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#1 2012-02-19 13:45:36

jiewmeng
Member
Registered: 2012-02-19
Posts: 10

Missing Title Bars & Keyboard Not Working

I have been on Ubuntu 11.10 + GNOME 3.2. Then installed XFCE. It worked at first, but suddenly, the title bar is gone. Restart does not change anything. I found that I can run `xfwm4` something like that, I think with the `--replace` switch, that fixes it, but I will have a redundent terminal window. Also I wont want to run that everytime I start.

However now, I found that booting into XFCE, my keyboard stops working, caps lock etc will change the "led" on the keyboard, but I see no input on any window. Thus I can open terminal with my mouse, but I cannot type!

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#2 2012-02-19 13:58:31

angstrom
Member
Registered: 2011-08-13
Posts: 267

Re: Missing Title Bars & Keyboard Not Working

> I will have a redundent terminal window
You can run xfwm4 in the "Run command" (Alt-F2), so you don't have to open a terminal.

> Also I wont want to run that everytime I start.
Once you have run xfwm4 and got your title bars back, save the session: Setting manager > Session and startup > Session > Save session

For the no keyboard input, it's weird ... Can you have some input in the Console screen (Ctrl+ Alt + F1) ?


Xfce is NOT Xubuntu. Bugs in Xubuntu don't mean that Xfce is buggy ...

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#3 2012-02-20 01:37:34

jiewmeng
Member
Registered: 2012-02-19
Posts: 10

Re: Missing Title Bars & Keyboard Not Working

For the no keyboard input, it's weird ... Can you have some input in the Console screen (Ctrl+ Alt + F1) ?

I believe that should be possible tho I haven't tried that. Reason I say so is, if I logout, even in the lightdm login screen, I can type, when I boot back into GNOME3 I can too. Its just limited to XFCE.

About the original problem of XFWM not working on startup, what might be the root cause? The current solution appears to be more of a workaround?

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#4 2012-02-20 13:25:20

angstrom
Member
Registered: 2011-08-13
Posts: 267

Re: Missing Title Bars & Keyboard Not Working

For the keyboard input problem, try to look in logs like ~/.xsession-errors, dmesg, /var/log/message
Also, try to create an empty account then log in with Xfce. If the keyboard work back, this mean that some custom setting in ~/.config/xfce4 is messed up.

> About the original problem of XFWM not working on startup, what might be the root cause? The current solution appears to be more of a workaround?

This happen when you logout, for some obscure reason, xfwm4 crash, and it's not saved by the session manager. When you log back/reboot, as xfwm4 was not saved by the previous session, it won't be started => no title bar.
Why don't start xfwm4 by default ? Because the user may use another windows manager other than xfwm4.

Last edited by angstrom (2012-02-20 13:27:16)


Xfce is NOT Xubuntu. Bugs in Xubuntu don't mean that Xfce is buggy ...

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#5 2012-02-20 13:46:28

jiewmeng
Member
Registered: 2012-02-19
Posts: 10

Re: Missing Title Bars & Keyboard Not Working

angstrom wrote:

Why don't start xfwm4 by default ? Because the user may use another windows manager other than xfwm4.

Then maybe the problem is because I have GNOME 3? Maybe its running the window manager for GNOME3? But if thats the case, wont I get GNOME3's title bar?

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#6 2012-02-20 14:45:31

angstrom
Member
Registered: 2011-08-13
Posts: 267

Re: Missing Title Bars & Keyboard Not Working

No, you misunderstand something. In your case, it's because one time, your xfwm4 crashed and don't get started the next time you boot up. Normally, if you start manually xfwm4 and save the session, the problem will be gone (until the next time xfwm4 crash again when logout, but this normally happen rarely).

What I mean previously is why the xfce developpers don't make start xfwm4 automatically, regardless the saving session : because, if an user use another windows manager by his own choice and xfce automatically start xfwm4, there will be conflict on windows manager.  => Xfwm4 will start or not by looking in the previously saved session.


Xfce is NOT Xubuntu. Bugs in Xubuntu don't mean that Xfce is buggy ...

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#7 2012-02-21 14:21:18

adrian20
Member
Registered: 2012-02-21
Posts: 1

Re: Missing Title Bars & Keyboard Not Working

I would like to add I had a similar situation this morning, I'm not sure, but this may have occurred for one of two situations;

An update of Linux that I made last night, or because I had the PC on for three days before the update.

With the recommendation of angstrom, post number #2 of this thread solved the problem.

Thank you.

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#8 2012-04-15 22:00:51

Zar
Member
Registered: 2012-04-15
Posts: 1

Re: Missing Title Bars & Keyboard Not Working

I am not certain this is still an issue, but I ended up here with my identical problem and the solution that worked for me is not yet listed in this thread.

I had exactly the same problem as the OP, with both the keyboard not working and the window manager not functioning (for example, the relevant settings were empty in the settings panel). I found the solution in another thread on this forum:

sng wrote:

After playing around (moving and renaming all those hidden directories in my home folder) I ended up to ~/.cache/sessions/. A couple of xfce4* files existed in there, and after deleting them, I finally managed to successfully load xfce

These steps solved my WM and keyboard problem both.


Arch \ XFCE - Ubuntu \ Unity

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#9 2012-12-10 08:31:02

loptr
Member
Registered: 2012-12-10
Posts: 1

Re: Missing Title Bars & Keyboard Not Working

Thanks Zar... Your solution works and solved my problems of keyboard and title bar

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