Xfce Forums / [Solved] Logout Error; Failed to receive a reply from the session manager.

Re: [Solved] Logout Error; Failed to receive a reply from the session manager.

dummy@example.com (chrisb) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 13:28:53 +0000

secipolla wrote:

Have you tried the regular xfce4-session-logout with the 'save session' checked first to see if it saves that state?

I haven't personally tried it, but the bug reports on Launchpad and other forums do suggest that clearing the checkbox does work around the bug. But it should not be necessary to do that.

It appears this bug has been around for some time - the original Launchpad bug was filed back in December 2009.

Re: [Solved] Logout Error; Failed to receive a reply from the session manager.

dummy@example.com (secipolla) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 21:26:38 +0000

chrisb wrote:

I found this forum thread after filing a bug on launchpad.
I have a shutdown button on the panel. It is a direct shutdown button - not the logout dialog button - so it does not prompt for whether or not to save the session and xfwm4 keeps getting removed from the session. Is there a proper fix for this issue, or report on xfce bugtracker?

Have you tried the regular xfce4-session-logout with the 'save session' checked first to see if it saves that state?

Re: [Solved] Logout Error; Failed to receive a reply from the session manager.

dummy@example.com (chrisb) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 17:49:38 +0000

I found this forum thread after filing a bug on launchpad.

I have a shutdown button on the panel. It is a direct shutdown button - not the logout dialog button - so it does not prompt for whether or not to save the session and xfwm4 keeps getting removed from the session. Is there a proper fix for this issue, or report on xfce bugtracker?

Re: [Solved] Logout Error; Failed to receive a reply from the session manager.

dummy@example.com (Ahau) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 19:13:52 +0000

I was having this problem and traced it down to a particular application, medit. If I had medit open when I logged out, shutdown, or rebooted, it would corrupt the cache, xfce4-session would hang for about 30 seconds before it closed xfce, and on the next login attempt, xfwm would fail to load. If I closed medit prior to logging out, everything went fine. I imagine this is not the only application that causes this, and there are probably some other factors contributing to it, given the number of folks having this problem. I do hope xfce4-session cleans things up a little better in 4.10, as this is really the only place I'm running into troublesome bugs. I've seen a lot of xfce4-session updates in git, and am looking forward to trying the 4.9 development release Hats off to the devs, XFCE is a great DE, and only getting better!

Re: [Solved] Logout Error; Failed to receive a reply from the session manager.

dummy@example.com (taoleo) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 09:03:40 +0000

I had to remove the $HOME/.cache/sessions/xfce4-session-* once and since then I've not had a problem as I keep the 'Save session for future login' unchecked.
It's way beyond my capabilities to sort out however there is definatly a problem.....I must have done a dozen installs with three different Linux systems and it happened each time until I unchecked that box. I think it's an Xfce issue not o/s

Re: [Solved] Logout Error; Failed to receive a reply from the session manager.

dummy@example.com (taoleo) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 08:55:55 +0000

I had to remove the $HOME/.cache/sessions/xfce4-session-* once and since then I've not had a problem as I keep the 'Save session for future login' unchecked.

Re: [Solved] Logout Error; Failed to receive a reply from the session manager.

dummy@example.com (jonwright) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 05:37:21 +0000

I had same problem. opensuse 12.1 nvidia. i tried several different display managers, gdm,kem and xfwm4.
i have plenty of memory and a modern intel quad cpu. a method given earlier, run xfwm4 --replace sometimes worked.
What works so far is the suggestion above, remove the $HOME/.cache/sessions/xfce4-session-*
and then on logout, uncheck the save session box. So far that has taken care of both the Failed to receive a reply from the session manager'
and the frozen windows at the top of the screens.

Re: [Solved] Logout Error; Failed to receive a reply from the session manager.

dummy@example.com (aga) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 07:12:51 +0000

Forester wrote:

I had the very same problem. I was able to reset to normal behaviour by restarting the machine in failsafe mode and deleting
$HOME/.cache/sessions/xfce4-session-*
where * is the machine:display.
This suggests the session cache file is corrupt and that would fit with "don't save the session" workaround.

That tip is a lifesaver! Suitable for the tips/tricks subforum.

Re: [Solved] Logout Error; Failed to receive a reply from the session manager.

dummy@example.com (3ruce) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 09:08:52 +0000

Forester wrote:

What, I wonder, is special about taoleo's system that makes this problem recur so often ? My systems are low memory: 512 Mb so may be I have an excuse. The Oneiric Xubuntu is so big that it uses swap space and that really slows things down. Perhaps I haven't seen a problem here because the timing is so different.

I've 2GB RAM and only just touch swap (currently reporting 14MB of 2GB, or 0.7%)... I suspect it is the session cache file as you suggest...

Re: [Solved] Logout Error; Failed to receive a reply from the session manager.

dummy@example.com (taoleo) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 04:02:33 +0000

Thanks Forester,
I deleted that file then;
I checked 'save session for future logins' in the logout panel (in my last post I found if this is checked then the problem exists) and sure enough on reboot the O/S was locked up. Then I did what you suggested and went in with system recovery and found that the xfce4-session file had recreated itself, so I deleted it and able to reboot properly.

This is where is now stands; I must keep 'save session for future logins' in the logout panel unchecked however the good news is now if it does happen to lock up again I know how to fix it. It's not perfect but it works.

It's interesting to hear other users experiences with this, hopefully someone can come up with a proper fix for it.

Re: [Solved] Logout Error; Failed to receive a reply from the session manager.

dummy@example.com (Forester) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:30:19 +0000

Hi,

I had the very same problem. I was able to reset to normal behaviour by restarting the machine in failsafe mode and deleting

$HOME/.cache/sessions/xfce4-session-*

where * is the machine:display.

This suggests the session cache file is corrupt and that would fit with "don't save the session" workaround.

I've had problems with xfce4-session 4.6.2 under Debian Squeeze (i386 and amd64) and 4.8.1 under Debian Testing and LMDE. I've not have a problem with Xubuntu yet but I guess it is just a matter of time. I'm glad (?) to see the problem occurs with PCLinuxOS so it's not just a Debian and derivatives issue.

I've not had the total lock-up that taoleo describes in post #10 but I've had the logout problem described in post #1. I have had xfce panel disappear and I've had the window manager apparently die (can't move windows, no min/max buttons etc.). All three issues 'fixed' by deleting the cache file.

For a while I was inclined to blame the window manager but not any more: Squeeze is running gdm, LMDE is running gdm3 and the problem with Wheezy didn't show until after I switched to the new lightdm.

What, I wonder, is special about taoleo's system that makes this problem recur so often ? My systems are low memory: 512 Mb so may be I have an excuse. The Oneiric Xubuntu is so big that it uses swap space and that really slows things down. Perhaps I haven't seen a problem here because the timing is so different.

Anyway, cheers.

Re: [Solved] Logout Error; Failed to receive a reply from the session manager.

dummy@example.com (Jristz) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:43:27 +0000

you said that your use GDM right?

you not try using another DM like lightdm,lxdm?

Re: [Solved] Logout Error; Failed to receive a reply from the session manager.

dummy@example.com (3ruce) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 13:49:03 +0000

I'm not sure... I started on Xubuntu 11.10 but had problems with SAMBA/SMB and writing to windows folders I could read...

I then moved to Ubuntu 11.10 and installed XFCE, so far so good, apart from this 'saving sessions/logout hangs'

:-)

Re: [Solved] Logout Error; Failed to receive a reply from the session manager.

dummy@example.com (aga) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 10:28:38 +0000

Hi, I replied tonight in your other thread before I read this thread.

"That's about four different OS using Xfce all with the same result"

Maybe all 4 distros are using the SAME window manager, and maybe each distro has customized its config (gdm, I'm guessing) in such a way that it doesn't just fallback to using any available DE, instead insisting on finding/using the DE which was originally present in the distro?

Re: [Solved] Logout Error; Failed to receive a reply from the session manager.

dummy@example.com (3ruce) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 01:06:27 +0000

Great... its a weird one though!