Xfce Forum

jakfish

Member

Registered: 2019-12-23

Posts: 71

Missing "plugin-event" Setting [SOLVED]

Running MX Linux 25, xfce4-panel 4.20.4, and trying to run

xfce4-panel --plugin-event=genmon-4:refresh:bool:true

I get an "Unknown option" and

xfce4-panel --help

does not list plugin-event under Application Options.

Any idea about a handle to jiggle?

Last edited by jakfish (2026-01-29 23:50:35)

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,478

Re: Missing "plugin-event" Setting [SOLVED]

It should work = your command works here on my system. You're right, it doesn't list it as an option though in the help file.

Is this the repo version of xfce4-panel?

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jakfish

Member

Registered: 2019-12-23

Posts: 71

Re: Missing "plugin-event" Setting [SOLVED]

Right now,

xfce4-panel -r

is the workaround, and restarting the whole nine yards is speedier than I would've guessed.

Thanks, ToZ, for stepping in. As for a repo version of MX's xfce panel, I'm not certain; it certainly came with the installation.

Last edited by jakfish (2026-01-28 14:12:15)

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,478

Re: Missing "plugin-event" Setting [SOLVED]

Maybe try this:

1. Restart the panel in debug mode:

   xfce4-panel -q
   PANEL_DEBUG=1 xfce4-panel

2. Re-run your command from above:

   xfce4-panel --plugin-event=genmon-4:refresh:bool:true

3. See if anything pops up in the output from the first step. And/or post back the full debug if you'd like a second set of eyes to review it.

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jakfish

Member

Registered: 2019-12-23

Posts: 71

Re: Missing "plugin-event" Setting [SOLVED]

Hi, ToZ,

I didn't want to waste your bandwidth by posting the enormous numbers of "theme parsing error"

But your suggestions/commands worked. Suddenly the genmon (id=4; it's your weather script, actually) refreshes with

xfce4-panel --plugin-event=genmon-4:refresh:bool:true

Does

PANEL_DEBUG=1 xfce4-panel

actually fix things (I thought it was just a verbose exploration)?

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,478

Re: Missing "plugin-event" Setting [SOLVED]

No, it just prints out debug info. The weather script takes some time to complete - maybe the refresh command is working its just not updating right away? Or maybe the weather source was offline. Running the script from a terminal window will let you see any errors.

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jakfish

Member

Registered: 2019-12-23

Posts: 71

Re: Missing "plugin-event" Setting [SOLVED]

So funny--I'm willing to chalk it up to user error, but I never varied the commands. Oh, well, I marked it as [SOLVED]

Thanks again for your help.