Arch Linux

blah1898

Member

Registered: 2013-04-22

Posts: 14

Some XFCE Settings not applying

I just moved form Plasma 5 to XFCE4, however, certain settings on xfce4-settings-manager do not become applied. The settings in the sections Appearance, Display, Keyboard, Mouse and Touchpad, Removable Drives and Media are not applied, even after logging out or rebooting the machine.

I've tried deleting the ~/.config/xfce4 folder, running

XFSETTINGSD_DEBUG=1 xfsettingsd --replace --no-daemon

yields no information. And there's nothing useful info on .xfce4-session-verbose-log, .xsession-errors, and journalctl say nothing to help me with this issue.

Any idea how to get xfce settings working?

toz

Member

Registered: 2011-10-28

Posts: 513

Re: Some XFCE Settings not applying

Is xfconf installed and the xfconfd process running?

blah1898

Member

Registered: 2013-04-22

Posts: 14

Re: Some XFCE Settings not applying

Yes, xfconf is installed and xfconfd seems to be running normally.

 $ ps ux | grep xfconfd 
user     5580  0.0  0.0  35396  4312 ?        S    10:58   0:00 /usr/lib/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd

toz

Member

Registered: 2011-10-28

Posts: 513

Re: Some XFCE Settings not applying

In a terminal window, run:

xfconf-query -c xsettings -m

...and then change the appearance theme. Does anything register in the terminal window?

Do you maybe have some elements of KDE still running and managing those components?

blah1898

Member

Registered: 2013-04-22

Posts: 14

Re: Some XFCE Settings not applying

Here's the output;

$ xfconf-query -c xsettings -m
Start monitoring channel "xsettings":

set: /Net/ThemeName
set: /Net/ThemeName
set: /Net/ThemeName
set: /Net/ThemeName
set: /Net/ThemeName
set: /Net/IconThemeName
set: /Net/IconThemeName
set: /Gtk/ToolbarStyle
set: /Gtk/CursorThemeName
set: /Gtk/CursorThemeName

..no changes though. It doesn't show anything when I change settings in  Display, Mouse (except Theme) or Keyboard.

There doesn't seem to be anything KDE related running

$ for bad (kdeinit klauncher kded kcminit knotify ksmserver kwin_x11 krunner plasmashell); do
for> ps aux | grep $bad
for> done
# Here I just get the greps I just launched

toz

Member

Registered: 2011-10-28

Posts: 513

Re: Some XFCE Settings not applying

So xfconf appears to be working well. (The display, mouse or keyboard changes won't display with that command because they exist in different xfconf channels.) And xfsettingsd is running and not throwing any errors. Hmmm.

Can you try clearing your sessions cache (Settings Manager >> Session and Startup >> Session >> Clear saved session)? Log out and back in again.

Edit: If that doesn't work, while logged out, delete ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/displays.xml then log back in again. You'll lose any display configurations that may have been set up.

Last edited by toz (2015-05-31 04:30:19)

blah1898

Member

Registered: 2013-04-22

Posts: 14

Re: Some XFCE Settings not applying

Clearing the session didn't work. Neither did deleting displays.xml. However, I noticed something interesting, after logging out and back in, I noticed it took significantly longer to log out (after deleting the Session Cache. Also, it seems as if xfsettingsd is still running after loging out. Here's the output of ps aux (after logging in 4 times)

$ ps aux | grep xfsettingsd
user     1120  0.0  0.3 311924 31140 ?        Ss   20:56   0:00 xfsettingsd
user     4320  0.0  0.3 311892 32020 ?        Ss   22:17   0:00 xfsettingsd
user     5292  0.0  0.3 311892 30132 ?        Ss   22:20   0:00 xfsettingsd
user     6941  0.0  0.3 311892 29844 ?        Ss   22:23   0:00 xfsettingsd

Perhaps xfsettingsd is "frozen", unable to change settings or quit normally?

EDIT: Tried reinstalling xfce4-settings, no change. Also, trying to run xfsettingsd while there are multiple instances running yields the following:

 $ XFSETTINGSD_DEBUG=1 xfsettingsd --replace --no-daemon

(xfsettingsd:2822): xfsettingsd-ERROR **: Failed to connect to the dbus session bus.
[1]    2822 trace trap (core dumped)  XFSETTINGSD_DEBUG=1 xfsettingsd --replace --no-daemon\

Last edited by blah1898 (2015-05-31 05:38:03)

toz

Member

Registered: 2011-10-28

Posts: 513

Re: Some XFCE Settings not applying

Can you try killing all xfsettingsd processes then running "XFSETTINGSD_DEBUG=1 xfsettingsd --replace --no-daemon" again? You should be getting some output when you run this.

Also, kill all xfsettingsd processes again and run it as:

xfsettingsd --sync

What is your display setup like? Multiple monitors? Custom xrandr?

Last edited by toz (2015-05-31 11:57:24)

blah1898

Member

Registered: 2013-04-22

Posts: 14

Re: Some XFCE Settings not applying

Trying to run xfsettingsd after killing all of the processes still fails to connect to the dbus session bus, either with the debug command or with --sync. My display setup is just a 1920x1080 laptop screen with an Nvidia GTX 660M graphics card, using the propetary drivers.

toz

Member

Registered: 2011-10-28

Posts: 513

Re: Some XFCE Settings not applying

Trying to run xfsettingsd after killing all of the processes still fails to connect to the dbus session bus

How are you starting Xfce? Display manager (which one) or command-line (which command)?

blah1898

Member

Registered: 2013-04-22

Posts: 14

Re: Some XFCE Settings not applying

I'm using SSDM, with the default "XFCE Session" (which just executes startxfce4).

toz

Member

Registered: 2011-10-28

Posts: 513

Re: Some XFCE Settings not applying

How is xfce4-session running?

ps -ef | grep xfce4-session

...is it being launched by dbus-launch?

Which dbus processes are running?

ps -ef | grep dbus

And do you have a DBUS_SESSION_ADDRESS?

env | grep DBUS

What happens if you stop the sddm service and try starting Xfce manually from the command line via "startxfce4"?

blah1898

Member

Registered: 2013-04-22

Posts: 14

Re: Some XFCE Settings not applying

Looks like xfce4-session is being launched by dbus-launch.

$ ps -ef | grep xfce4-session
user    12455 12450  0 10:49 tty2     00:00:01 xfce4-session
user    12459     1  0 10:49 tty2     00:00:00 /usr/bin/dbus-launch --sh-syntax --exit-with-session xfce4-session

Here's are all the dbus processes

$ ps -ef | grep dbus
dbus      416     1  0 09:04 ?        00:00:01 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --system --address=systemd: --nofork --nopidfile --systemd-activation
user     8469     1  0 09:14 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --fork --print-pid 5 --print-address 7 --session
user     8556     1  0 09:14 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --fork --print-pid 5 --print-address 7 --session
user    12459     1  0 10:49 tty2     00:00:00 /usr/bin/dbus-launch --sh-syntax --exit-with-session xfce4-session
user    12460     1  0 10:49 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --fork --print-pid 5 --print-address 7 --session
user    12510 12504  0 10:49 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --config-file=/etc/at-spi2/accessibility.conf --nofork --print-address 3
user    12586     1  0 10:49 ?        00:00:03 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --fork --print-pid 5 --print-address 7 --config-file /usr/share/fcitx/dbus/daemon.conf
user    12590     1  0 10:49 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/fcitx-dbus-watcher unix:abstract=/tmp/dbus-rSozrWSdEF,guid=e11c5c68ae6f6087506b9fca556b49bf 12586

DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS seems to exist

$ env | grep DBUS
DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:abstract=/tmp/dbus-hhSBM60nEt,guid=850ca9a3c0d4bb139addf83b556b49bd

Stopping the sddm service and running startxfce4 manually yields the same results as before.

toz

Member

Registered: 2011-10-28

Posts: 513

Re: Some XFCE Settings not applying

Looks like xfce4-session is being launched by dbus-launch.

$ ps -ef | grep xfce4-session
user    12455 12450  0 10:49 tty2     00:00:01 xfce4-session
user    12459     1  0 10:49 tty2     00:00:00 /usr/bin/dbus-launch --sh-syntax --exit-with-session xfce4-session

This seems a little odd to me - you seem to have two instances of xfce4-session running.

Can you try creating the file /usr/local/bin/startxfce4 with the following content:

#!/bin/bash
source /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/30-dbus.sh
/usr/bin/startxfce4

...make the file executable, reboot, and log in again via sddm. See if you still have two xfce4-sessions and whether the appearance changes work.

blah1898

Member

Registered: 2013-04-22

Posts: 14

Re: Some XFCE Settings not applying

xfce4-session now only appears once, however, it is not launched by dbus-launch

$ ps -ef | grep xfce4-session]
user     1019  1014  0 13:23 ?        00:00:00 xfce4-session

Appeareance settings still does not work.

toz

Member

Registered: 2011-10-28

Posts: 513

Re: Some XFCE Settings not applying

And you should also have a dbus process like "dbus-launch --sh-syntax --exit-with-session". Confirm that you also have a DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS environment variable.

Try with this version. Let's see if dbus-launch helps:

#!/bin/bash
source /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/30-dbus.sh
/usr/bin/dbus-launch --exit-with-session /usr/bin/startxfce4

blah1898

Member

Registered: 2013-04-22

Posts: 14

Re: Some XFCE Settings not applying

The DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS variable exist, as well as dbus-launch --sh-syntax --exit-with-session

Running startxfce4 with dbus-launch doesn't seem to help.

I tried checking with d-feet the xfsettingsd service, however, I seem to get a timeout every time I check the xfsettingsd service (org.xfce.SettingsDaemon). So it seems that xfsettingsd is just not responding, even after killing and restarting the service.

toz

Member

Registered: 2011-10-28

Posts: 513

Re: Some XFCE Settings not applying

As a sanity test, I installed sddm on my system and everything works fine. I have both the xfce4-session process and the dbus-launch. I doubt its an issue with sddm.

d-feet on org.xfce.SettingsDaemon on my system doesn't timeout, though there are no entries there.

There is something funky going on with dbus and xfsettingsd on your system, but I can't figure out what it is.

blah1898

Member

Registered: 2013-04-22

Posts: 14

Re: Some XFCE Settings not applying

I'll see what I can find here, if I can't solve it, I'll just reinstall arch. Thanks for the help.