[solved] xfce keyboard shortcuts won't work, tried arch wiki solution

rwd · 2010-10-25 17:47:14

Keyboard shortcuts defined in the xfce's keyboard settings don't work, as described in the wiki:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xfc … 7t_working

When I kill xfce4-settings-helper the shortcuts work again. After restarting X the problem returns. I renamed '/etc/xdg/autostart/xfce4-settings-helper-autostart.desktop' and '~/.config/autostart/xfce4-settings-helper-autostart.desktop' as described in the wiki, But the second file is regenerated after restarting X. Does anyone know a good solution?

Last edited by rwd (2010-10-30 21:06:33)

flan_suse · 2010-10-28 15:41:14

When the second file is re-created, its contents are essentially blank, so don't worry. You can even check with:

cat ~/.config/autostart/xfce4-settings-helper-autostart.desktop

Make sure it is blank (or only has two lines, with no Exec command.)

You're not referring to the Window Manager shortcuts, are you? That is a different, but similar bug, which this trick doesn't fix: http://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5537

Every computer I've tried this fix on has worked, considering it was 4 different distros on different machines, all using Xfce4. So I haven't yet bumped into an instance where this didn't fix the keyboard shortcuts issue. Double-check and make sure there is no autostart entry defined under Menu > Settings > Session and Startup.

Make sure that the files were not recreated with their defaults, due to an update. I recall some xfce4 packages were updated recently.

Last edited by flan_suse (2010-10-28 15:48:05)

rwd · 2010-10-28 16:29:07

flan_suse wrote:

cat ~/.config/autostart/xfce4-settings-helper-autostart.desktop
Make sure it is blank (or only has two lines, with no Exec command.)

I checked and this is indeed the case.

flan_suse wrote:

You're not referring to the Window Manager shortcuts, are you? That is a different, but similar bug, which this trick doesn't fix: http://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5537

I mean the shortcuts defined in settings -> keyboard -> application shortcuts

flan_suse wrote:

Every computer I've tried this fix on has worked, considering it was 4 different distros on different machines, all using Xfce4. So I haven't yet bumped into an instance where this didn't fix the keyboard shortcuts issue. Double-check and make sure there is no autostart entry defined under Menu > Settings > Session and Startup.

I checked again to be sure and /etc/xdg/autostart/xfce4-settings-helper-autostart.desktop is renamed to /etc/xdg/autostart/xfce4-settings-helper-autostart.desktop.disabled. I also deleted old sessions in ~/.cache/sessions. Still after logging out/in the shortcuts don't work, and after killing killall xfce4-settings-helper they work again for the rest of the session. For now I'm using a login script that kills xfce4-settings-helper as an ugly workaround.

Last edited by rwd (2010-10-28 16:34:50)

flan_suse · 2010-10-28 16:46:20

That's interesting. Maybe a recent update did break this fix? I'm going to check on my Arch system, since when I last did a full system upgrade, I noticed xfce4 packages were updated, but I didn't pay much attention to it. After the upgrade finished, I shut down the system. I'll let you know if it still works on my end. I can tell you that this trick worked for Arch Linux, Xubuntu, openSUSE, and PCLinuxOS, all running Xfce, even on different computers.

flan_suse · 2010-10-28 16:55:37

I just checked, and it's still working on my fully updated Arch system. I did notice that xfce4-session was updated when I ran a full system upgrade, but it was a minor update. How do you login? Do you use a display manager? And do you autologin?

rwd · 2010-10-28 17:38:36

I don't use any displaymanager, just autologin with mingetty and start x from /.bash_profile. I have xfce4-session version 4.6.2-2. The fact that your tip helped others is nice, but it isn't of much use to me, B.t.w. I was thinking of making a new user to rule out user settings as the cause, I'll post the result here.

Last edited by rwd (2010-10-28 17:43:51)

flan_suse · 2010-10-28 18:04:37

rwd wrote:

I don't use any displaymanager, just autologin with mingetty and start x from /.bash_profile. I have xfce4-session version 4.6.2-2. The fact that your tip helped others is nice, but it isn't of much use to me, B.t.w. I was thinking of making a new user to rule out user settings as the cause, I'll post the result here.

Don't get me wrong. The reason why I mention it's worked for others and myself on different systems is to let you know from my perspective the fix "works" and to let you know that this known issue is solveable. It could be for any reason: different user settings, different packages, different login method. That's mainly why I'll say "this works for others and myself".

For all my cases, I use a login manager: XDM for Arch and openSUSE, and GDM for Xubuntu and PCLinuxOS. I'm not sure if this would have much to do with it, but it is a common factor, which you differ from: mingetty + startx

Leonid.I · 2010-10-28 19:46:15

rwd wrote:

I don't use any displaymanager, just autologin with mingetty and start x from /.bash_profile. I have xfce4-session version 4.6.2-2. The fact that your tip helped others is nice, but it isn't of much use to me, B.t.w. I was thinking of making a new user to rule out user settings as the cause, I'll post the result here.

.bash_profile??? What happened to the usual .xinitrc?

rwd · 2010-10-29 06:50:25

Leonid.I wrote:

rwd wrote:
I don't use any displaymanager, just autologin with mingetty and start x from /.bash_profile. I have xfce4-session version 4.6.2-2. The fact that your tip helped others is nice, but it isn't of much use to me, B.t.w. I was thinking of making a new user to rule out user settings as the cause, I'll post the result here.
.bash_profile??? What happened to the usual .xinitrc?

As far as I know startx is never put in .xinitrc because .xinitrc is only read *after* x has started.

R00KIE · 2010-10-29 10:36:52

Calling startx from .bash_profile should not be a problem, I do it like that too and it works fine.

Startx is a script that sources .xinitrc before starting X with xinit with the parameters defined in .xinitrc so it doesn't make sense to put startx in side .xinitrc.

What do you have in your .bash_profile? If it was working before then the problem should be somewhere else but I know that some things might not work when calling startx from .bash_profile depending on what and how you do things.

Leonid.I · 2010-10-29 13:30:09

rwd wrote:

As far as I know startx is never put in .xinitrc because .xinitrc is only read *after* x has started.

What is wrong with .bash_login?

OK, I have two questions:
1. Post your .bash_profile, .xinitrc, etc.
2. In your session and startup dialog, what are autostart entries?

FYI, here is my /etc/.../xfce4-settings-helper-autostart.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=1.0
Name=Xfce Settings Helper
Exec=xfce4-settings-helper
Terminal=false
Type=Application
StartupNotify=false
Terminal=false
OnlyShowIn=XFCE;

and ~/.config/.../xfce4-settings-helper-autostart.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Hidden=true

EDIT: Most likely you have seen this, but just in case: http://forum.xfce.org/index.php?topic=5304.0

Last edited by Leonid.I (2010-10-29 13:34:45)

rwd · 2010-10-29 18:10:00

R00KIE wrote:

What do you have in your .bash_profile? If it was working before then the problem should be somewhere else but I know that some things might not work when calling startx from .bash_profile depending on what and how you do things.

I never noticed if xfce's application shortcuts were working properly or not because I just started using them since a few weeks.

Leonid.I wrote:

EDIT: Most likely you have seen this, but just in case: http://forum.xfce.org/index.php?topic=5304.0

That looks like the same thing indeed.

It seems to be this bug which hasn't been fixed since over a year O_o.

.bash_profile

. $HOME/.bashrc
if [[ -z "$DISPLAY" ]] && [[ $(tty) = /dev/tty1 ]]; then
    startx
fi

.bashrc

# Check for an interactive session
[ -z "$PS1" ] && return

#restrict umask for group from the default 022
umask 0017

# added to use bash aliases and colored prompt 
if [ -f /etc/profile.bash ]; then
     source /etc/profile.bash
fi
        
#added for the auojump package (need to be sourced after /profile.bash 
if [ -f /etc/profile ]; then
     source /etc/profile.d/autojump.bash
fi

.xinitrc

#!/bin/sh
exec ck-launch-session xfce4-session

/etc/profile.bash

#
# /etc/profile.bash
# Global settings for bash shells
#

PS1='[\u@\h \W]\$ '
#PS2='> '
#PS3='> '
#PS4='+ '

export PS1 PS2 PS3 PS4

#In the future we may want to add more ulimit entries here,
# in the offchance that /etc/security/limits.conf is skipped
ulimit -Sc 0 #Don't create core files

if test "$TERM" = "xterm" -o \
        "$TERM" = "xterm-color" -o \
        "$TERM" = "xterm-256color" -o \
        "$TERM" = "rxvt" -o \
        "$TERM" = "rxvt-unicode" -o \
        "$TERM" = "xterm-xfree86"; then
    PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033]0;${USER}@${HOSTNAME%%.*}:${PWD/$HOME/~}\007"'
    export PROMPT_COMMAND
fi


PS1='\[\e[1;33m\][\u@\h \W]\$\[\e[0m\] '

EDITOR=/usr/bin/nano

#bash history
HISTSIZE=1000
HISTFILESIZE=1000

# aliases
alias ll='ls -al --group-directories-first --color=auto'
alias la='ls -A --group-directories-first --color=auto'
alias ..='cd ..'
alias ...='cd ../..'
alias ....='cd ../../..'
alias .....='cd ../../../..'
alias ping5='ping -c 5'
alias lsa='ls -lah --group-directories-first --color=auto'               # human readable (sizes) long and all ;-)
alias lls='ls -l -h -g -F --group-directories-first --color=auto'
alias lss='ls -shaxSrs  --group-directories-first --color=auto'            # sort by size
alias lsd='ls -latr  --group-directories-first --color=auto'              # sort by date
alias upgrade='sudo clyde -Syu --aur'


function  publicip { 
    wget -q -O - checkip.dyndns.org | sed -e 's/.*Current IP Address: //' -e 's/<.*$//'
}

# alarm(string alarmtext,num minutes )
function alarm() {
    zenity --notification --timeout=$[$2 * 60] --window-icon=/usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/status/appointment-soon.svg --text "alarm set for: $1 in $2 minutes" &
    sleep $2  $(($2 * 60))  && zenity --warning --text "$1" &
}

# search bash history
function hist {
    history | grep -i "${1}" 
}

# find filename in current directory  and beneath
function fnd {
    find . -iname "*${1}*" | more
}

# find string in documents in current directory and beneath
function grp {
    egrep -ri  ''"${1}"'' . | more
}    

# search shoutcast channels by name/description/genre/current song
function shoutcast {
    shoutcast-search  $* -b ">96" -l ">10" \
     --format="%s\ngenre: %g\ncurrent track: %p\nbitrate: %b\nlisteners: %l\nurl: %u\n" \
    | more
}

in ~/.config/autostart I have a few items that only contain :

[Desktop Entry]
Hidden=True

And this one:

[Desktop Entry]
Hidden=true
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=0.9.4
Type=Application
Name=xorg_fix
Comment=scripts that need to be delayed to run
Exec=/home/user1/documents/shellscripts/xorg_fix_delayed.sh
StartupNotify=false
Terminal=false
Hidden=false

In xorg_fix_delayed.sh I have put some things that wouldn't always be executed if I put them in a normal startup item or if I put them in .xinitrc:

xorg_fix_delayed.sh

#!/bin/bash

sleep 6

# upnp shares mount
#djmount ~/network/upnp &

# mpd
mpd ~/.mpd/mpd.conf &

# disable trackpad during typing
syndaemon -d -i 2 &

# tint
/usr/bin/tint2 &

# trayer
/usr/bin/trayer --transparent true --expand true --alpha 256 --tint 0x000000  --height 24 --widthtype request --SetDockType true $

# xmodmap
/usr/bin/xmodmap /home/user1/.Xmodmap &

# conky
/usr/bin/conky &

# workaround  for xfce shortcuts
killall xfce4-settings-helper &

# sshfs share
~/documents/shellscripts/sshfs_arch-server_mount.sh &

Last edited by rwd (2010-10-29 18:56:10)

ewaller · 2010-10-29 19:03:31

One thing you might try is to delete the contents of ~/.cache/sessions/
Doing so solves a myriad of xfce4 start up problems for me. YMMV

rwd · 2010-10-29 19:07:02

ewaller wrote:

One thing you might try is to delete the contents of ~/.cache/sessions/
Doing so solves a myriad of xfce4 start up problems for me. YMMV

Thanks, but I have already tried that as I said.

ewaller · 2010-10-29 19:40:23

rwd wrote:

... I have already tried that as I said.

Missed that. Sorry.

R00KIE · 2010-10-29 21:15:30

Did you try with a new user _without_ all the tweaks and adjustments you have for your user?

flan_suse · 2010-10-30 18:12:31

This might not make any difference, but it doesn't hurt to try: Instead of xfce4-session, can you try with startxfce4 instead?

In all my setups, I use startxfce4, not xfce4-session.

When you try this, make sure the same above fixes are applied: renamed / disabled autostart entries in both locations.

Last edited by flan_suse (2010-10-30 18:36:16)

rwd · 2010-10-30 19:08:17

flan_suse wrote:

This might not make any difference, but it doesn't hurt to try: Instead of xfce4-session, can you try with startxfce4 instead?
In all my setups, I use startxfce4, not xfce4-session.

I need to start it that way since I don't use a display manager (arch wiki).

Anyway I created an empty home folder with just the above .xinitrc, .bashrc, .bash_profile , set he keyboard shortcuts, removed stuff in ~/.cache/sessions to rule out any session related effects. After logging in and out a few times the shortcuts seem to keep working. So I guess I'll have to comb through my user settings to find out what causes this. Thanks all for the suggestions.

Last edited by rwd (2010-10-30 19:10:46)

flan_suse · 2010-10-30 20:10:22

rwd wrote:

flan_suse wrote:
This might not make any difference, but it doesn't hurt to try: Instead of xfce4-session, can you try with startxfce4 instead?
In all my setups, I use startxfce4, not xfce4-session.
I need to start it that way since I don't use a display manager (arch wiki).

The guide shows startxfce4 and not xfce4-session, though.

Glad you got it working with a new user account! Hope it's not too tricky to find the tweak or setting that's interfering.

Last edited by flan_suse (2010-10-30 20:11:14)

R00KIE · 2010-10-30 20:44:15

Just for the record I don't use a display manager and I use startxfce4 and things seem to work fine.

In case you are curious I use this in .bash_profile

. $HOME/.bashrc

if [[ $(tty) == /dev/tty1 ]];
then
    ## start the x session
    startx &> /dev/null &
    ## automatically logout
    logout
fi

bzhao · 2016-11-06 13:20:45

I did meet this problem, which is solved according the previous posts by typing rm -fr ~/.cache/sessions/, thank you all here

WorMzy · 2016-11-06 13:47:10

Please don't necrobump, bzhao.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Co … bumping.22

Closing.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-10-25 17:47:14

[solved] xfce keyboard shortcuts won't work, tried arch wiki solution

#2 2010-10-28 15:41:14

Re: [solved] xfce keyboard shortcuts won't work, tried arch wiki solution

#3 2010-10-28 16:29:07

Re: [solved] xfce keyboard shortcuts won't work, tried arch wiki solution

#4 2010-10-28 16:46:20

Re: [solved] xfce keyboard shortcuts won't work, tried arch wiki solution

#5 2010-10-28 16:55:37

Re: [solved] xfce keyboard shortcuts won't work, tried arch wiki solution

#6 2010-10-28 17:38:36

Re: [solved] xfce keyboard shortcuts won't work, tried arch wiki solution

#7 2010-10-28 18:04:37

Re: [solved] xfce keyboard shortcuts won't work, tried arch wiki solution

#8 2010-10-28 19:46:15

Re: [solved] xfce keyboard shortcuts won't work, tried arch wiki solution

#9 2010-10-29 06:50:25

Re: [solved] xfce keyboard shortcuts won't work, tried arch wiki solution

#10 2010-10-29 10:36:52

Re: [solved] xfce keyboard shortcuts won't work, tried arch wiki solution

#11 2010-10-29 13:30:09

Re: [solved] xfce keyboard shortcuts won't work, tried arch wiki solution

#12 2010-10-29 18:10:00

Re: [solved] xfce keyboard shortcuts won't work, tried arch wiki solution

#13 2010-10-29 19:03:31

Re: [solved] xfce keyboard shortcuts won't work, tried arch wiki solution

#14 2010-10-29 19:07:02

Re: [solved] xfce keyboard shortcuts won't work, tried arch wiki solution

#15 2010-10-29 19:40:23

Re: [solved] xfce keyboard shortcuts won't work, tried arch wiki solution

#16 2010-10-29 21:15:30

Re: [solved] xfce keyboard shortcuts won't work, tried arch wiki solution

#17 2010-10-30 18:12:31

Re: [solved] xfce keyboard shortcuts won't work, tried arch wiki solution

#18 2010-10-30 19:08:17

Re: [solved] xfce keyboard shortcuts won't work, tried arch wiki solution

#19 2010-10-30 20:10:22

Re: [solved] xfce keyboard shortcuts won't work, tried arch wiki solution

#20 2010-10-30 20:44:15

Re: [solved] xfce keyboard shortcuts won't work, tried arch wiki solution

#21 2016-11-06 13:20:45

Re: [solved] xfce keyboard shortcuts won't work, tried arch wiki solution

#22 2016-11-06 13:47:10

Re: [solved] xfce keyboard shortcuts won't work, tried arch wiki solution

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