[SOLVED] (xfdesktop:) WARNING **: background with AccountsService

sushi · 2025-11-19 17:23:45

Hi,

Since quiet a long time is xfdesktop complaining about the wallpaper with this warning :

** (xfdesktop:1222): WARNING **: 17:42:43.807: Failed to register the newly set background with AccountsService '/home/myself/Images/Wallpapers/univers.jpg': GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.InvalidArgs: L’interface « org.freedesktop.DisplayManager.AccountsService » doesn't exist

What's the problem and eventually a fix ?

Arch up to date and Xfce 4.20 without display manager (maybe the problem).

Thank you.

Last edited by sushi (2025-11-23 09:57:28)

ToZ · 2025-11-19 18:01:07

You could install the accountsservice package - its just a warning saying that it can't connect to it. You can also create a bug report to ask the developer to consider an installation that doesn't use accountsservice functionality and to not issue a warning message.

sushi · 2025-11-19 18:05:15

Thanks ToZ but accountsservice is installed :

pacman -Qi accountsservice

Version : 23.13.9-2
Description : D-Bus interface for user account query and manipulation

ToZ · 2025-11-19 18:41:10

systemctl status accounts-daemon.service

sushi · 2025-11-19 19:51:48

accounts-daemon.service - Accounts Service
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/accounts-daemon.service; disabled; preset: disabled)
Active: active (running) since Wed 2025-11-19 08:08:34 CET; 12h ago
Invocation: e1692b84069d460389f170d6d9ede82e
Main PID: 1309 (accounts-daemon)
Tasks: 4 (limit: 37160)
Memory: 2.7M (peak: 4.5M)
CPU: 54ms
CGroup: /system.slice/accounts-daemon.service
└─1309 /usr/lib/accounts-daemon

nov 19 08:08:34 Cockpit systemd[1]: Starting Accounts Service...
nov 19 08:08:34 Cockpit accounts-daemon[1309]: started daemon version 23.13.0
nov 19 08:08:34 Cockpit systemd[1]: Started Accounts Service.

eriefisher · 2025-11-19 21:57:04

I believe that's a permission issue. It's trying to access an image in the /home/user... directory. It can't. Try moving the image out of the user directory to /usr/share/wallpapers and change the path.

sushi · 2025-11-20 07:30:25

No changes :

** (xfdesktop:33726): WARNING **: 08:26:25.459: Failed to register the newly set background with AccountsService '/usr/share/Wallpapers/Alien.jpg': GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.InvalidArgs: L’interface « org.freedesktop.DisplayManager.AccountsService » n’existe pas

accounts-daemon.service - Accounts Service
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/accounts-daemon.service; disabled; preset: disabled)
Active: active (running) since Thu 2025-11-20 07:47:46 CET; 42min ago
Invocation: d496c7ffe22448e0a53d11b23d3b3da5
Main PID: 1315 (accounts-daemon)
Tasks: 4 (limit: 37160)
Memory: 3.2M (peak: 4.2M)
CPU: 75ms
CGroup: /system.slice/accounts-daemon.service
└─1315 /usr/lib/accounts-daemon

nov 20 07:47:45 Cockpit systemd[1]: Starting Accounts Service...
nov 20 07:47:46 Cockpit accounts-daemon[1315]: started daemon version 23.13.0
nov 20 07:47:46 Cockpit systemd[1]: Started Accounts Service.

I had since ever my wallpapers in /user/home/images but few months ago this warning began.

Last edited by sushi (2025-11-20 07:35:48)

sushi · 2025-11-22 14:20:46

No idea about how to fix it, should I open a bug report ? This thing is filling up the xsession-erros for nothing.

ToZ · 2025-11-22 20:13:35

I'm running Arch on a number of different systems and am not seeing this message.

How are you starting Xfce? Are you using a display manager (if so which one) or are you using startx/xinitrc?

sushi · 2025-11-22 20:50:41

I'm running Arch without display manager but through startx/xinitrc :

#
# ~/.bash_profile
#

[[ -f ~/.bashrc ]] && . ~/.bashrc

#if [ "$(tty)" = "/dev/tty1" ]; then
# startx -- > /tmp/xsession-errors 2>&1
#fi

if [ -z "${DISPLAY}" ] && [ "${XDG_VTNR}" -eq 1 ]; then
exec startx -- > /tmp/xsession-errors 2>&1
fi

ixinit.rc :

#!/bin/sh

userresources=$HOME/.Xresources
usermodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap
sysresources=/etc/X11/xinit/.Xresources
sysmodmap=/etc/X11/xinit/.Xmodmap

# merge in defaults and keymaps

if [ -f $sysresources ]; then

xrdb -merge $sysresources

fi

if [ -f $sysmodmap ]; then
xmodmap $sysmodmap
fi

if [ -f "$userresources" ]; then

xrdb -merge "$userresources"

fi

if [ -f "$usermodmap" ]; then
xmodmap "$usermodmap"
fi

# start some nice programs

if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ] ; then
for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/?*.sh ; do
[ -x "$f" ] && . "$f"
done
unset f
fi

#twm &
#xclock -geometry 50x50-1+1 &
#xterm -geometry 80x50+494+51 &
#xterm -geometry 80x20+494-0 &
#exec xterm -geometry 80x66+0+0 -name login
startxfce4 &
emerald &
compiz

Misko_2083 · 2025-11-22 23:47:03

sushi wrote:

Xfce 4.20 without display manager (maybe the problem).

When you change the wallpaper, xfdesktop tries to inform the AccountsService (via D-Bus) about the new background.

The idea is that a login manager or display manager could use that information later.
For example, to show your last desktop background on the login screen.

So xfdesktop is basically doing:

“Hey DM, I changed the wallpaper!”
→ Nobody responds
→ Warning.

If your wallpaper works fine, you can safely ignore this warning.

Or if you are comfortable with compiling from source, you can comment out next line:
https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfdesktop/ … heads#L254

That's on 4.20 branch, for master it's here:
https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfdesktop/ … heads#L250

Proper fix would be to check if BackgroundFile property even exists.
If there is no display manager (DM) running or if the running DM does not integrate with AccountsService (some DMs do not),
then the BackgroundFile property does NOT exist on your user object.

Something like next:

static void
set_accountsservice_user_bg(const gchar *background)
{
    GDBusConnection *bus;
    GVariant *variant;
    GError *error = NULL;
    gchar *object_path = NULL;

    bus = g_bus_get_sync (G_BUS_TYPE_SYSTEM, NULL, &error);
    if (bus == NULL) {
        g_warning ("Failed to get system bus: %s", error->message);
        g_error_free (error);
        return;
    }

    variant = g_dbus_connection_call_sync (bus,
                                           "org.freedesktop.Accounts",
                                           "/org/freedesktop/Accounts",
                                           "org.freedesktop.Accounts",
                                           "FindUserByName",
                                           g_variant_new ("(s)", g_get_user_name ()),
                                           G_VARIANT_TYPE ("(o)"),
                                           G_DBUS_CALL_FLAGS_NONE,
                                           -1,
                                           NULL,
                                           &error);

    if (variant == NULL) {
        DBG("Could not contact accounts service to look up '%s': %s",
            g_get_user_name (), error->message);
        g_error_free(error);
        g_object_unref (bus);
        return;
    }

    g_variant_get(variant, "(o)", &object_path);
    g_variant_unref(variant);

    /* Introspect - does the BackgroundFile property actually exist? */
    variant = g_dbus_connection_call_sync (bus,
                                           "org.freedesktop.Accounts",
                                           object_path,
                                           "org.freedesktop.DBus.Introspectable",
                                           "Introspect",
                                           NULL,
                                           G_VARIANT_TYPE("(s)"),
                                           G_DBUS_CALL_FLAGS_NONE,
                                           500,
                                           NULL,
                                           &error);

    if (variant) {
        const gchar *xml = NULL;
        g_variant_get(variant, "(&s)", &xml);

        /* Look for the actual property name */
        if (xml && strstr(xml, "BackgroundFile")) {
            /* BackgroundFile exists → try to set it (keep real errors) */
            g_clear_error(&error);
            variant = g_dbus_connection_call_sync (bus,
                                           "org.freedesktop.Accounts",
                                           object_path,
                                           "org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties",
                                           "Set",
                                           g_variant_new ("(ssv)",
                                                          "org.freedesktop.DisplayManager.AccountsService",
                                                          "BackgroundFile",
                                                          g_variant_new_string (background ? background : "")),
                                           G_VARIANT_TYPE ("()"),
                                           G_DBUS_CALL_FLAGS_NONE,
                                           -1,
                                           NULL,
                                           &error);

            if (variant != NULL) {
                g_variant_unref (variant);
            } else {
                /* Only warn if the property exists but Set actually failed */
                g_warning ("Failed to register the newly set background with AccountsService '%s': %s",
                           background, error->message);
                g_clear_error (&error);
            }
        }
        /* else: BackgroundFile not supported → stay completely silent */

        g_variant_unref(variant);
    }
    else {
        /* Introspection failed → BackgroundFile not available → stay silent */
        g_clear_error(&error);
    }

    g_free (object_path);
    g_object_unref (bus);
}

The warning would only appear if the interface exists but the Set call actually fails, which is a real error worth logging.
Introspect call should be really fast 0.3 to 3 milliseconds, almost never more than 10 ms.

Last edited by Misko_2083 (2025-11-23 01:29:44)

sushi · 2025-11-23 09:56:59

Thanks Misko_2083 for the explanation !

Must be a kind of change in xfdesktop because few month ago they were no warnings. Anyway, the wallpapers are working fine so, not a big deal. I'm gonna think about how to proceed DM vs. Warnings.

Thanks again.

sushi · 2025-11-24 16:32:31

Edit : Just to say that with the solution in the link below, no more xfdestop warnings !

https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=18960

Xfce Forum

Sub domains

#1 2025-11-19 17:23:45

[SOLVED] (xfdesktop:) WARNING **: background with AccountsService

#2 2025-11-19 18:01:07

Re: [SOLVED] (xfdesktop:) WARNING **: background with AccountsService

#3 2025-11-19 18:05:15

Re: [SOLVED] (xfdesktop:) WARNING **: background with AccountsService

#4 2025-11-19 18:41:10

Re: [SOLVED] (xfdesktop:) WARNING **: background with AccountsService

#5 2025-11-19 19:51:48

Re: [SOLVED] (xfdesktop:) WARNING **: background with AccountsService

#6 2025-11-19 21:57:04

Re: [SOLVED] (xfdesktop:) WARNING **: background with AccountsService

#7 2025-11-20 07:30:25

Re: [SOLVED] (xfdesktop:) WARNING **: background with AccountsService

#8 2025-11-22 14:20:46

Re: [SOLVED] (xfdesktop:) WARNING **: background with AccountsService

#9 2025-11-22 20:13:35

Re: [SOLVED] (xfdesktop:) WARNING **: background with AccountsService

#10 2025-11-22 20:50:41

Re: [SOLVED] (xfdesktop:) WARNING **: background with AccountsService

#11 2025-11-22 23:47:03

Re: [SOLVED] (xfdesktop:) WARNING **: background with AccountsService

#12 2025-11-23 09:56:59

Re: [SOLVED] (xfdesktop:) WARNING **: background with AccountsService

#13 2025-11-24 16:32:31

Re: [SOLVED] (xfdesktop:) WARNING **: background with AccountsService

Board footer