Xfce Forum

trk204

Member

Registered: 2018-03-15

Posts: 14

Can't set alternatives to user config location (ie .config) [solved]

Hey guys,   we are currently running xfce 4.16 (debian bullseye) on our workstations.   nfs mounted /home on the workstations and everything is humming along fine.

The issue is,   we are starting to spin up some container based desktop environments (ie linuxserver.io webtop instances) and I would like to be able to have the users home directory still be /home/$user.  But keep the second xfce instance config in it's own directory.  Currently,  I'm just using vncserver to open up a new instance of xfce for testing.

For example,   user roger logs into the workstation,   /home/roger/(.config|.local) is read and desktop fires up.

But I need to start a second concurrent instance of xfce running against the /home/roger directory (not using default .config/.local)

Here is my xstartup

#!/bin/sh
export XDG_CONFIG_HOME=.config-new
export XDG_CONFIG_DIRS=/etc/xdg
export XDG_CACHE_HOME=.cache-new
export XFSM_VERBOSE=true
unset SESSION_MANAGER
unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
startxfce4

when I start a vncserver ala vncserver :2 -geometry 1920x1080 -depth 24 I get an xfce error on startup
Unable to load a failsafe session
Unable to determine failsafe session name.   Possible casues: xfconfd isn't running (dbus setup problem)} env variable $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS is set incorrectly (must include /etc) or xfce4-session is installed incorrectly.

I can see xfce is _trying_to do something with the new directories

ls -la |egrep "\.c"
drwxr-xr-x  4 roger roger 4096 Sep 10 16:36 .cache
drwxr-xr-x  4 roger roger 4096 Sep 10 17:12 .cache-new
drwxr-xr-x  4 roger roger 4096 Sep 10 16:37 .config
drwxr-xr-x  2 roger roger 4096 Sep 10 17:12 .config-new
find .cache-new .config-new/
.cache-new
.cache-new/sessions
.cache-new/mesa_shader_cache
.cache-new/mesa_shader_cache/index
.config-new/
.config-new/user-dirs.locale
.config-new/user-dirs.dirs

If I remove the exports from the xstartup,   I can get a working xfce session running against /home/roger/.config,  so vncserver/xfce is working under default configs,   just not for alternate config directory locations.

here is the logs from vnc when exporting config options

Xvnc TigerVNC 1.11.0 - built 2022-01-26 17:59
Copyright (C) 1999-2020 TigerVNC Team and many others (see README.rst)
See https://www.tigervnc.org for information on TigerVNC.
Underlying X server release 12011000, The X.Org Foundation


Wed Sep 10 17:43:30 2025
 vncext:      VNC extension running!
 vncext:      Listening for VNC connections on local interface(s), port 5902
 vncext:      created VNC server for screen 0
3NI3X0 New Xtigervnc server 'infinity.test.lan:2 (roger)' on port 5902 for display :2.
3NI3X0 Use xtigervncviewer -SecurityTypes VncAuth -passwd /home/roger/.vnc/passwd :2 to connect to the VNC server.
/usr/bin/startxfce4: X server already running on display :2

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: 17:43:30.297: invalid (NULL) pointer instance

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.297: g_signal_connect_data: assertion 'G_TYPE_CHECK_INSTANCE (instance)' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.297: g_dbus_proxy_call_sync_internal: assertion 'G_IS_DBUS_PROXY (proxy)' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.297: g_propagate_error: assertion 'src != NULL' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: 17:43:30.297: invalid (NULL) pointer instance

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.297: g_signal_connect_data: assertion 'G_TYPE_CHECK_INSTANCE (instance)' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.297: g_dbus_proxy_call_sync_internal: assertion 'G_IS_DBUS_PROXY (proxy)' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.297: g_propagate_error: assertion 'src != NULL' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.300: g_dbus_proxy_call_sync_internal: assertion 'G_IS_DBUS_PROXY (proxy)' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.300: g_propagate_error: assertion 'src != NULL' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.300: g_dbus_proxy_call_sync_internal: assertion 'G_IS_DBUS_PROXY (proxy)' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.300: g_propagate_error: assertion 'src != NULL' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.300: g_dbus_proxy_call_sync_internal: assertion 'G_IS_DBUS_PROXY (proxy)' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.300: g_propagate_error: assertion 'src != NULL' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.302: g_dbus_proxy_call_sync_internal: assertion 'G_IS_DBUS_PROXY (proxy)' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.302: g_propagate_error: assertion 'src != NULL' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.302: g_dbus_proxy_call_sync_internal: assertion 'G_IS_DBUS_PROXY (proxy)' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.302: g_propagate_error: assertion 'src != NULL' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.302: g_dbus_proxy_call_sync_internal: assertion 'G_IS_DBUS_PROXY (proxy)' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.302: g_propagate_error: assertion 'src != NULL' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.302: g_dbus_proxy_call_sync_internal: assertion 'G_IS_DBUS_PROXY (proxy)' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.302: g_propagate_error: assertion 'src != NULL' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.302: g_dbus_proxy_call_sync_internal: assertion 'G_IS_DBUS_PROXY (proxy)' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.302: g_propagate_error: assertion 'src != NULL' failed
dbus-update-activation-environment: warning: error sending to systemd: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ChildExited: Process org.freedesktop.systemd1 exited with status 1
gpg-agent: a gpg-agent is already running - not starting a new one

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.332: g_dbus_proxy_call_sync_internal: assertion 'G_IS_DBUS_PROXY (proxy)' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.332: g_propagate_error: assertion 'src != NULL' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.332: g_dbus_proxy_call_sync_internal: assertion 'G_IS_DBUS_PROXY (proxy)' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.332: g_propagate_error: assertion 'src != NULL' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.332: g_dbus_proxy_call_sync_internal: assertion 'G_IS_DBUS_PROXY (proxy)' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.332: g_propagate_error: assertion 'src != NULL' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.332: g_dbus_proxy_call_sync_internal: assertion 'G_IS_DBUS_PROXY (proxy)' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.332: g_propagate_error: assertion 'src != NULL' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.332: g_dbus_proxy_call_sync_internal: assertion 'G_IS_DBUS_PROXY (proxy)' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.332: g_propagate_error: assertion 'src != NULL' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.332: g_dbus_proxy_call_sync_internal: assertion 'G_IS_DBUS_PROXY (proxy)' failed

(xfce4-session:1340492): GLib-CRITICAL **: 17:43:30.332: g_propagate_error: assertion 'src != NULL' failed

TL;DR version,   I need to run 2 concurrent xfce sessions from the same home directory.

Cheers!

Last edited by trk204 (2025-09-10 21:06:54)

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,190

Re: Can't set alternatives to user config location (ie .config) [solved]

This bug report might be of interest.

I've only been able to test this on a Debian 11 (Xfce 4.16) VM - creating and running two simultaneous vnc sessions on the same user account. I can see the same issue you are seeing, but the last comment in that bug report solved it for me. My final xstartup:

#!/bin/sh
export XDG_CONFIG_HOME=~/.config-new
export XDG_CONFIG_DIRS=/etc/xdg
export XDG_CACHE_HOME=~/.cache-new
export XFSM_VERBOSE=true
dbus-run-session startxfce4

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trk204

Member

Registered: 2018-03-15

Posts: 14

Re: Can't set alternatives to user config location (ie .config) [solved]

You're a legend ToZ!

Can confirm it's working here now.

For the non dbus initiated,  why does this work?  ( I really need to spend some time on that black magic lol )

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,190

Re: Can't set alternatives to user config location (ie .config) [solved]

I'm not a dbus specialist so my understanding is limited, but as I understand it, dbus-launch creates a new new session bus whereas dbus-run-session connects to an existing session bus. I believe (though can't confirm) that xfce4-session can only manage one session bus. When I came across that bug report I began to understand it this way.

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Mark solved threads as [SOLVED] to make it easier for others to find solutions.
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