[Solved] Minor glitches after upgrade

Sideburns · 2015-11-23 01:21:35

Until a few days ago, my laptop was running Fedora 21, with Xfce 4.10 and Compiz. When I tried to upgrade using Fedora's official route, the package manager (dnf) crashed, with a known bug. Also, Compiz was misbehaving, making the window frames vanish until I restarted Compiz. (This last is just background.) I ended up moving to a text console, installing fedora-upgrade, an unofficial tool and using it instead. All went well until I rebooted.

The computer booted fine and started Xfce 4.12. Alas, there were two minor issues. First, Xfce had completely lost my background settings, but those were easy to correct. Second the workspace switcher had gone from showing me four squares, one for each workspace to showing me four tall, narrow rectangles, and I can't get things back to where they were, even by removing and re-adding the item. To make things stranger, when I first log in, the panel shows up for a few seconds with everything as expected, then it goes away and comes back with the switcher showing as I've described.

This isn't the worst thing possible, of course, but it's not the way I'd like things to have, especially as I like to use this laptop to show just how well Linux can work, including the eye-candy, on a machine designed for Windows Vista with no hardware modifications and this isn't exactly as impressive now as it was then. If anybody knows where to look, or how to trouble-shoot this, please let me know.

ozjd · 2015-11-24 06:31:02

Right click on the Workspace Switcher and select Properties. There you can set the number of rows you want.

Sideburns · 2015-11-24 07:09:35

That has nothing to do with the issue. It shows the same number of workspaces as before, but they're very narrow rather than square as they were before. (They're also square on my desktop.) How do I get them to look the same as they did in the past?

ToZ · 2015-11-24 11:27:06

Not a compiz user so I may be off base here, but I thought I read somewhere that compiz manages the workspaces (not xfwm) so you need to set the workspaces to 1 in Xfce and configure the number you want in compiz settings somewhere.

Sideburns · 2015-11-24 15:35:04

...and what, pray tell, does that have to do with the shape of the boxes on the panel? Not only does it work properly on my desktop, it did so on my laptop until the upgrade. Checking with the Compiz Settings Manager, there's nothing that covers this, just as I expected.

ToZ · 2015-11-24 15:54:57

...and what, pray tell, does that have to do with the shape of the boxes on the panel?

If compiz is expecting 1 Xfce workspace and is getting more than 1, maybe it is compressing the applet?

Not only does it work properly on my desktop, it did so on my laptop until the upgrade.

Do both your desktop and the laptop have the same number of workspaces? Are they using the same versions of Xfce and Compiz?

Checking with the Compiz Settings Manager, there's nothing that covers this, just as I expected.

See it this helps. From the post:

then in the Compiz options, go to General Options>Desktop Size, then change the virtual desktops number.

What happens if you disable compiz? Does the applet display properly then?
Have you tried logging in with a secondary user account to see if its something in the profile or a system-wide problem?

Again, I don't use compiz - just trying to offer some suggestions.

Sideburns · 2015-11-24 16:04:31

Nothing in my settings is different now than it was before the upgrade, and this has worked just fine for several years. Both have four workspaces, always controlled by Compiz, and the workspace switcher showed them correctly up until now. And, as I wrote above, when I log in on my laptop, it shows them correctly for about a second, then the panel vanishes and returns with them wrong. (It always blinked like this on the laptop, so that's not new.) The post you link to does not have anything in it remotely related to my issue, as I'm getting the right number of workspaces, and am ONLY HAVING TROUBLE WITH THE WAY THEY'RE SHOWN ON THE SWITCHER. Please try in the future to address the issue as stated instead of making suggestions about issues I've never had and don't have now.

ozjd · 2015-11-24 21:19:34

I would disable Compiz and see if it is a Compiz problem.

Sideburns · 2015-11-24 21:23:06

That's a possibility, and for a change it actually tries to address the issue. I'll try it when I have time to boot my laptop and report back.

MountainDewManiac · 2015-11-24 22:16:13

Sideburns wrote:

it did so on my laptop until the upgrade.

Well, there's your answer, lol. It was either one of the files that were upgraded or (possibly) a configuration file that was changed at the same time. Simply look at your upgrade history to determine your list of suspects, revert your system to "pre-upgrade," and this time do one file at a time - rebooting/testing after each - until the behavior changes. I'll also suggest that you check all configuration files' date stamps to see which (if any) have changed during the same time period.

Once you figure out exactly which file change is responsible for your issue, you can then decide if you want to stay with the previous version, try to modify the new version (IOW, edit the source code and compile it yourself), see if there is a newer version than which you upgraded to and if it no longer produces this issue, contact that file's developer and attempt to work with him/her, et cetera.

BtW, did disabling Compiz remove the issue? If so, you might have some difficulties if you ultimately try to work with the developer, since Xfce was never intended (AfaIK) to use Compiz and has its own WM. Still, if you reach the point where no other thing solves the issue, it'd be worth a shot (IMO). At worst, you end up finding that there is no newer "fixed" version and the developer tells you to switch to Xfwm.

Regards,
MDM

Sideburns · 2015-11-24 22:34:36

First off, thank you for that blinding glimpse of the obvious; it's been clear (to me) since before I asked that something changed during the upgrade. Second, the only way for me to reverse that system upgrade (from Fedora 21 to Fedora 22) would be to reformat my system (except for /home, on its own partition) and install Fedora 21 again. The Fedora upgrade procedure isn't reversible. And as far as Compiz is concerned, I haven't had time to boot the laptop yet or I would have reported on what happened.

Just out of curiosity, what distro are you using that allows you to roll back system upgrades like that?

MountainDewManiac · 2015-11-24 22:40:38

Sorry, I missed the fact that you had actually performed a version upgrade of your distro (because you waited to post that information until after I made my suggestions).

Regards,
MDM

Sideburns · 2015-11-24 23:06:36

No, I stated it implicitly in the first paragraph of my original post.

MountainDewManiac · 2015-11-25 01:03:08

Sideburns wrote:

No, I stated it implicitly in the first paragraph of my original post.

Sideburns wrote:

Until a few days ago, my laptop was running Fedora 21, with Xfce 4.10 and Compiz. When I tried to upgrade using Fedora's official route, the package manager (dnf) crashed, with a known bug. Also, Compiz was misbehaving, making the window frames vanish until I restarted Compiz. (This last is just background.) I ended up moving to a text console, installing fedora-upgrade, an unofficial tool and using it instead. All went well until I rebooted.

?

I guess that would mean that Fedora doesn't have an official route for upgrading Xfce 4.10 or Compiz and that, therefore, I was supposed to assume that you meant you upgraded your distro version instead of one of those two things (or something else).

No matter. I was just trying to help. I wouldn't have even made the attempt - since I am not familiar with Fedora - but your somewhat snarky reply to the most helpful member of the forum led me to believe that your frustration level was high. <SHRUGS> Therefore, I figured that even if my attempt did not prove helpful by way of assisting you in solving your issue, it'd at least give you a different target to vent your frustration on (mission accomplished wink ).

Good luck.

Regards,
MDM

Last edited by MountainDewManiac (2015-11-25 01:03:36)

Sideburns · 2015-11-25 01:14:49

Just FYI, Fedora migrates to new versions of the various DEs only when they release a new Fedora version, which is every six to nine months. This is why I was still using Xfce 4.10. Trying to "help" people by making suggestions that have nothing to do with the symptoms as described just wastes everybody's time. Quite frankly, (Scarlet) if you don't know the answer and have no idea how to find it, I'd rather that you didn't respond because even though I'm retired, I'm very busy with a convention I'm going to be helping run this weekend.

I can't speak for anybody else, but when I ask a question and get no response, I don't feel ignored; I just accept the fact that nobody on the board has an answer for me.

Sideburns · 2015-11-27 00:50:50

OK, I'm now posting from my laptop. I tried changing from Compiz to Xfmw4. It came up with one workspace, and the switcher was square. When I set it for four, the switcher looked exactly like I expected. This is a Compiz issue, not Xfce-related so I'll ask someplace else. Thank you, Ozjd, for making the only useful suggestion in this thread.

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#1 2015-11-23 01:21:35

[Solved] Minor glitches after upgrade

#2 2015-11-24 06:31:02

Re: [Solved] Minor glitches after upgrade

#3 2015-11-24 07:09:35

Re: [Solved] Minor glitches after upgrade

#4 2015-11-24 11:27:06

Re: [Solved] Minor glitches after upgrade

#5 2015-11-24 15:35:04

Re: [Solved] Minor glitches after upgrade

#6 2015-11-24 15:54:57

Re: [Solved] Minor glitches after upgrade

#7 2015-11-24 16:04:31

Re: [Solved] Minor glitches after upgrade

#8 2015-11-24 21:19:34

Re: [Solved] Minor glitches after upgrade

#9 2015-11-24 21:23:06

Re: [Solved] Minor glitches after upgrade

#10 2015-11-24 22:16:13

Re: [Solved] Minor glitches after upgrade

#11 2015-11-24 22:34:36

Re: [Solved] Minor glitches after upgrade

#12 2015-11-24 22:40:38

Re: [Solved] Minor glitches after upgrade

#13 2015-11-24 23:06:36

Re: [Solved] Minor glitches after upgrade

#14 2015-11-25 01:03:08

Re: [Solved] Minor glitches after upgrade

#15 2015-11-25 01:14:49

Re: [Solved] Minor glitches after upgrade

#16 2015-11-27 00:50:50

Re: [Solved] Minor glitches after upgrade

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