XFCE 4.20 & Wayfire - Panel Issue

proxyx · 2025-05-16 04:38:12

I am trying to run Wayfire as my compositor, but am having issues with the compositor identifying the xfce4-panel as a panel and not a window with window controls.

Details:
Distro: Fedora 42 XFCE
Compositor: Wayfire
Config:
- wayfire.ini updated with session = xfce4-session
- created /usr/share/wayland-sessions/xfce-wayfire.desktop with following contents:
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Xfce-Wayfire
Exec=startxfce4 --wayland wayfire
TryExec=startxfce4
Icon=
Type=Application
DesktopNames=Wayfire;wlroots

The Xfce-Wayfire session is selected from LightDM but when i log in, the xfce4-panel, though displaying, shows in the middle of the screen (there are actually 2 panels clumped together: the top panel and the bottom dock). Any advice to fix this up would be appreciated!

-proxyx

Last edited by proxyx (2025-05-16 04:41:51)

ToZ · 2025-05-16 10:17:37

Hello and welcome.

That is odd. Can we start with getting some version numbers?

wayfire
xfce4-panel
libxfce4windowing

And also:

xfconf-query -c xfce4-panel -lv

A couple of questions:

do you have/use multiple monitors? If so, does problem persist in one monitor mode?
does this problem exist if you run in default non-wayland mode?

proxyx · 2025-05-16 13:34:22

Hi ToZ,

Thank you for your time. Here's the information you requested:

$ rpm -qa | grep -E 'wayfire|xfce4-panel|libxfce4windowing'
xfce4-panel-profiles-1.0.14-7.fc42.noarch
libxfce4windowing-4.20.2-2.fc42.x86_64
xfce4-panel-4.20.4-1.fc42.x86_64
wayfire-0.9.0-3.fc42.x86_64
wayfire-config-manager-0.9.0-3.fc42.x86_64

$ xfconf-query -c xfce4-panel -lv
/configver 2
/panels [1,2]
/panels/dark-mode true
/panels/panel-1/background-rgba [0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,1.000000]
/panels/panel-1/background-style 0
/panels/panel-1/icon-size 16
/panels/panel-1/length 100
/panels/panel-1/plugin-ids [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
/panels/panel-1/position p=6;x=0;y=0
/panels/panel-1/position-locked true
/panels/panel-1/size 26
/panels/panel-2/autohide-behavior 1
/panels/panel-2/background-rgba [0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,1.000000]
/panels/panel-2/background-style 0
/panels/panel-2/length 1
/panels/panel-2/plugin-ids [11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18]
/panels/panel-2/position p=10;x=0;y=0
/panels/panel-2/position-locked true
/panels/panel-2/size 48
/plugins/plugin-1 applicationsmenu
/plugins/plugin-10 actions
/plugins/plugin-11 showdesktop
/plugins/plugin-12 separator
/plugins/plugin-13 launcher
/plugins/plugin-13/items [17473383251.desktop]
/plugins/plugin-14 launcher
/plugins/plugin-14/items [17473383252.desktop]
/plugins/plugin-15 launcher
/plugins/plugin-15/items [17473383253.desktop]
/plugins/plugin-16 launcher
/plugins/plugin-16/items [17473383254.desktop]
/plugins/plugin-17 separator
/plugins/plugin-18 directorymenu
/plugins/plugin-18/base-directory /home/admin
/plugins/plugin-2 tasklist
/plugins/plugin-2/grouping 1
/plugins/plugin-3 separator
/plugins/plugin-3/expand true
/plugins/plugin-3/style 0
/plugins/plugin-4 pager
/plugins/plugin-5 separator
/plugins/plugin-5/style 0
/plugins/plugin-6 systray
/plugins/plugin-6/known-items [proton-vpn-app,nm-applet,dnfdragora-updater]
/plugins/plugin-6/known-legacy-items [xfce4-power-manager,ethernet network connection “wired connection 1” active]
/plugins/plugin-6/square-icons true
/plugins/plugin-7 separator
/plugins/plugin-7/style 0
/plugins/plugin-8 clock
/plugins/plugin-8/digital-date-format %m/%d/%Y
/plugins/plugin-8/digital-layout 1
/plugins/plugin-8/digital-time-format %I:%M %p
/plugins/plugin-8/mode 2
/plugins/plugin-9 separator
/plugins/plugin-9/style 0

I should also mention that I am running Fedora 42 XFCE in a virtual machine (QEMU). Under the default XFCE x11, the desktop and panels display as expected. It is only in the Wayfire session that there is an issue.

Thanks
proxyx

ToZ · 2025-05-16 14:53:36

Can you also post your wayfire.ini file? Here is the one I'm using and I'm not experiencing this issue.

proxyx · 2025-05-16 18:28:38

I am using your wayfire.ini with the same results. Do you also get the wayfire bar at the top?

Could this be something with Fedora XFCE or possibly running in a VM? Which distro are you using?

ToZ · 2025-05-16 18:38:13

No I don't get a wayfire tab at the top. See: https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?pid=77266#p77266. Running on Arch both on a laptop and within a VM.

Do you have something like waybar installed and running?

proxyx · 2025-05-17 05:30:03

I did a test on CachyOS and there was no issue. So this appears to be a Fedora XFCE spin specific issue which stinks because I really wanted to stick with Fedora sad Any recommendations for troubleshooting from here?

ToZ · 2025-05-17 13:02:30

I've installed Fedora 42 in a VM to have a look and I see the same.

First of all, the other panel is coming from wf-shell which provides both a panel (wf-panel) and a background manager (wf-background). Uninstalling wf-shell removes them.

Secondly, running xfce4-panel in debug mode yields the following message:

(xfce4-panel:2164): xfce4-panel-WARNING **: 08:54:45.776: Wayland detected without layer-shell support (either because of your compositor or because Xfce4-panel was built without this support): Xfce4-panel might not look like a panel and many of its features will not be available

This is why.

From the package build script:

checking for optional package gtk-layer-shell-0 >= 0.7.0... not found

...and:

Build Configuration:
* Debug support: minimum
* GNU Visibility support: yes
* GObject Introspection support: yes
* Documentation support: yes
* D-Bus menu support: yes
* X11 support: yes
* Wayland support: yes
* GTK Layer Shell support: no

So basically, fedora is not building xfce4-panel with gtk layer shell support, and this is why you are seeing the panel the way it is.

proxyx · 2025-05-17 18:56:04

Thanks ToZ, this was exactly the issue. I was able to build the xfce4-panel from source with GTK Layer Shell support enabled. For anyone else encountering this issue, here's how I resolved it:

# install build dependenciest:
sudo dnf builddep xfce4-panel

sudo dnf install gtk-layer-shell-devel git meson ninja-build

# clone libxfce4gui from source
git clone https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/libxfce4ui.git
cd libxfce4gui

# build and install
meson setup build --prefix=/usr
cd build
ninja
sudo ninja install

# clone xfce4-panel from source
git clone https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-panel.git
cd xfce4-panel

# enable GTK Layer Support

meson setup build --prefix=/usr -Dgtk-layer-shell=enabled

# build and install

cd build
ninja
sudo ninja install

Thanks again to ToZ for the guidance and solution!

-proxyx

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#1 2025-05-16 04:38:12

XFCE 4.20 & Wayfire - Panel Issue

#2 2025-05-16 10:17:37

Re: XFCE 4.20 & Wayfire - Panel Issue

#3 2025-05-16 13:34:22

Re: XFCE 4.20 & Wayfire - Panel Issue

#4 2025-05-16 14:53:36

Re: XFCE 4.20 & Wayfire - Panel Issue

#5 2025-05-16 18:28:38

Re: XFCE 4.20 & Wayfire - Panel Issue

#6 2025-05-16 18:38:13

Re: XFCE 4.20 & Wayfire - Panel Issue

#7 2025-05-17 05:30:03

Re: XFCE 4.20 & Wayfire - Panel Issue

#8 2025-05-17 13:02:30

Re: XFCE 4.20 & Wayfire - Panel Issue

#9 2025-05-17 18:56:04

Re: XFCE 4.20 & Wayfire - Panel Issue

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