Xfce Forum

guayaseal

Member

Registered: 2022-07-14

Posts: 23

Ctrl-Alt-F2, Ctrl-F7 = problem (ArchLinux? nVidia? dbus? systemd?)

I prepare a partition image then cloned with some slight adjustments to approx 300 workstations with several hardware setups. Only some with nVidia cards (nVidia drivers) are affected:

After switching from an active XFCE session to a tty (Ctrl-Alt-F2) then back to the XFCE session (Ctrl-F7) only a black screen with a mouse pointer is seen.

I have two desktop environments installed for users' choice: XFCE and MATE. The problem affects only XFCE, no problems from MATE nor just LightDM, so it seems to be XFCE related. Any idea welcome.

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,815

Re: Ctrl-Alt-F2, Ctrl-F7 = problem (ArchLinux? nVidia? dbus? systemd?)

Interesting that it affects Xfce only. Are there any messages in the journal when you make the switch?

Can you try with the compositor disabled? Settings Manager > Window Manager > Compositor tab.
If that fixes it, then have a look at this thread that talks about some different compositor modes that can be set.

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guayaseal

Member

Registered: 2022-07-14

Posts: 23

Re: Ctrl-Alt-F2, Ctrl-F7 = problem (ArchLinux? nVidia? dbus? systemd?)

Nothing in journald nor X logs
Tomorrow I'll try to disable the Compositor if it's enabled (nothing set; default settings) and let you know.
BTW: Settings Manager > Window Manager TWEAKS > Compositor
BTW: Maybe this bug is somewhat related to the problem with xfdesktop from my second thread?

guayaseal

Member

Registered: 2022-07-14

Posts: 23

Re: Ctrl-Alt-F2, Ctrl-F7 = problem (ArchLinux? nVidia? dbus? systemd?)

Yes, with Compositor disabled permanently the problem doesn't occur. I'll try to debug it according to the thread you linked.

guayaseal

Member

Registered: 2022-07-14

Posts: 23

Re: Ctrl-Alt-F2, Ctrl-F7 = problem (ArchLinux? nVidia? dbus? systemd?)

In /usr/share/xfwm4/defaults :

vblank_mode=off

or

vblank_mode=xpresent

solves the problem. Thank you!