgfmt
checking for dcgettext... yes
checking if msgfmt accepts -c... yes
checking for gmsgfmt... (cached) /usr/bin/msgfmt
checking for xgettext... (cached) /usr/bin/xgettext
checking for catalogs to be installed...  am ar ast be bg bn ca cs da de el en_AU en_GB eo es et eu fi fr gl he hr hu id is it ja kk ko lt lv ms nb nl nn oc pa pl pt_BR pt ro ru si sk sl sq sr sv te th tr ug uk ur_PK ur vi zh_CN zh_HK zh_TW
checking for bind_textdomain_codeset... (cached) yes
checking for locales directory... ${datarootdir}/locale
checking for additional xgettext flags... --keyword=Q_ --from-code=UTF-8
checking for X... libraries , headers 
checking for gethostbyname... yes
checking for connect... yes
checking for remove... yes
checking for shmat... yes
checking for IceConnectionNumber in -lICE... no
checking for main in -lX11... yes
checking for SmcSaveYourselfDone in -lSM... no
checking for XShapeCombineShape in -lXext... no
checking for pkg-config... /usr/bin/pkg-config
checking pkg-config is at least version 0.9.0... yes
checking for gtk+-2.0 >= 2.14.0... not found
*** The required package gtk+-2.0 was not found on your system.
*** Please install gtk+-2.0 (atleast version 2.14.0) or adjust
*** the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable if you
*** installed the package in a nonstandard prefix so that
*** pkg-config is able to find it.
and when I reboot it looks like there's no compositor installed at all.

What am I doing wrong? Thanks a lot guys.

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stevepusser
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Re: Gray screen on loading xfce session (xfwm4 suspected)

#2 Post by stevepusser »

Hmmm---running testing? How much experience do you have running Debian? (I'm just compiling data for a certain conjecture.)

Anyhow, if you read your output and look at the end, you can see your build failed for reasons explained in the output (missing build-dependencies). However, since your problem has a well known cause and an easy solution, I'd try that instead:

Problem and cause: Gray "flash" will only appear when the built-in xfce compositor is enabled.

Solution: Disable the xfce compositor and use compton instead. Use of compton-conf is suggested to configure compton.

Building and installing base parts of your desktop from raw source instead of using the Debian packaging system is tricky and full of pitfalls. I encourage learning how build modified packages correctly, but for your problem, there is an easier fix.
MX Linux packager and developer

-iak-
Posts: 27
Joined: 2017-10-16 17:02

Re: Gray screen on loading xfce session (xfwm4 suspected)

#3 Post by -iak- »

Thank you stevepusser.

I've been using Xubuntu and Ubuntu studio for 2 years (if it counts as Debian usage) and Debian Stretch for 2 months. I switched to Buster because I need Kdenlive up to date.

I already know Compton and I used it several times, even for the gray flash problem with Stretch, but I find that it doesn't match perfectly with the whole DE.
There is always some little imperfection which is certainly unimportant, but rebuilding from source would also be a good chance for me to learn more.

EDIT:

The problem for me was that I thought that I should have installed a package named "gtk+-2.0", which obviously doesn't exist. I searched and I found out that I needed "libgtk2.0-dev". So I installed all the "-devs" that I needed, I compiled and installed and right now I'm rebooting.
Last edited by -iak- on 2017-10-26 19:09, edited 1 time in total.

-iak-
Posts: 27
Joined: 2017-10-16 17:02

Re: Gray screen on loading xfce session (xfwm4 suspected)

#4 Post by -iak- »

Perfect, the gray flash is gone now, everything seems to work fine.

I've got a shorter black glimpse with a blue pixel on the high-left corner now :lol:

I appreciate suggestions, if it's not too much demanding for you, obviously.
Last edited by -iak- on 2017-10-26 19:15, edited 1 time in total.

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stevepusser
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Re: Gray screen on loading xfce session (xfwm4 suspected)

#5 Post by stevepusser »

Well, let me see if it's possible to rebuild (backport) Buster's Kdenlive on Stretch. No doubt that would also be welcome in the Stretch-based MX 17 repo that we're building up; we will have a public beta very soon, though the alphas are also available to everyone if they know where to look--some non-developers are already playing with them.
MX Linux packager and developer

-iak-
Posts: 27
Joined: 2017-10-16 17:02

Re: Gray screen on loading xfce session (xfwm4 suspected)

#6 Post by -iak- »

I think a repo like that is a great idea. Thanks for that. Maybe a good idea could also be adding this git version of xfwm4 in order to make it easier for noobs like me.
-iak- wrote:I've got a shorter black glimpse with a blue pixel on the high-left corner now :lol:

I appreciate suggestions, if it's not too much demanding for you, obviously.
Did it ever happen to you?

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stevepusser
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Re: Gray screen on loading xfce session (xfwm4 suspected)

#7 Post by stevepusser »

-iak- wrote:I think a repo like that is a great idea. Thanks for that. Maybe a good idea could also be adding this git version of xfwm4 in order to make it easier for noobs like me.
-iak- wrote:I've got a shorter black glimpse with a blue pixel on the high-left corner now :lol:

I appreciate suggestions, if it's not too much demanding for you, obviously.
Did it ever happen to you?
No, but we aren't using that git version of wfwm4, either. MX Linux is a xfce distro, so we are of course interested in this type of problem if it happens to us. We can reproduce the gray screen with the xfce compositor, but the consensus is just to use Compton if it bothers you. We have a tweak tool that installs a custom compton configuration that may prevent the problems you had with it.

I just rebuilt Kdenlive from Buster on a generic Stretch base for MX 17 without any problems on my own laptop. I'll test to see if it installs. I also added it to my own multimedia repo on the openSUSE build service, but the 64-bit build setup appears to be broken and it's saying it can't find a build-depend that is in Stretch. Hope they fix it: https://build.opensuse.org/package/show ... t/kdenlive

But the MX 17 packages will be fully Stretch-compatible because I built them on pure Stretch libraries.
MX Linux packager and developer

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