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Description of problem: I recently did a software update, and the xfce workspace switcher stopped working. Even though I had multiple workspaces before, now only one is displayed. The config dialog setting was still displayed as 12, though. I tried to remove the switcher and add a new one, but again any configury dialog I try happily adjusts (up or if I want, down to 0) the alleged number of workspaces, but that does not change the fact that always only one workspace is displayed. I've tried new software updates and logout/login and reboot, but the problems persisted. Also, the window placement in xfce is completely broken. I had it set to smart placement for 'small' windows so that it would cover xterms, and it worked almost as good as the late gnome interface of Fedora 14. But now it will place every window in the top left corner of the screen, with the titlebar completely above the top of the screen so that the window can't be grabbed to be moved. Also the menues in Firefox are broken; I tried to enter this bug under xfce first, but I couldn't select the right 'product category' (Fedora) as the menue would vanish when I moved the mouse cursor away from the top to select an item. I'm right now using lxde, where all these things currently seem to be working, except that the automatic window placement seems to be more inspired by Picasso than by Le Corbusier. I.e. I get working windows placed somewhere on the actual desktop space, although if I want them in a neat grid rather than a big overlapping pileup, I have to manually move every one of them. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): How reproducible: Steps to Reproduce: 1. Look at the window switcher applet in the panel 2. Use the xterm launcher 3. In Mozilla, while using the redhat bugzilla page, try to select the "Fedora" product category. Actual results: There's a totality of one workspaces to choose from. An xterm that's not even fully on the screen. And you have to close other windows first to get the keyboard focus there so you can close it with 'exit' or ^D. A menue that only teases you by showing you choices, but it winks out of existence when you start moving the mouse cursor in an attempt to select any. Expected results: Show as many workspaces as configured. Place xterm on actual desktop space, And with a 1050x1680 display and a single slim control panel, I expect 'smart placement' to fit nine of them non-overlapping. It used to do that with a panel 19 pixels slim (manually it works also with a 23 pixel panel). Either you can click on the menue once and it stays there till you select, it stays while you keep pressing the left and/or right mouse button till you make your selection. I.e. at least one of these should work. Additional info:
I've just tried xfce with another account, and there everything still seems to work. So it seems the software update must have corrupted the config files in a major way and the xfce menu configuration for my main account operates in a garbage-in garbage-out mode now.
It sounds like several issues here. First, it sounds like xfwm4 died, or is no longer being started in your session. If you do a 'xfwm4&' in a xterm do all the window decorators come back and placement starts working again? For the workspace, I wonder if it's related to the lack of xfwm4. If you aren't running a window manager it may be unable to provide more workspaces. Can you attach your ~/.xsession-errors file from a failing session?
(In reply to comment #2) > It sounds like several issues here. > > First, it sounds like xfwm4 died, or is no longer being started in your > session. If you do a 'xfwm4&' in a xterm do all the window decorators come back > and placement starts working again? > > For the workspace, I wonder if it's related to the lack of xfwm4. If you aren't > running a window manager it may be unable to provide more workspaces. Starting xfwm4 by hand made new windows work. The workspace switcher stayed as 1 workspace, but its configury dialog now acknowledged that there was but one workspace, and changing it to a larger number had the expected & desired effect. Changing the number of workspaces to zero was still accepted, but fortunately merely grayed out the mini-view. The xterm stuck up beyond the top of the desktop seemed reluctant to move when I was in its workspace, but it eventually moved when I was in another one and then moved it via the mini view. And that revealed a title bar. I am now using mozilla from my xfce session. > Can you attach your ~/.xsession-errors file from a failing session? I tried that, and the first time I couldn't upload control to 'browse' for the file (never mind entering the $^& filename). And file:// is not accepted as a URL prefix. I went back and found my comment was gone. I tried again the add attachment menue, and it sowed directories an plain files, but not .xsession-errors, and still wouldn't allow me to type the filename. I'll try with lxde.
Created attachment 510753 [details] .xsession-errors file from .xfce start with missing xfwm4 When I was looking at this dialog in lxde, I realized that there was this pencil-and-paper icon in the file selector box. And low and behold, that made another text entry field available, which actually worked . (Unlike the one labelled "Enter the path to the file on your computer.") . So I went back to xfce and found this operated the same way here. Regarding the file, the message starting with: GDBus.Error: was also displayed in a pop-up dialog box in the upper left corner. I don't remember it being there in the previous failed session, but it might have been below the xterm. When I logged in again with xfce now, things worked OK. Also the popup window was not there. Even though a similar error message is in the new .xsession-errors file.
Created attachment 510755 [details] Current .xsession-errors file Curiously, the current .xsession-errors file doesn't look all that much different.
Yeah, sadly, that doesn't help much. ;( xfwm4 died at some point and your session got saved with it not present, so it didn't want to start it on login anymore. ;( Not sure how to determine what killed xfwm4, unless you can get it to happen again? Or had an abrt or other crash notification from it?
I don't know what caused it to get killed, but isn't the fact that it can stay killed even in a fresh login a problem in itself? E.g. if the window manager got killed because of a run-away memory hog, would it then stay killed too if you managed to do an orderly reboot of the machine? I thnk it would be better if a new xfwm4 was spawned if no window manager process is currently running or being started. If someone really wants an xfce session without a window manager, they could have some kind of wm-dog to sit on the lock or whatever resource / token you use to prevent starting a new window manager when one is already present.
Yes it is a problem but no, it's not a but because strictly speaking it's what you wanted when you logged out and had the "Save current session" option checked.
(In reply to comment #8) > Yes it is a problem but no, it's not a but because strictly speaking it's what > you wanted when you logged out and had the "Save current session" option > checked. I understand your technical argument, but I doubt that this is what the average user expects to get from 'saving a session'. They will only consider part of the session what they actually did themselves. Or, more untractably, what they remember to have intentionally done themselves. Well, I'm happy myself to know what's going on, and having my immediate problem fixed, so I have nothing personally against closing this bug, but keeping in mind that Fedora is supposed to be sort of a Beta-test for features to appear in Red Hat Enterprise Linux, maybe some thought could be spent on making the log-in process more predictable - if an office worker has only one account with one graphical desktop interface available and no text consoles, loosing functionality of this one interface is not just an annoyance, but a show stopper.
I agreee it's less than ideal, but I'm not sure there is any easy solution. Some users use compiz/openbox/whatever instead of xfwm4. Some users might want no window manager (kiosk type setups). So, it's hard to say that xfwm4 should always be running. ;( Perhaps we could introduce some kind of failsafe session with a clean/known set and allow that as a login option to help folks who get into this state? In any case, I will close this and move discussion over to our Xfce list and/or upstream. Thanks.