New installtion on Debian Jessie: Multiple problems with daemon crash

mabra · 2016-03-29 12:37:02

Hallo !

I had never have to have a look into details after I setup XFCE4. This time, many things look
bad, at least, I do not understand them - probably a crash of the settings daemon may be
the cause.

I installed debian jessie from a chroot environment, because I need ZFS on root. Some
small things went bad, which were probably corrected. At least, before installing XFCE4
I do'nt recognize strange problems.

I just saying, I am using XFCE4 over XRDP, because my box is outside and I have to
have unique access to all of them. This might be a reason too, but I have never seen
such behavior before.

The most ugly thing might be this:

grid kernel: xfsettingsd[2088]: segfault at 20 ip 00007fa29e33f6b7 sp 00007fff8d8a0b90 error 4 in libxfce4kbd-private-2.so.0.0.0[7fa29e33a000+9000]

The other things are:

- scrollbar: missing small icons on top and bottom end of the scrollbar leads to ugly behavior in long
documents/synaptic/wirshark bufferlists
- cannot change location of notifications display
- some (a lot of) keyboard shortcuts do not work; some, related to desktop, switches TABs in the current app
- one workspace is missing (4 visible in panel, config shows 5)
- cannot keep one window on all desktops, the check is set, but doesnt work;
so, what is "the visible workspace", where a window can always be placed?
- the output of xmodemap is completely different from all examples
I saw, it contains only one name after the equel sign
- all icons missing in thunar [have had another question about this already]

These might be related to the daemon crash - I am just no expert on this.

Any help would be great - I'll just understand where to start and I could shwo logs.

Thanks anyway,
Manfred

uname-a:
Linux grid 3.16.0-4-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.16.7-ckt20-1+deb8u4 (2016-02-29) x86_64 GNU/Linux

lsb_release -a:
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Debian
Description: Debian GNU/Linux 8.3 (jessie)
Release: 8.3
Codename: jessie

XFCE4.10

mobo:
SuperMicro A1SAM-2750F with Aspeed AST 2400 VGA Controller

ToZ · 2016-03-30 12:41:12

This sounds like the old xfsettingsd/vnc bug that existed in Xfce 4.10 when connecting over vnc. The symptoms you list are all indicative of a non-functional xfsettingsd daemon. To confirm, check to see if xfsettingsd is running:

ps -ef | grep xfsettingsd

...and if not, try manually starting it:

xfsettingsd

If you get a message about a missing XI protocol, then this is the bug. It was fixed post 4.10.

As a workaround, aside from upgrading to 4.12, some people had success running xfsettingsd with the --sync option:

xfsettingsd --sync

I recall with 4.10 having to install xrdp on the system and connect using rdesktop (sesman session) to get Xfce to work properly.

mabra · 2016-03-30 14:25:25

Hi !

Many thanks for your investigation. This starts to help me, to make my own homeworks ...
If I am running xcfe via startx at the console, there is a warning about gtk, 'cannot open display'
but everything else, even shortcuts etc. is ok and the daemon is running.

If I login via xrdp, using 'sesman-Xvnc' the drama takes it's route ...

I am seeing, the daemon is not running and I tried to start it manually,
but, anyway, if I start it without params or with your mention of '--sync', I get:

(xfsettingsd:29563): xfsettingsd-CRITICAL **: RANDR extension is too old, version 1.1. Display settings won't be applied.
Xlib: extension "XInputExtension" missing on display ":10.0".
(xfsettingsd:29563): xfsettingsd-CRITICAL **: XI is not present.
(xfsettingsd:29563): xfsettingsd-CRITICAL **: Failed to initialize the Xkb extension.
(xfsettingsd:29563): xfsettingsd-CRITICAL **: Failed to initialize the Accessibility extension.

the terminal then hungs here and, using another one, 'ps' does not see the daemon running.

Probably, you'll have a hint?

Much thanks anyway,
Manfred

ToZ · 2016-03-30 14:35:28

mabra wrote:

If I am running xcfe via startx at the console, there is a warning about gtk, 'cannot open display'
but everything else, even shortcuts etc. is ok and the daemon is running.

What is the contents of your ~/.xinitrc file?

If I login via xrdp

Exactly how are you doing this? What program and parameters are you using to connect?

I am seeing, the daemon is not running and I tried to start it manually,
but, anyway, if I start it without params or with your mention of '--sync', I get:
(xfsettingsd:29563): xfsettingsd-CRITICAL **: RANDR extension is too old, version 1.1. Display settings won't be applied.
Xlib: extension "XInputExtension" missing on display ":10.0".
(xfsettingsd:29563): xfsettingsd-CRITICAL **: XI is not present.
(xfsettingsd:29563): xfsettingsd-CRITICAL **: Failed to initialize the Xkb extension.
(xfsettingsd:29563): xfsettingsd-CRITICAL **: Failed to initialize the Accessibility extension.
the terminal then hungs here and, using another one, 'ps' does not see the daemon running.

xfsettingsd is crashing and causing the effects that you are seeing. This was a known bug in Xfce 4.10.

ToZ · 2016-03-30 14:43:15

I believe this was the bug report and this the commit that fixed it. This patch was included in xfce4-settings version 4.11.0.

mabra · 2016-03-30 17:09:37

ToZ wrote:

mabra wrote:
If I am running xcfe via startx at the console, there is a warning about gtk, 'cannot open display'
but everything else, even shortcuts etc. is ok and the daemon is running.
What is the contents of your ~/.xinitrc file?
NONE of my users have such a file.

If I login via xrdp
Exactly how are you doing this? What program and parameters are you using to connect?

1 - I am using "Royal-TS from Windows", does it usually
starts displaying a login-dialog, where I specify (Module) "Sesman-Xvnc" and type user/pass
2 - (ubunut) rdesktop -a 16 -4 grid -u root -p -
The result for this ways is the same - the daemon is not present.
I am seeing, the daemon is not running and I tried to start it manually,
but, anyway, if I start it without params or with your mention of '--sync', I get:
(xfsettingsd:29563): xfsettingsd-CRITICAL **: RANDR extension is too old, version 1.1. Display settings won't be applied.
Xlib: extension "XInputExtension" missing on display ":10.0".
(xfsettingsd:29563): xfsettingsd-CRITICAL **: XI is not present.
(xfsettingsd:29563): xfsettingsd-CRITICAL **: Failed to initialize the Xkb extension.
(xfsettingsd:29563): xfsettingsd-CRITICAL **: Failed to initialize the Accessibility extension.
the terminal then hungs here and, using another one, 'ps' does not see the daemon running.
xfsettingsd is crashing and causing the effects that you are seeing. This was a known bug in Xfce 4.10.

ToZ · 2016-03-30 23:51:59

Looks like you need to be running xfce4-settings version 4.11.0 or above to get vnc/rdp to work with Xfce. Unfortunately, Debian Jessie only comes with 4.10.

ToZ · 2016-03-31 02:52:02

As an alternative, you can use XDMCP and it seems to work fine. xfsettingsd doesn't crash in this scenario.

To set up the server, make sure you are running a compatible display manager (e.g. lightdm) and configure it allow xdmcp. Also open the firewall to ports 177 and 6000:6005/tcp.

On the client, you'll need to have a local X server app running on Windows, or Xephyr on linux. Also open up the same ports through the firewall and with linux, connect via:

Xephyr -query 192.168.1.254 -screen 1200x700 -br -reset -terminate :1

...adjust parameters to suit.

One downside though is that you can't re-connect to existing sessions using XDMCP.

mabra · 2016-03-31 06:47:51

Hi !

Thanks for the hints and pointers.
Sorry to say that an alternative to use XRDP would destroy my usual environment and I do not have an Xserver for windows.

Anyway, with a lucky moment, I remembered apt-pinning.

**NOTE - DO NOT FOLLOW MY NOOB(Y) INSTRUCTIONS **

Add debian 'testing' to your repository. Use apt-pinning to force stabil to be the default.

>apt-get install -t testing xfce4

will bring you xfce 4.12 to your box.
Now, the settings daemon is running and some shortcuts work, and Thunar has icons.
This was the main problem. More on the new minir errors after some hours of sleep ;-)

Regards,
Manfred

Xfce Forum

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#1 2016-03-29 12:37:02

New installtion on Debian Jessie: Multiple problems with daemon crash

#2 2016-03-30 12:41:12

Re: New installtion on Debian Jessie: Multiple problems with daemon crash

#3 2016-03-30 14:25:25

Re: New installtion on Debian Jessie: Multiple problems with daemon crash

#4 2016-03-30 14:35:28

Re: New installtion on Debian Jessie: Multiple problems with daemon crash

#5 2016-03-30 14:43:15

Re: New installtion on Debian Jessie: Multiple problems with daemon crash

#6 2016-03-30 17:09:37

Re: New installtion on Debian Jessie: Multiple problems with daemon crash

#7 2016-03-30 23:51:59

Re: New installtion on Debian Jessie: Multiple problems with daemon crash

#8 2016-03-31 02:52:02

Re: New installtion on Debian Jessie: Multiple problems with daemon crash

#9 2016-03-31 06:47:51

Re: New installtion on Debian Jessie: Multiple problems with daemon crash

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