Xfce Forum

benke

Member

Registered: 2011-02-14

Posts: 6

[SOLVED] Lost windows manager

After today reboot I somehow left without window manager. I see windows but they don't have titlebar and borders. I can start Terminal but I can't type anything. Also, pager disappeared. It's kinda like described here: http://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=5455. If I go Settings -> Window Manager, nothing happens but in slim.log I can see "These settings cannot work with your current window manager (unknown)".

I am using latest Arch Linux and XFCE 4.8.0. I use Slim to login and in ~/.xinitrc have line

exec ck-launch-session startxfce4

It worked for few past months without problems.

Last edited by benke (2011-03-21 10:10:52)

SantaFe

Member

From: Freightyard.

Registered: 2010-09-06

Posts: 97

Re: [SOLVED] Lost windows manager

Weird.  I had something like that happen to me once, same symptoms after I had edited my .gtkrc-2.0 file in the home directory  and rebooted.  Perhaps something grunged that file for some reason.

Have you checked to see if your .gtkrc-2.0 file is correct, if you have one?  Maybe rename it & reboot to see if it comes back. 

Like I said, not sure if it IS the same thing or not, but it seemed to work for me.

Last edited by SantaFe (2011-03-20 15:58:34)

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benke

Member

Registered: 2011-02-14

Posts: 6

Re: [SOLVED] Lost windows manager

It didn't helped. I even moved out ~/.config/xfce4 directory and reinstalled package but no improvements.

benke

Member

Registered: 2011-02-14

Posts: 6

Re: [SOLVED] Lost windows manager

It's related to this bug:

http://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7324

and is described here:

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=114235

I deleted ~/.cache/sessions and all works now.

SantaFe

Member

From: Freightyard.

Registered: 2010-09-06

Posts: 97

Re: [SOLVED] Lost windows manager

Sorry that what I posted didn't work for you, but glad you fixed it though.  Gotta remember that trick. 

Last edited by SantaFe (2011-03-21 13:25:49)

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muemarco

Member

Registered: 2011-08-04

Posts: 1

Re: [SOLVED] Lost windows manager

I had the same problem and deleting ~/.cache/sessions solved it all. Thanks benke

s0ulslack

Member

From: Idaho

Registered: 2005-12-25

Posts: 291

Re: [SOLVED] Lost windows manager

Just a note, you don't need to delete your Sessions.  That makes for a huge pain in the butt for some, just restart xfwm4 (press ALT+F2, enter xfwm4 and click Ok) and save your Session on logout.

Alp

Member

Registered: 2012-09-10

Posts: 8

Re: [SOLVED] Lost windows manager

Thank you, deleting my session cache solved the problem.

clemens

Member

Registered: 2016-02-21

Posts: 2

Re: [SOLVED] Lost windows manager

Hello,

I know this topic was closed quite a while ago, but I incurred in what seems the same problem.
Unfortunately, clearing the session cache did not work for me. Perhaps because I rebooted before solving the problem?
I have also been posting on Bunsenlabs forums https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=1366 where Head_on_a_Stick has been kindly trying to help me.
Also, when I tried just to restart xfwm4 through the TTY, I got this error xfwm4:5542 gtk-warning**:cannot open disply
Any suggestion?

Cheers

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,485

Re: [SOLVED] Lost windows manager

You can't start xfwm4 from a TTY - its requires an X session to work. When in your user session, press Alt+F2 and then run:

xfwm4 --replace

...to restart the Xfce window manager.

For a more permanent fix..... You don't mention how you deleted the sessions cache. It is possible to delete the session cache while the user session is running in "botched up" state only to have the same botched up state save again when you log out. Try clearing your sessions cache while not logged in. Simply delete the user's ~/.cache/sessions folder then log in.

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clemens

Member

Registered: 2016-02-21

Posts: 2

Re: [SOLVED] Lost windows manager

Indeed, I logged out and then deleted the files and now everything is back to normal. Thank you

shrinathk

Member

Registered: 2016-04-17

Posts: 11

Re: [SOLVED] Lost windows manager

Happens in 2020 as well

Deleting ~/.cache/sessions and a reboot fixed it. Thank you !

P.S. Couldn't help but notice the fact that this thread has around 49k views, but only 11 comments. So looks like a lot of people had this problem.

Last edited by shrinathk (2020-05-26 11:45:20)

slowlarry

Member

Registered: 2023-08-20

Posts: 1

Re: [SOLVED] Lost windows manager

Hello from 2023.

s0ulslack's answer solved this issue for me.