"switch user" grayed out when clicking on the user icon (taskbar)

markos · 2018-02-07 01:31:33

I am using xfce 4.12 on fedora 27.

The user icon on the taskbar has options to lock screen, log out, etc. It also has an option "switch user" but it is grayed out. How can I enable this option? It's useful to me, as I want to log into a different account whilst not logging out my current one.

Thanks in advance.

ToZ · 2018-02-07 14:18:20

Hello and welcome.

Switch user functionality is dependent on the Display Manager that you are using and whether it supports user switching. In addition, the Xfce Actions button panel plugin assumes that gdmflexiserver is installed (GDM) and uses that to switch users.

Since it's greyed out, it means that you are not using GDM.

If you are using Lightdm, then with root privileges, create the file /usr/local/bin/gdmflexiserver with the following content:

#!/bin/sh

dm-tool switch-to-greeter

...and make the file executable.

If you are using another display manager (and assuming that it supports user switching), you will need to do something similar but replace the command in the gdmflexiserver code above to use that specific display manager's user switching command/functionality.

markos · 2018-02-07 15:50:00

Thank you, it worked. By the way, is there some documentation on-line about gdmflexiserver and xfce in general? It would be nice to know what xfce is using under the hood. Lots of questions would be avoided :-)

ToZ · 2018-02-07 20:35:56

markos wrote:

By the way, is there some documentation on-line about gdmflexiserver and xfce in general?

Yes and no.

Xfce does have an online Documentation section and a Wiki, but it needs work (volunteers) to update the content.

There are other resources on the internet, like the individual distro wikis. To list a few (but by no means all of them):
- Arch Wiki (that has info on this particular issue)
- Fedora Wiki
- Gentoo Wiki
- Jerry, one of our members, maintains MXLinux documentation including a compiled page of Xfce tidbits.

And I'm sure there are others.

markos · 2018-02-08 00:04:00

Great, thanks. Duly bookmarked!

Jerry3904 · 2018-02-08 00:53:34

Jerry, one of our members, maintains MXLinux documentation including a compiled page of Xfce tidbits.

Hey, I didn't think anyone noticed...

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#1 2018-02-07 01:31:33

"switch user" grayed out when clicking on the user icon (taskbar)

#2 2018-02-07 14:18:20

Re: "switch user" grayed out when clicking on the user icon (taskbar)

#3 2018-02-07 15:50:00

Re: "switch user" grayed out when clicking on the user icon (taskbar)

#4 2018-02-07 20:35:56

Re: "switch user" grayed out when clicking on the user icon (taskbar)

#5 2018-02-08 00:04:00

Re: "switch user" grayed out when clicking on the user icon (taskbar)

#6 2018-02-08 00:53:34

Re: "switch user" grayed out when clicking on the user icon (taskbar)

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