Xfce Forum

dbaser

Member

From: Montreal, Canada

Registered: 2025-02-09

Posts: 54

[SOLVED] I'm not in an XFCE session?

I'm trying to figure out what could have changed the assignment of $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP env var when I know I did not change it myself.

I am running Debian 13 (Trixie) with XFCE 4.20.4-1.

I am getting this error (red text) in bash:

ERROR: This program is intended to manage XFCE Display Profiles.
It seems you are not in an XFCE Session.

... when I try to run this script (/usr/local/bin/xfce4-display-profile-chooser):
https://github.com/KeyofBlueS/xfce4-dis … le-chooser

... which is assigned to bash aliases to set one of two display profiles (~/.bash_aliases):

# Switch to Main display profile (all 3 monitors at 1080x1920 16:9)
alias mp="xfce4-display-profile-chooser -a -s 62bce9422ff2d14f69ab80a154510232fc8a9afd"
# Switch to Reading display profile (left monitor = 1152x864 4:3, center and right monitors = 1080x1920 16:9)
alias rp="xfce4-display-profile-chooser -a -s 852b438f91ad9eb2cdd84419a675a216d543c687"

This setup worked great for months. Instead of going Whisker Menu > Display > choose a profile > Apply > etc. I would type 'mp' or 'rp' in the terminal and all was good. But now even trying to run the script at all throws this error:

$ xfce4-display-profile-chooser 
ERROR: This program is intended to manage XFCE Display Profiles.
It seems you are not in an XFCE Session.

And now when I go:

echo $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP

... it returns a blank output. what the hell? I am confuse.

Last edited by dbaser (Today 04:38:27)

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Debian 13 (Trixie) XFCE 4.20

eriefisher

Wanderer

From: ON, Canada

Registered: 2008-10-25

Posts: 1,009

Website

Re: [SOLVED] I'm not in an XFCE session?

How are you starting Xfce? X or wayland?

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But it's all right, when you're all in pain and you feel the rain come down
It's alright, when you find your way, then you see it disappear
It's alright....
Chris Cornell

dbaser

Member

From: Montreal, Canada

Registered: 2025-02-09

Posts: 54

Re: [SOLVED] I'm not in an XFCE session?

How are you starting Xfce? X or wayland?

My bad, starting it with X.

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Debian 13 (Trixie) XFCE 4.20

eriefisher

Wanderer

From: ON, Canada

Registered: 2008-10-25

Posts: 1,009

Website

Re: [SOLVED] I'm not in an XFCE session?

What I meant was are you using a login manager like lightdm or gdm. The session should be started automatically unless Xfce is not started properly. It is possible to start Xfce manually or with .xinitrc with startxfce4.

---

But it's all right, when you're all in pain and you feel the rain come down
It's alright, when you find your way, then you see it disappear
It's alright....
Chris Cornell

dbaser

Member

From: Montreal, Canada

Registered: 2025-02-09

Posts: 54

Re: [SOLVED] I'm not in an XFCE session?

What I meant was are you using a login manager like lightdm or gdm. The session should be started automatically unless Xfce is not started properly. It is possible to start Xfce manually or with .xinitrc with startxfce4.

Oh ok, I'm not using Wayland. And my login manager is lightdm.

Running `loginctl` shows 2 sessions:

$ loginctl
SESSION  UID USER   SEAT  LEADER CLASS   TTY IDLE SINCE
      2 1000 dbaser seat0 1753   user    -   no   -    
      3 1000 dbaser -     1764   manager -   no   -    

2 sessions listed.

uh ok and then...

loginctl show-session 2 -p Type
Type=x11

Ok no problem there, then...

loginctl show-session 3 -p Type
Type=unspecified

bro, WHAT?!

Last edited by dbaser (2026-08-09 13:48:29)

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Debian 13 (Trixie) XFCE 4.20

dbaser

Member

From: Montreal, Canada

Registered: 2025-02-09

Posts: 54

Re: [SOLVED] I'm not in an XFCE session?

Just thought of something! Before this problem (and currently), I have had a terminal open running data-recovery software on a remote server (using SSH with X-forwarding). Could this be why it thinks I'm in two sessions?

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Debian 13 (Trixie) XFCE 4.20

dbaser

Member

From: Montreal, Canada

Registered: 2025-02-09

Posts: 54

Re: [SOLVED] I'm not in an XFCE session?

SOLVED!

Not sure why this happened, but lightdm was logging me into a Default Xsession instead of XFCE. Changed `~/.dmrc` back to normal, logged out, chose the XFCE radio button and logged back in. Done and done! Thanks for your help!

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Debian 13 (Trixie) XFCE 4.20