Arch Linux

yankees26

Member

From: Connecticut, USA

Registered: 2006-09-29

Posts: 190

desktop on xfce4

I successfully installed xfce4, gdm, x11, and nvidia, and it works fine, but I lack a desktop.  By desktop I don't mean the xfce4 and everything, I mean the folder /home/james/Desktop.  It doesn't exist and I can't add files to the desktop so I can access them immediately.

So basically, I want to know if there is a way to get a desktop with xfce4 on arch linux (I've used xfce4 before and it has had a desktop)?

fk

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2006-04-29

Posts: 524

Re: desktop on xfce4

Have you enable "Allow xfce to manage your desktop" in the settings manager?

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Have you tried to turn it off and on again?

yankees26

Member

From: Connecticut, USA

Registered: 2006-09-29

Posts: 190

Re: desktop on xfce4

I went through each thing in Settings Manager and couldn't find "Allow xfce to manage your desktop".  Although I remember seeing it before other times I have used xfce4.

baze

Member

Registered: 2005-10-30

Posts: 393

Re: desktop on xfce4

first, i think you need xfce4.4 for this, well svn, rc1, beta, whatever (shadowhands builds should be the easiest way to get it)
then you go to the settings manager, chose "Desktop" and at the top there is the checkbox that says "Allow Xfce to manage the desktop", check it.
then you select the "Behaviour" tab and select your preferred behaviour in the "Desktop Icons" combobox.

yankees26

Member

From: Connecticut, USA

Registered: 2006-09-29

Posts: 190

Re: desktop on xfce4

Ok, thanks I'll do that later today (when it isn't 6:30 in the morning ).

yankees26

Member

From: Connecticut, USA

Registered: 2006-09-29

Posts: 190

Re: desktop on xfce4

Ok, well it worked and I have a Desktop, thanks.  Although, if I go into Terminal and do touch ~/Desktop/test.txt it doesn't appear on the Desktop, unless I go to Setting Managers and uncheck then check "Allow xfce to manage Desktop".  Also, when xfce starts to control desktop a window titled: Trash Error pops up saying Unable to contact the Xfce Trash Service.  Then in smaller font it says: "Make sure you have a file manager installed that supports the Xfce Trash service, such as Thunar."  I did install thunar.

And I used shadow hands  mousetrap repo for installing.

detto

Member

Registered: 2006-01-23

Posts: 510

Re: desktop on xfce4

Make sure you have fam running by /etc/rc.d/fam start as root (or per sudo). IIRC xfce somehow needs that to function properly.

cheers,
detto

yankees26

Member

From: Connecticut, USA

Registered: 2006-09-29

Posts: 190

Re: desktop on xfce4

Ok, well fam is there, but it isn't being executed on startup.  And before the file actually shows up on xfce's desktop, I have to uncheck and check the "allow xfce to manage desktop" button and do /etc/rc.d/fam start.  Then it works.  But i don't want to have to do that everytime I start up.
And the trash problem still persists.

yankees26

Member

From: Connecticut, USA

Registered: 2006-09-29

Posts: 190

Re: desktop on xfce4

  I fixed it.  I decided to create a new session when I logged in as a test and it all works now.

ravisghosh

Member

From: Intergalactic Spaces

Registered: 2006-10-12

Posts: 516

Website

Re: desktop on xfce4

To make things clear for newbie (me included), problem is that thunar is not there in ~/.cache/sessions/xfce4-session-bluehead:0 (bluehead is the name of my computer).

Here is my current file.

[Session: Default]
Client0_ClientId=117f000001000116393963600000025080000
Client0_Hostname=local/bluehead
Client0_CloneCommand=xfwm4,--sm-client-id,117f000001000116393963600000025080000,--display,:0.0
Client0_CurrentDirectory=/home/shantanu
Client0_Priority=20
Client0_Program=xfwm4
Client0_RestartCommand=xfwm4,--sm-client-id,117f000001000116393963600000025080000,--display,:0.0
Client0_UserId=shantanu
Client1_ClientId=117f000001000116393963700000025080002
Client1_Hostname=local/bluehead
Client1_CloneCommand=Thunar
Client1_DiscardCommand=rm,-f,/home/shantanu/.cache/sessions/Thunar-117f000001000116393963700000025080002
Client1_Priority=24
Client1_Program=Thunar
Client1_RestartCommand=Thunar,--sm-client-id,117f000001000116393963700000025080002,--daemon
Client1_UserId=shantanu
Client2_ClientId=117f000001000116393963800000025080003
Client2_Hostname=local/bluehead
Client2_CloneCommand=xfdesktop,--sm-client-id,117f000001000116393963800000025080003,--display,:0.0
Client2_CurrentDirectory=/home/shantanu
Client2_Priority=35
Client2_Program=xfdesktop
Client2_RestartCommand=xfdesktop,--sm-client-id,117f000001000116393963800000025080003,--display,:0.0
Client2_UserId=shantanu
Client3_ClientId=117f000001000116393963600000025080001
Client3_Hostname=local/bluehead
Client3_CloneCommand=xfce4-panel,--sm-client-id,117f000001000116393963600000025080001,--display,:0.0
Client3_CurrentDirectory=/home/shantanu
Client3_Priority=40
Client3_Program=xfce4-panel
Client3_RestartCommand=xfce4-panel,--sm-client-id,117f000001000116393963600000025080001,--display,:0.0
Client3_UserId=shantanu
Count=4
LegacyCount=0
Screen0_ActiveWorkspace=0
LastAccess=1163939864

The lines in red went missing somehow. What I did was

cd ~/.cache/sessions/
mv xfce4-session-bluehead:0 xfce4-session-bluehead:0.old

then restarted and logged in again. now, a new xfce4-session-bluehead:0 file was created with all the thunar stuff in there that were missing. Then I removed the xfce4-session-bluehead:0.old file as that was not required.

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Ravi S Ghosh
www.ravisghosh.com
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