Brief Gray Background Before Desktop Loads

kherring7383 · 2013-10-23 21:26:16

I'm not sure if anyone else has this issue. I really am impressed with XFCE 13.10 but what really annoys me is the gray background after I login.

This only last a few seconds as the desktop loads, but to me the transition from login to desktop should be smooth. I realize this is a trivial issue that I can live with, its just that I looked for an answer in the forums and on the web but have yet to find an answer or the cause and a possible fix. What bugs me is that this issue is not only in 13.10, but was also in 13.04.

I'm not a big fan of Unity and use Mint as my primary OS. It's the customization that I like about XFCE and would like to use it more but this is an issue that should be addressed.

At first I thought it was my video card, but I have no problems with other distros and I have even done a complete fresh install with the defaults. If some has an answer I would really like to know. I'm always recommending Linux to others and how great it is, but explaining this is as a bug is really a deal breaker for those switching from Windows or Mac.

ozjd · 2013-10-24 01:57:52

I've seen similar on Fedora with Xfce 4.10 (not sure what distro or version you have) but only on an older slow computer. It is the wait as the background is loaded. Changing to a coloured background or a smaller image would probably help, I'm guessing it is a disk access speed issue. I have the slideshow feature turned on, maybe setting to a single image would speed it up as it wouldn't need to go through the process of selecting an image from the list. I haven't tested that though as I rarely reboot, only on kernel upgrades actually.

herbie643 · 2014-02-08 02:14:20

I'd be willing to bet that you have the Xfce compositor turned on in Window Manager Tweaks. I had same problem and fixed it by turning it off and using 'compton' composite manager.
Then add to startup applications Compton with these parameters

compton -c -f -C -b

Works great.

0strodamus · 2014-02-08 14:27:09

I see this on my system too. My computer is pretty new, so it isn't caused by older hardware. Very rarely I get a momentary display of weird colored blocks on top of the gray screen for 1-2 seconds before the desktop loads. I haven't tried turning off the compositor or my wallpaper list because it never bothered me.

@herbie643: Is there a way to get Compton to make a window semi-transparent when dragging it, like the Xfce compositor?

Last edited by 0strodamus (2014-02-08 14:29:31)

herbie643 · 2014-02-22 23:35:50

I looked at the man page and found nothing relating to drag and transparency.

0strodamus · 2014-02-22 23:54:09

I couldn't find anything either when I looked. Thanks for letting me know.

ljharp · 2014-09-29 22:26:39

herbie643 wrote:

I'd be willing to bet that you have the Xfce compositor turned on in Window Manager Tweaks. I had same problem and fixed it by turning it off and using 'compton' composite manager.
Then add to startup applications Compton with these parameters
compton -c -f -C -b
Works great.

I couldn't get this to work. I still get the gray screen. So, I just turned off Composition.

ToZ · 2014-09-29 23:20:19

This was fixed in Xubuntu. See: https://bugs.launchpad.net/xfwm4/+bug/1232804.

ljharp · 2014-09-30 14:35:05

ToZ wrote:

This was fixed in Xubuntu. See: https://bugs.launchpad.net/xfwm4/+bug/1232804.

Thanks for that update ToZ!

I do, however, have a stupid question. Will this 'fix' be updated automatically, or will I need to update manually (and if so, how)?

ToZ · 2014-09-30 17:29:17

From the bug report:

This bug was fixed in the package xfwm4 - 4.11.1-2ubuntu1

What does the following return?

apt-cache policy xfwm4

And what version of X/Ubuntu are you running?

ljharp · 2014-09-30 19:15:17

Terminal output:

xfwm4:
Installed: 4.11.1-2ubuntu2
Candidate: 4.11.1-2ubuntu2
Version table:
*** 4.11.1-2ubuntu2 0
500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/universe amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

And I'm running Xubuntu 14.04

ToZ · 2014-09-30 20:01:51

It should be fixed in the version of xfwm4 that you are running. However, re-reading the bug report, it looks like it is a two-part fix: xfwm4 and lightdm-gtk-greeter. It looks like it was fixed in lightdm-gtk-greeter version 1.7.0. Which version are you running?

apt-cache policy lightdm-gtk-greeter

If you have lightdm-gtk-version greater than 1.7 installed, and you are using lightdm-gtk-greeter as your lightdm greeter, and are still experiencing the problem, you should post in that bug report that the problem hasn't been resolved for you.

ljharp · 2014-09-30 20:50:10

ToZ wrote:

It should be fixed in the version of xfwm4 that you are running. However, re-reading the bug report, it looks like it is a two-part fix: xfwm4 and lightdm-gtk-greeter. It looks like it was fixed in lightdm-gtk-greeter version 1.7.0. Which version are you running?
apt-cache policy lightdm-gtk-greeter
If you have lightdm-gtk-version greater than 1.7 installed, and you are using lightdm-gtk-greeter as your lightdm greeter, and are still experiencing the problem, you should post in that bug report that the problem hasn't been resolved for you.

This is what I get:

lightdm-gtk-greeter:
Installed: 1.8.5-1ubuntu2~ubuntu14.04.1
Candidate: 1.8.5-1ubuntu2~ubuntu14.04.1
Version table:
*** 1.8.5-1ubuntu2~ubuntu14.04.1 0
500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates/universe amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
1.8.4-0ubuntu1 0
500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/universe amd64 Packages

So.... next stupid question.... how do I file a 'bug report'?

EDIT - Oh wait.... you said "lightdm-gtk-greeter". I'm afraid that knocks me out right there, I'm running Unity Greeter.

Last edited by ljharp (2014-09-30 23:11:46)

ToZ · 2014-10-01 01:00:02

ljharp wrote:

EDIT - Oh wait.... you said "lightdm-gtk-greeter". I'm afraid that knocks me out right there, I'm running Unity Greeter.

Yup, that would probably be it.

Try it with the gtk-greeter just to see if it fixes the grey screen issue. Otherwise, you'll need to pursue a bug report against the unity-greeter. In Ubuntu, you can start the bug reporting process by running:

ubuntu-bug unity-greeter

ljharp · 2014-10-01 12:06:38

Thanks for pointing me in the correct direction ToZ! Bug report has been filed. If any major information is learned, I will try to pass it along.... so that others can possibly benefit. smile

ljharp · 2014-10-04 18:19:11

Ok, I did a bug report..... got an email from Ubuntu stating that the "issue" between gtk-greeter and the desktop had been fixed with the last update. *sigh* I had to RE-EXPLAIN that the issue was not gtk-greeter.... it is unity-greeter. As of this post, I haven't heard back.

UPDATE - After royally screwing up my OS (long story), I reloaded the whole thing.... reconfigured.... the whole nine yards. Wonders of wonders.... now it boots just fine from Unity Greeter to my desktop. No ugly gray screen. *scratching my head* Go figure....

Last edited by ljharp (2014-10-04 20:59:07)

ljharp · 2014-10-05 23:20:50

Okayyyyy..... for those that are interested, I've found that I can reproduce the horrid 'gray screen' at will. My setup had a startup sound in my 'Application Autostart'. As long as that was 'active', I had the gray screen. When I turned it 'inactive', the gray screen wasn't an issue. Strange indeed eh?

dubois · 2014-11-19 00:38:38

Wow! yikes And all these years I thought it was the icons on my desktop that caused this! wink

herbie643 · 2018-11-09 03:25:35

I know this is one heck of an old posting but I had just reinstalled MX-Linux w/Xfce and have Compton installed and got the 'grey' screen issue.
Well I found a fix for me at least and maybe othters as well
In the Autostart I changed the Compton one to

sh -c sleep 7 && compton

I think the sh -c part is the key as it 'shells out' and therefore doesn't affect the rest of the login.
No more 'Grey' screen.
Hope this helps.
I am on Xfce 4.12.1

herbie643 · 2018-11-09 04:57:03

Well I sure messed up that one.
I had to create a file as follows:

#!/bin/bash
sleep 15
compton -b

I named it startcompton and be sure it is executable.

Works for me, so far at least.

Then add that into the autostart, full path required I believe.

herbie643 · 2018-11-09 14:03:46

Well, that didn't work either. It was fine last night but this morning, same ol'. Last nigth everything was in ram so it ran quicker, overnight, ram was somewhat cleared I guess, so the 'Gray' was back.
I just give up on it.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

herbie643 · 2018-11-09 14:45:35

Well I am back. By now you are discounting pretty much anything I post here,but this time I think it worked.
I did 2 things
I moved pictures for an external disk to my home directory Pictures and increased the sleep time to 15 seconds.
I then rebooted and no gray screen.
So I guess you can take this post and see if it works for you.
My humble apologies for posting, what I thought were solutions, that weren't.

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#1 2013-10-23 21:26:16

Brief Gray Background Before Desktop Loads

#2 2013-10-24 01:57:52

Re: Brief Gray Background Before Desktop Loads

#3 2014-02-08 02:14:20

Re: Brief Gray Background Before Desktop Loads

#4 2014-02-08 14:27:09

Re: Brief Gray Background Before Desktop Loads

#5 2014-02-22 23:35:50

Re: Brief Gray Background Before Desktop Loads

#6 2014-02-22 23:54:09

Re: Brief Gray Background Before Desktop Loads

#7 2014-09-29 22:26:39

Re: Brief Gray Background Before Desktop Loads

#8 2014-09-29 23:20:19

Re: Brief Gray Background Before Desktop Loads

#9 2014-09-30 14:35:05

Re: Brief Gray Background Before Desktop Loads

#10 2014-09-30 17:29:17

Re: Brief Gray Background Before Desktop Loads

#11 2014-09-30 19:15:17

Re: Brief Gray Background Before Desktop Loads

#12 2014-09-30 20:01:51

Re: Brief Gray Background Before Desktop Loads

#13 2014-09-30 20:50:10

Re: Brief Gray Background Before Desktop Loads

#14 2014-10-01 01:00:02

Re: Brief Gray Background Before Desktop Loads

#15 2014-10-01 12:06:38

Re: Brief Gray Background Before Desktop Loads

#16 2014-10-04 18:19:11

Re: Brief Gray Background Before Desktop Loads

#17 2014-10-05 23:20:50

Re: Brief Gray Background Before Desktop Loads

#18 2014-11-19 00:38:38

Re: Brief Gray Background Before Desktop Loads

#19 2018-11-09 03:25:35

Re: Brief Gray Background Before Desktop Loads

#20 2018-11-09 04:57:03

Re: Brief Gray Background Before Desktop Loads

#21 2018-11-09 14:03:46

Re: Brief Gray Background Before Desktop Loads

#22 2018-11-09 14:45:35

Re: Brief Gray Background Before Desktop Loads

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