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qperead

Member

Registered: 2025-02-05

Posts: 3

Missing xfconf Files in ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/

Hello everyone,

I recently noticed that not all xfconf configuration files are present in my ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/ directory. Here is the output of the files I currently have:

q@NixOS:~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/ > ls
keyboard-layout.xml  thunar.xml           xfce4-desktop.xml             xfce4-mime-settings.xml  xfce4-panel.xml          xfce4-screenshooter.xml     xfwm4.xml
keyboards.xml        xfce4-appfinder.xml  xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts.xml  xfce4-notifyd.xml        xfce4-power-manager.xml  xfce4-settings-manager.xml  xsettings.xml
q@NixOS:~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/ >

As you can see, there are some expected files missing. Could anyone explain why this might be happening? Is there a way to restore the missing configuration files?

Thank you for your help!

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,781

Re: Missing xfconf Files in ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/

Hello and welcome.

Do you have write permission to that directory?

ls -l ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/
ls -l ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf//xfce-perchannel-xml

What are XDG environment variables set to?

env | grep -i XDG

Can you search your hard drive for xfce4-panel.xml and report back all the locations that it is found at?

And finally, can you provide any log files? ~/.xsession-errors or the journal log for your current boot.

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qperead

Member

Registered: 2025-02-05

Posts: 3

Re: Missing xfconf Files in ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/

Hi,

I checked the permissions and the contents of the directories. Here are the results:

q@NixOS:~/ > ls -l ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/
итого 4
drwx------ 2 q users 4096 лют  5 13:42 xfce-perchannel-xml

q@NixOS:~/ > ls -l ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml
итого 80
-rw-r--r-- 1 q users   156 лют  5 13:42 displays.xml
-rw-r--r-- 1 q users   212 лют  4 16:54 keyboard-layout.xml
-rw-r--r-- 1 q users   326 лют  4 16:53 keyboards.xml
-rw-r--r-- 1 q users   256 лют  2 15:29 thunar.xml
-rw-r--r-- 1 q users  2162 лют  2 20:28 xfce4-appfinder.xml
-rw-r--r-- 1 q users  2050 лют  2 19:39 xfce4-desktop.xml
-rw-r--r-- 1 q users 13072 лют  4 16:54 xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts.xml
-rw-r--r-- 1 q users   448 лют  2 19:47 xfce4-mime-settings.xml
-rw-r--r-- 1 q users   593 лют  5 12:15 xfce4-notifyd.xml
-rw-r--r-- 1 q users  6857 лют  5 13:42 xfce4-panel.xml
-rw-r--r-- 1 q users   373 лют  5 13:42 xfce4-power-manager.xml
-rw-r--r-- 1 q users   624 лют  4 17:02 xfce4-screenshooter.xml
-rw-r--r-- 1 q users   276 лют  5 11:47 xfce4-settings-manager.xml
-rw-r--r-- 1 q users  5883 лют  2 20:28 xfwm4.xml
-rw-r--r-- 1 q users  1888 лют  4 16:53 xsettings.xml

q@NixOS:~/ > env | grep -i XDG
XDG_SESSION_TYPE=x11
XDG_CACHE_HOME=/home/q/.cache
XDG_SESSION_ID=1
XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP=xfce
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000
NIX_XDG_DESKTOP_PORTAL_DIR=/run/current-system/sw/share/xdg-desktop-portal/portals
NIXOS_XDG_OPEN_USE_PORTAL=1
XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=XFCE
XDG_CONFIG_DIRS=/etc/xdg:/home/q/.local/share/flatpak/exports/etc/xdg:/var/lib/flatpak/exports/etc/xdg:/home/q/.nix-profile/etc/xdg:/nix/profile/etc/xdg:/home/q/.local/state/nix/profile/etc/xdg:/etc/profiles/per-user/q/etc/xdg:/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/etc/xdg:/run/current-system/sw/etc/xdg
XDG_CONFIG_HOME=/home/q/.config
XDG_SESSION_CLASS=user
XDG_VTNR=2
XDG_MENU_PREFIX=xfce-
XDG_SEAT=seat0

q@NixOS:~/ > fd -H xfce4-panel.xml /

/home/q/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-panel.xml

q@NixOS:~/ > fd -H .xsession-errors /
/home/q/.xsession-errors

q@NixOS:~/ > cat /home/q/.xsession-errors
(empty)

q@NixOS:~/ > ls -l ~/.xsession-errors
-rw------- 1 q users 0 лют  2 15:28 /home/q/.xsession-errors

Added later 1 h 19 min 15 s:
or, where can I find the default xfconf configs? where will ALL possible xfce settings be located? do I understand correctly that the Settings Editor only displays the settings that I previously changed in the gui? but if I want to see all the parameters that, in principle, can be set in my xml file or in the home-manager configuration - xfconf.settings, I have only 3 parameters here:

q@NixOS:~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/ > cat keyboards.xml           
<?xml version="1.1" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<channel name="keyboards" version="1.0">
  <property name="Default" type="empty">
    <property name="Numlock" type="bool" value="false"/>
    <property name="RestoreNumlock" type="bool" value="false"/>
    <property name="KeyRepeat" type="bool" value="true"/>
  </property>
</channel>
q@NixOS:~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/ >

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,781

Re: Missing xfconf Files in ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/

Everything looks good. The directory listing now includes all the essential missing ones (xfce4-panel, xfdesktop, displays).

or, where can I find the default xfconf configs?

Unless Nix does something different, they should be located in /etc/xdg - specifically /etc/xdg/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml, or they are created automatically on the first startup of the component.

where will ALL possible xfce settings be located?

Not easy to answer. On a running system, they would be mostly in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xfce4. Have a read through this post for more info.

do I understand correctly that the Settings Editor only displays the settings that I previously changed in the gui?

Yes and no. Some are defaulted in, others are only created when set.

but if I want to see all the parameters that, in principle, can be set in my xml file or in the home-manager configuration - xfconf.settings,

There isn't really a complete list that I've seen - you'd need to look at the code of each component if you want that list.

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qperead

Member

Registered: 2025-02-05

Posts: 3

Re: Missing xfconf Files in ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/

There isn't really a complete list that I've seen - you'd need to look at the code of each component if you want that list.

it would be nice if it were so, but I can't know for sure whether these are all the settings in my keyboards.xml or not, I can't know whether I have all the files that I should have (for example, accessibility or xfdashboard, which I don't have), and whether they are all complete, I'll probably have to go to github and look at other users' files, because I'm almost certainly sure that xfconf can contain a larger range of settings than those in gui