Xfce Forum

Dr.Powers

Member

Registered: 2023-07-13

Posts: 6

XFCE crashes on display power off and back on.

I have a gtx 1080 (desktop) and three monitors 1440p, 1080p, 720p, and I normally have the 1080p disabled. whenever I turn the displays off and come back hours later xfce isn't drawing right and is crashed, I might barely be able to use something enough to save (it won't be drawn correctly). On a related note how do I restart xfce without loggin out? I use ctrl+alt+backspace always having unsaved work somewhere form an app without auto save, when this dose happen it would be less of a pain if it didn't log me out to restart, example win+F2 r then enter on gnome. I have presentation mode and most power settings I could find off. I thinking making it treat the display like it's on still there when it's not, with like a script to remove monitors no longer used or replaced (remove all none active monitors from display list etc) might be the simplest workaround, I'm not sure how to do that. or maybe a script to auto run the soft (not logging out restart) on display power on. Any help is appreciated.

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,485

Re: XFCE crashes on display power off and back on.

Can you tell us which distro and which version of Xfce you are using?

I have a gtx 1080 (desktop) and three monitors 1440p, 1080p, 720p, and I normally have the 1080p disabled. whenever I turn the displays off and come back hours later xfce isn't drawing right and is crashed, I might barely be able to use something enough to save (it won't be drawn correctly).

Looking at your logs may help identify the cause. Depending on the distro, it may be in your ~/.xsession-errors file or in your journal (journalctl --user -b 1).

On a related note how do I restart xfce without loggin out? I use ctrl+alt+backspace always having unsaved work somewhere form an app without auto save, when this dose happen it would be less of a pain if it didn't log me out to restart, example win+F2 r then enter on gnome.

Ctrl+Alt+Backspace, if enabled, will kill your X windows session - hence the loss of work. In gnome, that command is restarting the gnome-shell, not all of gnome. In Xfce, there are different components that can be restarted manually:
- xfwm (window manager) via "xfwm4 -r"
- xfsettingsd (the settings manager) via "xfsettingsd --replace"
- xfce4-panel (them panel) via "xfce4-panel -r"
So it really depends on what you are trying to restart. If its related to the monitor issue above, it would probably be the settings manager to restart.

I have presentation mode and most power settings I could find off. I thinking making it treat the display like it's on still there when it's not, with like a script to remove monitors no longer used or replaced (remove all none active monitors from display list etc) might be the simplest workaround, I'm not sure how to do that. or maybe a script to auto run the soft (not logging out restart) on display power on. Any help is appreciated.

Xfce 4.18 has support for Display Profiles (Settings Manager > Displays > Advanced) that lets you create and manage monitor configurations that might be helpful.

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Dr.Powers

Member

Registered: 2023-07-13

Posts: 6

Re: XFCE crashes on display power off and back on.

Thanks, I'll check that stuff out and report back.

Frobozz

Member

Registered: 2023-09-25

Posts: 2

Re: XFCE crashes on display power off and back on.

I have just recently installed the XFCE desktop/goodies on my Ubuntu "Jammy" workstation.  And I believe I am having this same problem.

I power off my desktop each evening (4 monitors, powered speakers, usb hub) but leave the system up as it runs several important KVM virtual machines.  Gnome desktop handles this ok but the XFCE layout is lost after a power cycle of the monitors: display positions/orientations and wallpaper settings appear to be randomly scrambled.

Both  "xfwm4 -r" and "xfsettingsd --replace" return some of my configuration (thank you, ToZ) but I have to logout/login to get it back to normal.   And that is simply not an option: way too many active projects spread across my 16 virtual monitors.

Before I go down a rabbit hole analyzing crashdumps and journalctl logs, maybe someone has a solution already?

I'll post my "inxi -Fz" after reboot - I am running Gnome/Wayland as I am writing this...

Here:

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-84-generic x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Xfce 4.16.0
    Distro: Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: PRIME B360M-A v: Rev X.0x
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 3202
    date: 07/10/2021
CPU:
  Info: 6-core model: Intel Core i5-9600K bits: 64 type: MCP cache:
    L2: 1.5 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 4547 min/max: 800/4600 cores: 1: 4544 2: 4501 3: 4559
    4: 4558 5: 4578 6: 4543
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel CoffeeLake-S GT2 [UHD Graphics 630] driver: i915 v: kernel
  Device-2: NVIDIA GM107GL [Quadro K1200] driver: nvidia v: 535.86.05
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting,nvidia unloaded: fbdev,nouveau,vesa gpu: i915,nvidia
    resolution: 1: 1080x1920~60Hz 2: 1920x1080~60Hz 3: 1920x1080~60Hz
    4: 1080x1920~60Hz
  OpenGL: renderer: Quadro K1200/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 535.86.05
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Cannon Lake PCH cAVS driver: snd_hda_intel
  Device-2: NVIDIA GM107 High Definition Audio [GeForce 940MX]
    driver: snd_hda_intel
  Device-3: Creative Sound Blaster Play! 3 type: USB
    driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-84-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes

Last edited by Frobozz (2023-09-25 15:17:12)

Frobozz

Member

Registered: 2023-09-25

Posts: 2

Re: XFCE crashes on display power off and back on.

I have resolved the loss of display orientation (relative position/rotation) on power cycle issue:

In xfce4-display-settings, under "Advanced", I saved my configuration as a profile "default".  The app really should prompt you to do this or noobs like me will get bit like this. 

  My background "wall paper" still gets messed up on power cycle.  I have it "spanned" across all 4 monitors by virtue of a 2011 xfce forum post.  (Twelve years? Apparently the devs don't consider spanned wallpaper a priority). 

Synopsis:

Run the "xfce4-settings-editor" from the command line.
Go to the "xfce4-desktop" channel.
Click the "New property" button and enter:
  Name: /backdrop/screen0/xinerama-stretch
  Type: Boolean        (it's a dropdown)
  Value: [ ] Enabled   (check the box to turn on spanned wallpaper, uncheck to turn off spanned wallpaper)
and click Save.

After this, "spanning screens" will become an option for wallpaper in "xfdesktop-settings".  BUT only from the primary monitor.  My other monitors revert to the white mouse/blue background on power cycle.

SOLVED (sorta): executing "pkill -HUP xfdesktop"  (--reload does not work) will fix a spanned wallpaper configuration after power cycling your monitors and you need a saved profile in "xfce4-display-settings" under "Advanced" to get your display position/orientation to recover.

Last edited by Frobozz (2023-09-25 19:19:53)