Xfce Forum

benali72

Member

Registered: 2014-11-10

Posts: 9

[CLOSED] Xfce not saving Panel settings

I support several computers running Mint 13 32-bit with Xfce version 4.8.3. All recently developed the problem that they can not save changes to the Xfce panel.

I have verified that --

* the Save Sessions box is checked
* there is enough space for / filesystem
* proper permission bits and ownership of home directory portions having to do with sessions and xfce

Since three machines developed this problem simultaneously my guess is that it is not user error. To verify, I performed a fresh virgin install of Mint 13 32-bit with Xfce 4.8.3 and was able to reproduce the error.

I should mention I also support several instances of Mint 17 32-bit with Xfce version 4.10 and none of those boxes have this problem.

I guess my next step is to look in the Xfce session logs and see whether it is shutting down normally or it there's some problem in there.

First, I wanted to ask if anyone here has any recomendations on this.

Thank you.

Last edited by benali72 (2014-11-12 08:54:24)

benali72

Member

Registered: 2014-11-10

Posts: 9

Re: [CLOSED] Xfce not saving Panel settings

I can reproduce this problem at will by installing Mint 13 32-bit w/xfce 4.8.3 on a new computer, then installing all updates to currency.

Also, the problem has showed up on all systems I support as they get the most recent Mint updates.

So I'm pretty sure this is a bug rather than user error.

The next step would be to capture the xfce sessions log to see if it's failing to do a normal shutdown, which would explain the failure to save the panel updates, and to investigate the nature of this failure.

But I'm too busy for that kind of debugging. It's easier for me to upgrade to Mint 17 32-bit w/ xfce 4.10, which does not have this problem, so that's what I'm doing as my work-around.

I'll mark this thread as [CLOSED] rather than [SOLVED].

MountainDewManiac

Member

From: Where Mr. Bankruptcy is Prez

Registered: 2013-03-24

Posts: 1,115

Re: [CLOSED] Xfce not saving Panel settings

If the problem struck three systems at the same time - and they were fine before, which would seem to infer that it wasn't due to a fault with the installation media - then, yes, it might have been due to an update. In that case, the first thing I would have done would have been to open Update Manager and select View/History from the menu. If an update occurred at the time that the issue started, then that update would have been likely to be associated with the issue.

But, yes, updating to the latest LTS of Mint was probably a better idea for a variety of reasons .

Regards,
MDM

---

Mountain Dew Maniac

How to Ask for Help <=== Click on this link

benali72

Member

Registered: 2014-11-10

Posts: 9

Re: [CLOSED] Xfce not saving Panel settings

MDM,

Thank you for excellent suggestion, I hadn't thought of reviewing the Update Manager Log. I reviewed it on one system, and see an update of 17 modules on 10/29. That's about when the problem popped up.

The updates included the XML C parser, possibly the problem, as it appears the XML session information is not being parsed correctly for the panel (eg, after the update, on all my systems, an extra panel icon appears by error that has no underlying Properties and that was not added by the user(s)). But let me emphasize -- this possible explanation is only speculation on my part.

If this is a bug, the error will probably appear on other peoples' systems and eventually be recognized and fixed by the maintainers.

For my part I'm just going to upgrade the 4 systems now affected to Mint 17 with Xfce 4.10.

Thanks again for your idea and the feedback.