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Probems initializing xfce?

Graphical Environments, Managers, Multimedia & Desktop questions.
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kitjackson
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Probems initializing xfce?

#1 Post by kitjackson »

Operating System: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)
Kernel: Linux 5.10.0-15-amd64
xfce 4.16.2

Something isn't always completing properly when xfce starts. The xfce panel appears correctly (I've got one panel across the top of the screen) but desktop icons don't appear at all.

When I start an application from the menu such as Mousepad or Thunar they start but are incorrectly placed, always appearing in the top left hand corner of the screen on top of the panel. The buttons for minmize, maximize and close the application don't appear in any application and the windows are not sizable.

Logging on as another user does work OK and the desktop and applications appear and behave as expected. It looks like the initialization file for this user has got screwed up. Can I just delete something and hope it gets restored properly? What files are likely to be causing the trouble?

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Hallvor
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Re: Probems initializing xfce?

#2 Post by Hallvor »

I think they are located somewhere in .config in your home directory. You can delete the XFCE entries in .config, and the defaults will get restored. (It is probably a good idea to test this with the new user first.)
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kitjackson
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Re: Probems initializing xfce?

#3 Post by kitjackson »

Whereever the information is stored it's not there. I deleted ~/.config/xfce4 and logged out. When I logged back in again I do get a default desktop created but the problem of application windows overwriting the top panel, missing buttons in each application window and windows which can't be resized still persist. Very strange behaviour. Does anybody have further knowledge?

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Re: Probems initializing xfce?

#4 Post by kalle123 »

I would try with a Debian Xfce Live on an USB stick.

https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/cu ... so-hybrid/

If that gives you a clean desktop, I would backup my data and do a new installation ...

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Re: Probems initializing xfce?

#5 Post by CwF »

kitjackson wrote: 2022-06-28 15:30 Logging on as another user does work OK
Did you import or copy over stuff from another uid or gid, likely permission issues.

Just recreate the user.

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Re: Probems initializing xfce?

#6 Post by stevepusser »

If you create another user and log in, how does that user's desktop look?
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Re: Probems initializing xfce?

#7 Post by kitjackson »

kalle123 wrote: 2022-06-29 09:15 I would try with a Debian Xfce Live on an USB stick.

https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/cu ... so-hybrid/

If that gives you a clean desktop, I would backup my data and do a new installation ...

br KH
Yes I've done that, This is the second time it has happened so I was looking for another solution. Both Debian and xfce are generally very reliable but somehow some setting seem to get damaged and I'm trying to understand what is causing the problem.

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Re: Probems initializing xfce?

#8 Post by kitjackson »

stevepusser wrote: 2022-06-29 20:17 If you create another user and log in, how does that user's desktop look?
Looks perfectly normal. Something's happening during startup or login that prevents xfce initialising properly maybe. Could it be that clicking on the application menu or some of the panel icons before the desktop initialising code has finished causes coruption somewhere or am I barking up the wrong tree?

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Re: Probems initializing xfce?

#9 Post by kitjackson »

The good people at forum.xfce.org seem to have found the answer. ToZ suggested deleting the directory ~/cache/sessions and that has fixed the problem. Still don't know what was wrong with the entries there or how they got corrupted.

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