[Solved] kicked out of Xfce desktop upon changing window manager theme

tshann · 2010-09-16 05:08:11

Hi,
New to this forum. I'm running Mint's new Debian (testing) 32 bit Distro. I installed Xfce's core stuff and hadn't used it much. But had no trouble selecting xfce or gnome from gdm.
Earlier today, I was booted to the Xfce desktop and was changing window manager themes. Upon changing one of the themes, I saw a black screen for a moment. Then I was kicked out of the desktop and was sitting @ the gdm login screen. I selected xfce and tried to log in. But I get a momentary black screen, and then I'm back to gdm.
I tried a cold and warm reboot, but now I can't get into xfce. I get the same response every time. I'm assuming that some theme I selected caused xfce to choke. But I don't know how to unselect it.
The default wm for this distro is gnome, so I'm typing this from that wm. Does someone know how I can change the window manager theme, or simply fix whatever is bugging the xfce desktop so I can get back in?
My rig is a HP DV5 with Nvidia (not currently running the proprietary driver, using noveau). I've got a core 2 duo 2 ghz cpu and 4 gigs of ram. Any insights as to how to revert that nasty theme would be greatly appreciated. I'm currently running Xfce4.6.2

Peace smile

tshann · 2010-09-17 03:59:57

Okay,
So this is really a workaround, not a real solution particularly. But I downloaded and ran the NVIDIA Proprietary driver on this rig. Now I'm able to get back into my XFCE desktop. I would have liked to solve it while running the noveau driver, but it was not possible - for me.
The Nvidia driver (256.53) is working real nice, so can't complain.

Peace

SantaFe · 2010-09-18 01:08:58

I had this same problem once. I fixed it by booting into GNOME, then opened Nautilus. Made sure show hidden files was set, then clicked on the .config folder. Then clicked on the xfce4 folder. In that folder I clicked on the xfconf folder, then the xfce-perchannel-xml folder. Right click on the xfwm4.xml file & open with gedit (or your favorite text editor).

Look for a line that looks like this: <property name="theme" type="string" value="Capsula-XP"/> With the name of the window manager you used where Capsula-XP is. Change it to Default & save the file. Then reboot of course. smile

what I did was right after, I made a copy of the xfwm4.xml file so if I picked another window manager that booted me back to the GDM, I could just copy the default file back over the grunged one.

I know you solved it, but figured if someone else had that problem (& hopefully had GNOME, or KDE, or LXDE installed also it might help. smile

tshann · 2010-09-18 11:54:40

Awesome!
Thanks for taking the time to write in. I was thinking, this is linux, there MUST be come config file I could edit that would solve this! Thanks I'm sure someone will appreciate your write up eventually.

Peace

SantaFe · 2010-09-18 21:10:45

tshann wrote:

Awesome!
Thanks for taking the time to write in. I was thinking, this is linux, there MUST be come config file I could edit that would solve this! Thanks I'm sure someone will appreciate your write up eventually.
Peace

Thanks. Like I said, I had the same problem & someone here told me about that trick, so thought I'd pass it on! cool

sinisterstuf · 2010-11-01 13:19:54

Thanks SantaFe! I appreciate your writeup! ;D

Xubuntu is my only OS and I had the same problem but I was able to fix it based on what you wrote, except I did it from the command line by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1 to get to a different virtual terminal, logging in, navigating to the directory in your solution and editing the file with the Vi editor to default the theme, pressed Ctrl+Alt+F8 to get back to the login and everything works again, thanks a lot! smile if someone reads this and tried to do the same they might want to use the Pico editor instead of Vi because... Vi is difficult to use when you don't know how, Pico is easy.

SantaFe · 2010-11-07 02:25:31

sinisterstuf wrote:

Thanks SantaFe! I appreciate your writeup! ;D
Xubuntu is my only OS and I had the same problem but I was able to fix it based on what you wrote, except I did it from the command line by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1 to get to a different virtual terminal, logging in, navigating to the directory in your solution and editing the file with the Vi editor to default the theme, pressed Ctrl+Alt+F8 to get back to the login and everything works again, thanks a lot! if someone reads this and tried to do the same they might want to use the Pico editor instead of Vi because... Vi is difficult to use when you don't know how, Pico is easy.

Didn't think of that. Glad you posted that bit of info! ;D

sumpkanin · 2010-11-13 15:52:13

I had the same problem, but because I'm new to Linux, and a former Win user - I just booted up in graphics-safe-mode and changed the theme wink Might be an easier solution for some..

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#1 2010-09-16 05:08:11

[Solved] kicked out of Xfce desktop upon changing window manager theme

#2 2010-09-17 03:59:57

Re: [Solved] kicked out of Xfce desktop upon changing window manager theme

#3 2010-09-18 01:08:58

Re: [Solved] kicked out of Xfce desktop upon changing window manager theme

#4 2010-09-18 11:54:40

Re: [Solved] kicked out of Xfce desktop upon changing window manager theme

#5 2010-09-18 21:10:45

Re: [Solved] kicked out of Xfce desktop upon changing window manager theme

#6 2010-11-01 13:19:54

Re: [Solved] kicked out of Xfce desktop upon changing window manager theme

#7 2010-11-07 02:25:31

Re: [Solved] kicked out of Xfce desktop upon changing window manager theme

#8 2010-11-13 15:52:13

Re: [Solved] kicked out of Xfce desktop upon changing window manager theme

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