I downloaded and installed the latest version of XFCE from Linuxpackages.net. Now the menu system does not work, or the tools. Panel items seem to work ok. Any ideas of what is missing???

Try installing an older version or compiling it.
To debug try to see your ~/.xsession-errors file.

Yeah, you could compile it from source or use the installer available from the xfce site.

What version did you download from LinuxPackages? I ask because you can download 4.2.2 from the -current tree at slackware.com (or one of the mirrors), and get a package that was built by the slackware team.

FWIW, I use XFCE all the time, my primary DE when I'm able to use my Linux box (for personal use and develoment at work), so I know that it can work peachily.

Also, if you can, have a look at any error codes that X is throwing at XFCE startup. You may be missing a library or two that you need.

The latest version in slack-current, you can grab it from there.

linuxpackages would be cool if they didn't accept packages from every noob in the world. Your better off compiling your own source that you know will work.

Thanks for the replies,

I downloaded and installed from slack-current, but still have the same problem. I must be missing something, but I'm not sure what. Also, still seems to be the older splash screen on start up. Where are the xsession logs stored???

do you have the gtk-qt theme engine installed..because those are the problems i had with xfce-4.2.2..if so just go into control center/appearance and themes/gtk styles and fonts and change the gtk styles from qt to xfce..worked for me..hope this helps..

How can I edit themes manually?? The reason I ask is I can't get into the control center from the desktop. The only thing in the tools panel are mouse, workspaces and calendar settings. The desktop menu doesn't work at all.

I had a similar problem once, and it was solved by deleting ~/.config and ~/.cache (but my customizations are deleted too).

Damn!! sorry interndan...wasn't very clear in my response..gtk - qt engine is a program you get for kde that allows your gtk apps to use kde's Qt engine(so things like gimp take on the kde style your using at the time)i got it from linux packages it is not in a stock slackware install..it was causing the problems i had with xfce(that were identical to yours)..when i told you to go to control center..i meant the control center in kde,not in xfce..if you don't have either kde or the gtk-qt theme engine installed,then they are not the cause of your xfce problems. as far as where the xfce setting are stored their in the .config and .cache folders in your home directory..

Again sorry for my confusing response(had a late night and was still a bit hung over)

Thanks for all the replies,

I think I discovered at least part of my problem, someone changed swaret.conf to version=9.1.
I'm not sure what they were doing, but all of the window managers stopped working correctly. Apparently something was changed back to an earlier version but I couldn't figure out what it was. I resolved the problem partially by re-installing Slackware 10.0. Now the question is, can I upgrade XFCE from Slack current by itself, or will I need to upgrade other programs as well? If so, what else needs upgrading so XFCE 4.2 will run.

This machine was installed so our engineering staff could start learning Linux, so I expect it will get broken several times in the learning process.

Again thanks for all your help.

Just a heads up; swaret does dependency checking VERY poorly (in the words of Pat himself);
Second, if you can compile, don't use linuxpackages.net if possible. Yes, they are easy, but lots of times they WILL accept a bad package, not test it, and just put it out there.

Also, unless your entire box is running slackware -current, don't take packages from the development tree. Pat compiles those packs using -current libs; if you have 10 or 10.1 libs installed on your box, you will likely run into problems. The rule of thumb is either run all of current, or none at all.

Hope this helps

I was afraid of that Can I install the latest version of XFCE to Slackware 10.0 with their installer program, or will I also have to upgrade Slack to current? I don't do compiling very well yet and looks like a lot of packages to do one at a time.