Xfce Forum

Diadochokinetic

Member

Registered: 2021-01-10

Posts: 8

XFCE-Session stuck loading

Hello,

I am on Debian 10 with kernel 4.19 running xfce 4.12. Since this morning I have trouble starting a working xfce-session from the gui. After I enter my login credentials (lightdm), my desktop doesn't load correctly. I can see the panel with some of the widgets/plugins. It shows date/time and my workspaces. All other things e.g. whiskers-menu, wifi, battery are missing. My Wallpaper is not loading, instead I have a plane grey background. I can see my mouse cursor and can move it, but I can't click or launch anything, e.g. lauching a terminal via hot keys.

Now comes the strange part. If I press ctrl+alt+f1 to switch to tty1 and then press ctrl+alt+f7 to go back to gui session, everything is loaded correctely. This includes applications that I tried to launch via hot keys as described above.

As suggested in https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=11110 I tried to clear the session cache, but had no success. My output for .xsession-errors is very similiar, although I don't seem to have some random second window-manager starting.

Here's my error log (for privacy reasons I replaced my username with $USER:

Xsession: X session started for $USER at Sun 10 Jan 2021 05:37:38 PM CET
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting DISPLAY=:0
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XAUTHORITY=/home/$USER/.Xauthority
localuser:$USER being added to access control list
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting QT_ACCESSIBILITY=1
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting USER=$USER
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting LANGUAGE=en_US:en
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_SESSION_TYPE=x11
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting HOME=/home/$USER
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting DESKTOP_SESSION=xfce
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_SEAT_PATH=/org/freedesktop/DisplayManager/Seat0
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting LOGNAME=$USER
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_SESSION_CLASS=user
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_SESSION_PATH=/org/freedesktop/DisplayManager/Session0
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting DISPLAY=:0
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting LANG=en_US.UTF-8
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=XFCE
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP=xfce
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XAUTHORITY=/home/$USER/.Xauthority
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_GREETER_DATA_DIR=/var/lib/lightdm/data/$USER
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting SHELL=/bin/bash
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting GDMSESSION=xfce
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting QT_ACCESSIBILITY=1
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting GPG_AGENT_INFO=/run/user/1000/gnupg/S.gpg-agent:0:1
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting PWD=/home/$USER
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_DATA_DIRS=/usr/share/xfce4:/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/
/usr/bin/startxfce4: X server already running on display :0
xfce4-session-Message: 17:37:39.325: SSH authentication agent is already running
gpg-agent[843]: WARNING: "--write-env-file" is an obsolete option - it has no effect
gpg-agent: a gpg-agent is already running - not starting a new one

(xfce4-session:836): xfce4-session-WARNING **: 17:37:39.335: gpg-agent returned no PID in the variables

(xfce4-session:836): xfce4-session-WARNING **: 17:37:39.341: xfsm_manager_load_session: Something wrong with /home/$USER/.cache/sessions/xfce4-session-debian:0, Does it exist? Permissions issue?

(wrapper-2.0:914): Gtk-WARNING **: 17:37:40.445: Negative content width -1 (allocation 1, extents 1x1) while allocating gadget (node button, owner GtkToggleButton)

(wrapper-2.0:924): Gtk-WARNING **: 17:37:40.583: Negative content width -1 (allocation 1, extents 1x1) while allocating gadget (node button, owner PulseaudioButton)

(wrapper-2.0:922): Gtk-WARNING **: 17:37:40.735: Negative content width -1 (allocation 1, extents 1x1) while allocating gadget (node button, owner PowerManagerButton)
lib path = '/opt/Synology/SynologyDrive/lib/plugins'
sh: 1: /sbin/ifconfig: not found

I have no idea how to solve this.

Regards
Diadochokinetic

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,486

Re: XFCE-Session stuck loading

Hello and welcome.

I recall seeing something similar in past posts (not sure where) related to nvidia cards.
Does it help if you delete ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/displays.xml before you log in.

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Diadochokinetic

Member

Registered: 2021-01-10

Posts: 8

Re: XFCE-Session stuck loading

I recall seeing something similar in past posts (not sure where) related to nvidia cards.
Does it help if you delete ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/displays.xml before you log in.

I do have a nvdia graphics card and deleting the file solved it. Thank you very much! May I ask what that file does and why it is interfering with my desktop loading correctly?

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,486

Re: XFCE-Session stuck loading

The file saves the display layout info (from Displays configuration in the Setting Manager). I don't know why its interfering, if you've had the install for a while through upgrades, perhaps some previous setting was interfering.

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Diadochokinetic

Member

Registered: 2021-01-10

Posts: 8

Re: XFCE-Session stuck loading

I did install the latest updates (apt update && apt upgrade) that day. Though, I don't remember whether nvida drivers were involved. I don't think so, because it's an old card (gt425m) using legacy drivers.

Stuff like that happens to me all the time. I don't know why, I never have a running system out of the box