panel plugins disappeared and cannot be readded?

brtiankong3 · 2021-12-27 04:32:20

hi i noticed my panel plugins disappeared and when i tried to readd them they werent avaliable in the menu
the panel plugins were installed from the aur xfce4-goodies. the .so files of all the plugins are in /usr/lib/xfce4/panel/plugins. os is arch, everything up to date. tried reinstalling plugins and xfce but did not work

Tamaranch · 2021-12-27 09:36:41

Which panel version?

KBar · 2021-12-27 12:43:47

First, let's check if it's up and running:
```
ps -ef | grep '[x]fce4-panel'
```
If it's not, proceed to the next step. If it is, kill it.
```
xfce4-panel --quit
```
Start it from the shell.
```
xfce4-panel
```

Does it start or fail? Does it send any diagnostic messages to standard error in case of a failure? Post any output you get here.

Last edited by KBar (2021-12-27 12:49:13)

brtiankong3 · 2021-12-28 02:55:02

Tamaranch wrote:

Which panel version?

xfce4-panel 4.16.3-2

KBar wrote:

Does it start or fail? Does it send any diagnostic messages to standard error in case of a failure? Post any output you get here.

starts fine. killing and restarting manually also starts the panel. no diagnostic messages. no errors. panel_debug does not display any critical errors. i still have the default plugins working so it says those were loaded. however it has no trace of any of the extra plugins. it does not try to load them at all (because they disappeared from the panel configuration alltogether?).

Last edited by brtiankong3 (2021-12-28 02:55:23)

KBar · 2021-12-28 03:41:08

KBar wrote:

however it has no trace of any of the extra plugins. it does not try to load them at all (because they disappeared from the panel configuration alltogether?).

Which plugins aren't being loaded? Can you list them?

Last edited by KBar (2021-12-28 03:41:19)

brtiankong3 · 2021-12-29 00:39:35

KBar wrote:

KBar wrote:
however it has no trace of any of the extra plugins. it does not try to load them at all (because they disappeared from the panel configuration alltogether?).
Which plugins aren't being loaded? Can you list them?

basically all the panel plugins in the xfce4-goodies package pile. not that i use all of them but they dont show up in the 'add new items' menu.

xfce4-battery-plugin
xfce4-clipman-plugin
xfce4-cpufreq-plugin
xfce4-cpugraph-plugin
xfce4-datetime-plugin
xfce4-diskperf-plugin
xfce4-eyes-plugin
xfce4-fsguard-plugin
xfce4-genmon-plugin
xfce4-mailwatch-plugin
xfce4-mount-plugin
xfce4-mpc-plugin
xfce4-netload-plugin
xfce4-notes-plugin
xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin
xfce4-sensors-plugin
xfce4-smartbookmark-plugin
xfce4-time-out-plugin
xfce4-timer-plugin
xfce4-verve-plugin
xfce4-wavelan-plugin
xfce4-weather-plugin
xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin
xfce4-xkb-plugin

KBar · 2021-12-29 03:53:17

Did you try to increase the verbosity?

xfce4-panel -q && PANEL_DEBUG=external xfce4-panel > $HOME/_panel_debug 2>&1

If that doesn't produce anything of value, try with all in place of external.

Thanks.

brtiankong3 · 2022-01-01 21:02:14

KBar wrote:

Did you try to increase the verbosity?
xfce4-panel -q && PANEL_DEBUG=external xfce4-panel > $HOME/_panel_debug 2>&1
If that doesn't produce anything of value, try with all in place of external.
Thanks.

pretty much the same as before, no errors reported because it seems that all the broken plugins have disappeared without a trace. xfce doesnt even try to load them so their arent any errors to be had i guess?

Tamaranch · 2022-01-01 22:07:40

Just in case, what is the return of

which -a xfce4-panel

brtiankong3 · 2022-02-01 16:23:43

Tamaranch wrote:

Just in case, what is the return of
which -a xfce4-panel

/usr/local/bin/xfce4-panel
/usr/bin/xfce4-panel

Tamaranch · 2022-02-01 16:33:48

That's it: you have competing installs of xfce4-panel: xfce4-panel in /usr/local is launched by default, and it does not find the plugins under /usr.
It's not impossible to maintain, but it does require some admin work.
The easiest way is to have only one installation at a time, in /usr.

brtiankong3 · 2022-02-01 17:04:00

Tamaranch wrote:

That's it: you have competing installs of xfce4-panel: xfce4-panel in /usr/local is launched by default, and it does not find the plugins under /usr.
It's not impossible to maintain, but it does require some admin work.
The easiest way is to have only one installation at a time, in /usr.

im a little confused how did i end up getting two installs? i tried killing/manually launching both of the panel installs but neither detects plugins. is their a way to specify the plugin path?

Tamaranch · 2022-02-01 17:20:56

brtiankong3 wrote:

im a little confused how did i end up getting two installs?

You know it, not me
I guess at some point you must have done a make install from a panel build with the default options.

brtiankong3 wrote:

i tried killing/manually launching both of the panel installs but neither detects plugins. is their a way to specify the plugin path?

I wouldn't go into this if I were you, especially if you don't know how a panel install ended up in /usr/local.
My advice: clean up this parasitic install (you can simply delete everything in /usr/local if you haven't installed anything else useful in it), and reinstall xfce4-panel from your package manager if necessary.

If after that it still doesn't work, at least you'll have something clean to run diagnostics from.

Last edited by Tamaranch (2022-02-01 17:21:44)

brtiankong3 · 2022-02-01 17:53:54

Tamaranch wrote:

brtiankong3 wrote:
im a little confused how did i end up getting two installs?
You know it, not me
I guess at some point you must have done a make install from a panel build with the default options.
brtiankong3 wrote:
i tried killing/manually launching both of the panel installs but neither detects plugins. is their a way to specify the plugin path?
I wouldn't go into this if I were you, especially if you don't know how a panel install ended up in /usr/local.
My advice: clean up this parasitic install (you can simply delete everything in /usr/local if you haven't installed anything else useful in it), and reinstall xfce4-panel from your package manager if necessary.
If after that it still doesn't work, at least you'll have something clean to run diagnostics from.

thanks babe, removing the excess install then reinstalling the panel fixed the missing plugins issue

Sharky · 2023-03-29 22:08:35

Hi folks, similar issue here: I installed xfce4-panel from source so my running version is now 4.19.1 but I have multiple installs:

$ which -a xfce4-panel
/usr/local/bin/xfce4-panel
/usr/bin/xfce4-panel
/bin/xfce4-panel

Per Synaptic I have v 4.17.3-1 installed, but if I try to remove that, it will also remove xubuntu-core.
I'm not expert, but this sounds like a VERY bad idea?

Any ideas for how I should proceed?

Thanks!

ToZ · 2023-03-29 23:36:59

If my understanding of ubuntu is accurate, xubuntu-core^ is a task which is basically a long list of packages to install in one go. When removing any one package from this task (in your case xfce4-panel), the xubuntu-core task package will also be installed because you have removed one component of the list and the package is no longer valid/accurate. It won't (or shouldn't) uninstall any of the other packages.

Perhaps someone with more specific ubuntu knowledge or someone on the ubuntuforums would be able to confirm this for you.

One other note - the fact that the new version of xfce4-panel installed in /usr/local is because you either didn't specify (left as default) or specified "--prefix=/usr/local" on your autogen.sh or configure command line. For most distros, you should specify "--prefix=/usr" and specifically for debian or debian-derived distros, you should also specify "--libexecdir=/usr/lib/$(uname -m}-linux-gnu" to get the library files in the right place. Also important to note that you should first uninstall both the xfce4-panel and libxfce4panel* packages that exist in the system.

Edit: This may also be useful in your case as it details out how to create an upgraded deb file that will integrate with the apt ecosystem. The instructions will need to be adapted for your specific use case.

Last edited by ToZ (2023-03-29 23:40:05)

Sharky · 2023-03-30 00:12:41

Thanks Toz. So for the deb approach, that looks interesting. I downloaded the source, ran

sudo apt-get build-dep <package>
sudo apt-get install build-essential fakeroot devscripts
debuild -us -uc -i -I

And got:

debuild: fatal error at line 679:
cannot find readable debian/changelog anywhere!
Are you in the source code tree?

Am I doing something wrong here? I feel I've followed the instructions, but maybe I'm missing some fundamental understanding. This is a cool approach if it works!

For the typical install approach, to be clear, for Xubuntu (Debian obvs), instead of

./configure

I should do:

./configure --prefix=/usr --libexecdir=/usr/lib/$(uname -m}-linux-gnu
make
sudo make install

?

Just wanted to check I'm interpreting that correctly. Thanks!

(presumably I should uninstall the xcfe4-panel dependencies I also installed the bad way and install the good way also).
Edit: just did that with

sudo make uninstall

Last edited by Sharky (2023-03-30 00:22:11)

ToZ · 2023-03-30 00:40:33

debuild: fatal error at line 679:
cannot find readable debian/changelog anywhere!
Are you in the source code tree?

It looks like those instructions require you to use the existing source code for that version of the distro, which isn't what you want to do. You want to use newer code. Sorry for the noise.

For the typical install approach, to be clear, for Xubuntu (Debian obvs), instead of
./configure
I should do:
./configure --prefix=/usr --libexecdir=/usr/lib/$(uname -m}-linux-gnu
?
Just wanted to check I'm interpreting that correctly. Thanks!

Here is the buildlog for ubuntu's build of version 4.18.2. Specifically (half way through):

./configure --build=x86_64-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --includedir=\${prefix}/include --mandir=\${prefix}/share/man --infodir=\${prefix}/share/info --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var --disable-option-checking --disable-silent-rules --libdir=\${prefix}/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu --runstatedir=/run --disable-maintainer-mode --disable-dependency-tracking --enable-gtk-doc --enable-introspection=yes --enable-vala=no

Sharky · 2023-03-30 01:09:03

Blimey, that's a lot of switches! Thanks for digging that up mate.

So:

./configure --build=x86_64-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --includedir=\${prefix}/include --mandir=\${prefix}/share/man --infodir=\${prefix}/share/info --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var --disable-option-checking --disable-silent-rules --libdir=\${prefix}/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu --runstatedir=/run --disable-maintainer-mode --disable-dependency-tracking --enable-gtk-doc --enable-introspection=yes --enable-vala=no
make clean
make
sudo make install

For libxfce4windowing the xfce4-panel. Let's reboot and see how we got on...

SORTED! Thanks bud!

Last edited by Sharky (2023-03-30 01:13:17)

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#1 2021-12-27 04:32:20

panel plugins disappeared and cannot be readded?

#2 2021-12-27 09:36:41

Re: panel plugins disappeared and cannot be readded?

#3 2021-12-27 12:43:47

Re: panel plugins disappeared and cannot be readded?

#4 2021-12-28 02:55:02

Re: panel plugins disappeared and cannot be readded?

#5 2021-12-28 03:41:08

Re: panel plugins disappeared and cannot be readded?

#6 2021-12-29 00:39:35

Re: panel plugins disappeared and cannot be readded?

#7 2021-12-29 03:53:17

Re: panel plugins disappeared and cannot be readded?

#8 2022-01-01 21:02:14

Re: panel plugins disappeared and cannot be readded?

#9 2022-01-01 22:07:40

Re: panel plugins disappeared and cannot be readded?

#10 2022-02-01 16:23:43

Re: panel plugins disappeared and cannot be readded?

#11 2022-02-01 16:33:48

Re: panel plugins disappeared and cannot be readded?

#12 2022-02-01 17:04:00

Re: panel plugins disappeared and cannot be readded?

#13 2022-02-01 17:20:56

Re: panel plugins disappeared and cannot be readded?

#14 2022-02-01 17:53:54

Re: panel plugins disappeared and cannot be readded?

#15 2023-03-29 22:08:35

Re: panel plugins disappeared and cannot be readded?

#16 2023-03-29 23:36:59

Re: panel plugins disappeared and cannot be readded?

#17 2023-03-30 00:12:41

Re: panel plugins disappeared and cannot be readded?

#18 2023-03-30 00:40:33

Re: panel plugins disappeared and cannot be readded?

#19 2023-03-30 01:09:03

Re: panel plugins disappeared and cannot be readded?

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