Xfce Forum

hpp3

Member

Registered: 2004-03-17

Posts: 27

[Solved] Strange behavior; keyboard input not working for Xfce apps

Xfce 4.8.0.3
Debian Testing/Wheezy 64-bit

This is strange...
Last night I was trying to install a cursor theme, eventually gave up, and after a reboot things are weird.

When I try to open xfce4-terminal from the menu or the panel, it gives me a message box saying:
"Failed to execute default Terminal Emulator.
Input/output error."

When I try to open mousepad from the panel or the menu, it opens, but I can't type anything into it, and it eventually closes.

Questions: What happened and how do I fix it?

Last edited by hpp3 (2012-03-15 17:59:42)

hpp3

Member

Registered: 2004-03-17

Posts: 27

Re: [Solved] Strange behavior; keyboard input not working for Xfce apps

Once again, I'm talking to myself after fixing it, but I'll leave this here for others who might encounter the same problem.

So, I opened Thunar and navigated to /usr/bin and clicked 'xterm', which launched normally so I had a working terminal.
Entered '/usr/bin/mousepad'; mousepad launched and let me type in.
Entered '/usr/bin/xfce4-terminal/' and got an Xfce terminal; no error messages.
Launched Mousepad and Xfce4-terminal from the panel and menus, no errors now.
In fact, everything is back to normal. o_O

So now the questions are:

What happened?
How do I prevent this in the future?
Is this the only fix?

Thanks,
-Eddy

hpp3

Member

Registered: 2004-03-17

Posts: 27

Re: [Solved] Strange behavior; keyboard input not working for Xfce apps

After a logout/login, the problem is back, and I can't launch an xterm from Thunar. >:(

HELP!!

EDIT: Found the problem.
It was the cursor theme I was working on.
SOMEBODY needs to straighten out all the bogus info all over the internet on how to create and install X cursor themes

Last edited by hpp3 (2012-03-15 18:36:44)