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ZmJmZGE2YWIzNWEwZTgxNDI2Y

Member

Registered: 2024-10-24

Posts: 14

[SOLVED] Debian 12.11 XFCE Notifications Not Working

Hi,

I'm running Debian 12.11 XFCE on a Dell Latitude laptop.  The xfce4-notifyd notification is not working at all but everything is turned and looks ok as far as I can tell.

xfce4-notifyd is running as per the command below:

pgrep xfce4-notifyd
1381

I also had a Fedora XFCE running on a laptop and if I remember I had the same issue.  On all my desktops running Debian XFCE notification works.  I wonder if this is a laptop issue?  Anyone have any solutions/suggestions?

Last edited by ZmJmZGE2YWIzNWEwZTgxNDI2Y (2025-06-17 18:13:13)

eriefisher

Wanderer

From: ON, Canada

Registered: 2008-10-25

Posts: 746

Re: [SOLVED] Debian 12.11 XFCE Notifications Not Working

Have you checked the settings? Compare them with a working machine. You can test with:

notify-send "hello-there"

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Siduction
Debian Sid
Xfce 4.20 with Wayland/Labwc

ZmJmZGE2YWIzNWEwZTgxNDI2Y

Member

Registered: 2024-10-24

Posts: 14

Re: [SOLVED] Debian 12.11 XFCE Notifications Not Working

Have you checked the settings? Compare them with a working machine. You can test with:

notify-send "hello-there"

Hi thanks for responding.  I tried the test above on the laptop and a pop up comes up but nothing on the notification app on the taskbar.  I tried it also on the desktop where notifications are working and a pop up comes up but also it triggers the notification app on the taskbar.  So basically the notification app on the laptop is not being triggered.  I searched online for an answer/solution but can't find anything.

eriefisher

Wanderer

From: ON, Canada

Registered: 2008-10-25

Posts: 746

Re: [SOLVED] Debian 12.11 XFCE Notifications Not Working

So basically the notification app on the laptop is not being triggered

It's unclear what your expecting to happen. Do you have the log switched on/off?
Again, I would check the settings. I think you may just have the log off.

---

I AM CANADIAN!
Siduction
Debian Sid
Xfce 4.20 with Wayland/Labwc

ZmJmZGE2YWIzNWEwZTgxNDI2Y

Member

Registered: 2024-10-24

Posts: 14

Re: [SOLVED] Debian 12.11 XFCE Notifications Not Working

Ah yes the log was off.  I somehow overlooked that.  So I turned the log on and set log notifications to always.  It now shows up in panel notification.  However the icon still does not indicate that a new notification.  This is not a major issue as long as I have a log that I can look through but if I can quickly fix it that would be good.  I compared it to an MX Linux desktop that has notifications working with no issue other than no notification sound and the settings all look the same.

Added later 1 h 28 min 37 s:

Ah yes the log was off.  I somehow overlooked that.  So I turned the log on and set log notifications to always.  It now shows up in panel notification.  However the icon still does not indicate that a new notification.  This is not a major issue as long as I have a log that I can look through but if I can quickly fix it that would be good.  I compared it to an MX Linux desktop that has notifications working with no issue other than no notification sound and the settings all look the same.

Nevermind the notification icon is working now as well after a couple of restarts.  The only thing that remains is getting sound for the notifications.

I follow some directions from another thread on this forum:
1.  Settings→ Appearance → Settings → Check “Enable event sounds”.
2.  Installed libcanberra-pulse.
3.  Unmuted and turned up system sounds in the audio mixer options.

No sound.  I'm thinking this may be a Debian 12 issue and not a XFCE issue but if anyone has any tips/suggetions please do share.  Thanks again to wanderer for the help.

Last edited by ZmJmZGE2YWIzNWEwZTgxNDI2Y (2025-06-17 01:40:09)

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,024

Re: [SOLVED] Debian 12.11 XFCE Notifications Not Working

Regarding sound support in xfce4-notifyd, see: https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=17143.

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ZmJmZGE2YWIzNWEwZTgxNDI2Y

Member

Registered: 2024-10-24

Posts: 14

Re: [SOLVED] Debian 12.11 XFCE Notifications Not Working

Regarding sound support in xfce4-notifyd, see: https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=17143.

Hi Toz.  My xfce notifyd version:

sudo apt-get install xfce4-notifyd
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
xfce4-notifyd is already the newest version (0.7.3-1).

In the thread you linked above you wrote "Basically, you would run "configure" or "autogen.sh" and add the "--enable-sound" parameter. Be careful of conflicts if you keep the older version installed."  Would you be able to go into more detail on how I run configure or autogen.sh?

eriefisher

Wanderer

From: ON, Canada

Registered: 2008-10-25

Posts: 746

Re: [SOLVED] Debian 12.11 XFCE Notifications Not Working

First you need the latest source files. Once unpacked there will be the instructions in the readme file. Which ever it tells you what to do add the --enable-sound'

./configure --enable-sound

then continue on from there following the instructions. You will be replacing the installed version you currently have.
The git page likely has the build instructions as well. The problem is you will need to install a bunch of -dev(headers) for it to build otherwise it will fail. There error message will tell you what you need.

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Siduction
Debian Sid
Xfce 4.20 with Wayland/Labwc

ZmJmZGE2YWIzNWEwZTgxNDI2Y

Member

Registered: 2024-10-24

Posts: 14

Re: [SOLVED] Debian 12.11 XFCE Notifications Not Working

First you need the latest source files. Once unpacked there will be the instructions in the readme file. Which ever it tells you what to do add the --enable-sound'

./configure --enable-sound

then continue on from there following the instructions. You will be replacing the installed version you currently have.
The git page likely has the build instructions as well. The problem is you will need to install a bunch of -dev(headers) for it to build otherwise it will fail. There error message will tell you what you need.

Hmm.  This may be a bit complicated for me and I don't want to mess up my system.  Again I'm using Debian 12.11 XFCE.  Debian 13 is right around the corner (I think).  Would there be a "enable sound" option in the default XFCE that will ship the Debian 13?  If so I can simply wait for Debian 13 to be released.  Sound isn't a necessity and everything else is working nicely now.

eriefisher

Wanderer

From: ON, Canada

Registered: 2008-10-25

Posts: 746

Re: [SOLVED] Debian 12.11 XFCE Notifications Not Working

Possible but not likely unless the package maintainer decides to build it that way. I run sid with xfce4-notifyd version 0.9.7-2 and I don't see any sound settings. It is possible to file a request to the maintainer asking him to do so. I don't use system or notification sound so I've never looked into it.

I should mention that 13 is currently frozen to fix bugs only for release. Once they get the bugs fixed they know about they'll release it but there will be nothing new added.

---

I AM CANADIAN!
Siduction
Debian Sid
Xfce 4.20 with Wayland/Labwc

ZmJmZGE2YWIzNWEwZTgxNDI2Y

Member

Registered: 2024-10-24

Posts: 14

Re: [SOLVED] Debian 12.11 XFCE Notifications Not Working

Possible but not likely unless the package maintainer decides to build it that way. I run sid with xfce4-notifyd version 0.9.7-2 and I don't see any sound settings. It is possible to file a request to the maintainer asking him to do so. I don't use system or notification sound so I've never looked into it.

I should mention that 13 is currently frozen to fix bugs only for release. Once they get the bugs fixed they know about they'll release it but there will be nothing new added.

Oh if you don't have it then most likely it will not be shipped with Debian 13.  Do you have sounds for notification working in your setup with the suggested method above?  If so does it work good?

eriefisher

Wanderer

From: ON, Canada

Registered: 2008-10-25

Posts: 746

Re: [SOLVED] Debian 12.11 XFCE Notifications Not Working

Do you have sounds for notification working in your setup

No, as mentioned earlier I don't bother with system sounds at all.

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I AM CANADIAN!
Siduction
Debian Sid
Xfce 4.20 with Wayland/Labwc

ZmJmZGE2YWIzNWEwZTgxNDI2Y

Member

Registered: 2024-10-24

Posts: 14

Re: [SOLVED] Debian 12.11 XFCE Notifications Not Working

Do you have sounds for notification working in your setup

No, as mentioned earlier I don't bother with system sounds at all.

Oh sorry I missed that.  I'll pass on the sounds as well.  Some of the programs have their own built in sound notifications anyway (web Outlook, Evolution, etc.).  Thanks for all your help.