Xfce4 programs failing to run [SOLVED]

RMLangham · 2022-12-17 06:13:21

The last few times I've booted up my computer (Thinkpad t430 Core i5) some different applications provided by xfce4 aren't working at all. First I noticed that the panel wasn't coming up, and the shortcut to bring up the default terminal wouldn't work, though I could open xfce4-terminal manually. So I tried starting the panel manually from the terminal. It exited immediately; this was the output.

xfce4-panel: symbol lookup error: xfce4-panel: undefined symbol: xfce_gdk_device_grab

Similar was my attempt to run Thunar:

thunar: symbol lookup error: thunar: undefined symbol: xfce_gtk_toggle-tool_button_new_from_action_entry

Additionally, the xfce "notes" application starts automatically but crashes when some other window comes up or at some random time.

I tried running pacman -Syu and rebooting, I forced it to reinstall xfce and xfce-goodies and rebooted.

I logged out, and jumped over to another TTY as root and deleted the whole .session/cache from my home folder which is what several forum threads recommended for broken xfce4 sessions (didn't think it would work, but was getting desperate.)

I forced it to reinstall dbus, since I had once had an Artix system on a different laptop where dbus broke and crippled everything for reasons that I couldn't fathom, to the extent that I swore off Artix and have only used pure Arch since.

Clearly something has broken some library or service that xfce4 depends on, but I'm not familiar enough with the specifics to go about finding out what.

I'm running Arch (manually installed) with kernel 6.0.12-arch1-1, xfce4 and sddm. Everything is up to date as of this writing.

Last edited by RMLangham (2022-12-17 16:06:35)

mpan · 2022-12-17 07:24:28

Looks like a partial upgrade or failing to rebuild non-official packages.

RMLangham · 2022-12-17 07:44:07

mpan wrote:

Looks like a partial upgrade or failing to rebuild non-official packages.

Well, I suppose that's what I get for using the AUR too much. Now that you say that I have an idea what it might be-- I have an AUR program (I forget the name) that forces almost all windows to have server-side window decoration (thus getting rid of the GTK window decorations on, e.g., configuration windows, in favor of the XFWM theme) and another AUR program that suppresses the normal center-click-to-paste behavior of the X clipboard.

I will try uninstalling both of these and rebooting. Report to follow.

Last edited by RMLangham (2022-12-17 07:44:42)

skunktrader · 2022-12-17 08:05:08

See this

Check to see if you have an AUR version of libxfce4ui installed

RMLangham · 2022-12-17 16:05:07

skunktrader wrote:

See this
Check to see if you have an AUR version of libxfce4ui installed

Yes, I did, libxfce4ui-nocsd, that's what I was trying to remember last night, for suppressing client-side decorations of GTK4 windows.

I have replaced it with the official version and the problem is resolved. It was good to have while it lasted, although for some reason some of my xfce4 settings windows are retaining their server-side decorations even now. Wonder what's up with that? Anyways, I was warned it might cause instability, I accepted the risk, and eventually it did. That honestly should have been something I remembered to check, so thank you for your patience in helping me figure that out.

I'll go ahead and mark the topic as resolved.

mpan · 2022-12-17 16:14:37

The risk you have accepted is related to hacking around the expected behavior. What you are experiencing here is more likely API or linking issue. Packages you build yourself must be rebuilt each time… well, each time they need to be rebuilt. It may be one of those situations. You may also wait for patches to be available upstream, if the author decides to update.

RMLangham · 2022-12-17 16:29:16

mpan wrote:

The risk you have accepted is related to hacking around the expected behavior. What you are experiencing here is more likely API or linking issue. Packages you build yourself must be rebuilt each time… well, each time they need to be rebuilt. It may be one of those situations. You may also wait for patches to be available upstream, if the author decides to update.

Well, I think my larger systemic problem there is that I use an AUR helper, Yay.

I will say as an aside, I do also have pamac-manager installed just so that it notifies me in the tray when updates are available, though none too reliably. I do not commit any updates or installations through pamac, though sometimes I use it to graphically scroll and search through the repos before using yay to install a program I found that way, so it's probably not problematic. I'm growing disillusioned with the risks associated with an AUR helper, and may soon uninstall both.

I do not believe I will mess around with unproven AUR versions of important ui libraries again soon.

StJimmy · 2022-12-17 18:54:55

Yes, I did, libxfce4ui-nocsd, that's what I was trying to remember last night, for suppressing client-side decorations of GTK4 windows.
(...)although for some reason some of my xfce4 settings windows are retaining their server-side decorations even now. Wonder what's up with that?(...)

To clarify this observation of yours: in Xfce 4.18, a toggle was added to the settings manager to disable CSDs within [at least] the settings modules, and the settings manager itself. Them being disabled in favor of server-side decorations *should* also be the default setting. You can check if they're enabled under "Appearance --> Settings [tab] --> Menus and Buttons [heading] --> Enable header bars in dialogs."

I believe that they re-used the Xfconf property "DialogsUseHeader" in channel "/xsettings/Gtk/" to not only toggle headerbars/CSDs in dialogs (like the file picker), but also in their own settings dialogs now.

RMLangham · 2022-12-17 20:11:29

StJimmy wrote:

To clarify this observation of yours: in Xfce 4.18, a toggle was added to the settings manager to disable CSDs within [at least] the settings modules, and the settings manager itself.

Which is the current version in the Arch repos! I didn't know that they'd changed that, but I'm glad they did, the GTK CSD's do not fit at all with my old-school theme. Could this be why my outdated libxfce4ui-nocsd finally came into a breaking conflict? It seems likely enough.

One odd thing is that whenever this problem first occurred, something turned off the window tiling "gesture" I had come to rely on ("Window Manager Tweaks > Accessibility > Automatically tile windows when moving toward the screen edge") and I had assumed it was broken as well, but no, it was just turned off and came right back on.

StJimmy · 2022-12-17 20:39:13

RMLangham wrote:

Which is the current version in the Arch repos! I didn't know that they'd changed that, but I'm glad they did, the GTK CSD's do not fit at all with my old-school theme.

Yep! This (among the improvements made to Thunar - dual pane view at last!) was one of the reasons I anticipated this release quite a bit; I too dislike CSDs, with quite a passion too. Combined with gtk3-classic, this all makes for a sane desktop experience . But I digress.

RMLangham wrote:

Could this be why my outdated libxfce4ui-nocsd finally came into a breaking conflict? It seems likely enough.

I would indeed bet my money on that inadvertent partial update being the reason your applications broke; but at least, using that workaround won't be needed any longer now, so it shouldn't be an issue in the future anymore.

RMLangham wrote:

One odd thing is that whenever this problem first occurred, something turned off the window tiling "gesture" I had come to rely on ("Window Manager Tweaks > Accessibility > Automatically tile windows when moving toward the screen edge") and I had assumed it was broken as well, but no, it was just turned off and came right back on.

It *may* be that this setting got reset (or rather, set if it was previously not set); AFAIK, updates shouldn't touch user-specific settings, so I can't say this for certain. I can't compare what the upgrade did on my end vs what it did / may have done on your end (in regard to this setting / any settings), though, since I started with a clean slate after the version update, so to speak.

RMLangham · 2022-12-18 05:54:59

I too dislike CSDs, with quite a passion too. Combined with gtk3-classic, this all makes for a sane desktop experience

A sane UI is harder to achieve these days, but it seems like the xfce people have a lot of the right ideas.

Thanks for all your insights!

Arch Linux

#1 2022-12-17 06:13:21

Xfce4 programs failing to run [SOLVED]

#2 2022-12-17 07:24:28

Re: Xfce4 programs failing to run [SOLVED]

#3 2022-12-17 07:44:07

Re: Xfce4 programs failing to run [SOLVED]

#4 2022-12-17 08:05:08

Re: Xfce4 programs failing to run [SOLVED]

#5 2022-12-17 16:05:07

Re: Xfce4 programs failing to run [SOLVED]

#6 2022-12-17 16:14:37

Re: Xfce4 programs failing to run [SOLVED]

#7 2022-12-17 16:29:16

Re: Xfce4 programs failing to run [SOLVED]

#8 2022-12-17 18:54:55

Re: Xfce4 programs failing to run [SOLVED]

#9 2022-12-17 20:11:29

Re: Xfce4 programs failing to run [SOLVED]

#10 2022-12-17 20:39:13

Re: Xfce4 programs failing to run [SOLVED]

#11 2022-12-18 05:54:59

Re: Xfce4 programs failing to run [SOLVED]

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