[SOLVED] XFCE: blank screen on login

xri · 08-17-2010, 03:46 AM

This is my coworker's computer.

When she wants to log into xfce, there is only a blank screen. The cursor shows, but there is no way to go any further. No panel, buttons or background.

However, she is able to log in using XDMPC from a local computer without a problem.

There are the processes active under both settings.

Direct login

Quote:

xfce4-session
xfconfd
xfwm4
xfsettingsd
xfce4-settings-
xfce4-tips
xfce4-volumed

Through XDMCP

Quote:

xfce4-session
xfconfd
xfwm4
xfsettingsd
xfce4-panel
xfdesktop
xfce4-settings-
xfce4-menu-plug
xfce4-volumed

Her machine has Slack 13.1 multilib

Questions:

What may have caused xfce not to load some modules on log in?
How to fix it, to allow a normal login?
How to prevent this problem in the future?

Thanks for reading this

yooy · 08-17-2010, 04:01 AM

xfce4-panel
xfdesktop
could be loaded if you add them at the script file end of last runlevel.

foodown · 08-17-2010, 06:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yooy

xfce4-panel
xfdesktop
could be loaded if you add them at the script file end of last runlevel.

I'm not so sure . . . what happens if you disallow remote X sessions? What happens if you switch to runlevel 3 and start a session with "startx?"

Are we using the default kdm, or is it xdm, or have we installed gdm?

xri · 08-18-2010, 02:51 PM

Thank you guys for the replies.

I'm not in the office today, but I tomorrow will try: telinit 3; startx
I will post the results.

However, based on the user's .xinitrc, I disabled xfce4-session, which allows her for normal login, but prevents a normal logout (with an error message indicating "no session manager"), forcing her to do ctrl+alt+Backspace. Of course, disabling xfce4-session is not a solution, but a temporary workaround, until I have a real grasp of what actually went wrong with xfce.

User's .xinitrc:

Quote:

#!/bin/sh

# fix broken $UID on some system...
if test "x$UID" = "x"; then
if test -x /usr/xpg4/bin/id; then
UID=`/usr/xpg4/bin/id -u`;
else
UID=`id -u`;
fi
fi

# $XDG_CONFIG_HOME defines the base directory relative to which user specific
# configuration files should be stored. If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is either not set
# or empty, a default equal to $HOME/.config should be used.
if test "x$XDG_CONFIG_HOME" = "x" ; then
XDG_CONFIG_HOME=$HOME/.config
fi
[ -d "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME" ] || mkdir "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"

# $XDG_CACHE_HOME defines the base directory relative to which user specific
# non-essential data files should be stored. If $XDG_CACHE_HOME is either not
# set or empty, a default equal to $HOME/.cache should be used.
if test "x$XDG_CACHE_HOME" = "x" ; then
XDG_CACHE_HOME=$HOME/.cache
fi
[ -d "$XDG_CACHE_HOME" ] || mkdir "$XDG_CACHE_HOME"

# set up XDG user directores. see
# http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/xdg-user-dirs
if type xdg-user-dirs-update >/dev/null 2>&1; then
xdg-user-dirs-update
fi

if test -f "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/user-dirs.dirs"; then
. "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/user-dirs.dirs"
# i'm deliberately not 'export'-ing the XDG_ vars, because you shouldn't
# rely on the env vars inside apps, since the file could be changed at
# any time by the user. this is solely here for migration purposes.

# a bit of user dir migration...
if test -d "$HOME/Desktop" -a ! -L "$HOME/Desktop" \
-a "$XDG_DESKTOP_DIR" \
-a "$HOME/Desktop" != "$XDG_DESKTOP_DIR"
then
echo "Migrating $HOME/Desktop to $XDG_DESKTOP_DIR..."
test -d "$XDG_DESKTOP_DIR" && rmdir "$XDG_DESKTOP_DIR"
mv "$HOME/Desktop" "$XDG_DESKTOP_DIR" || echo "Desktop migration failed" >&2
fi

if test -d "$HOME/Templates" -a ! -L "$HOME/Templates" \
-a "$XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR" \
-a "$HOME/Templates" != "$XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR"
then
echo "Migrating $HOME/Templates to $XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR..."
test -d "$XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR" && rmdir "$XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR"
mv "$HOME/Templates" "$XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR" || echo "Templates migration failed" >&2
fi
fi

# Modify libglade and glade environment variables so that
# it will find the files installed by Xfce
export LIBGLADE_MODULE_PATH="$LIBGLADE_MODULE_PATH:/usr/lib64/libglade/2.0"
export GLADE_CATALOG_PATH="$GLADE_CATALOG_PATH:"
export GLADE_PIXMAP_PATH="$GLADE_PIXMAP_PATH:"
export GLADE_MODULE_PATH="$GLADE_MODULE_PATH:"

# Export GTK_PATH so that GTK+ can find the Xfce theme engine
export GTK_PATH="$GTK_PATH:/usr/lib64/gtk-2.0"

# For now, start with an empty list
XRESOURCES=""

# Has to go prior to merging Xft.xrdb, as its the "Defaults" file
test -r "/etc/xfce/xdg/xfce4/Xft.xrdb" && XRESOURCES="$XRESOURCES /etc/xfce/xdg/xfce4/Xft.xrdb"
test -r $HOME/.Xdefaults && XRESOURCES="$XRESOURCES $HOME/.Xdefaults"

BASEDIR=$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xfce4
if test -r "$BASEDIR/Xft.xrdb"; then
XRESOURCES="$XRESOURCES $BASEDIR/Xft.xrdb"
elif test -r "$XFCE4HOME/Xft.xrdb"; then
mkdir -p "$BASEDIR"
cp "$XFCE4HOME/Xft.xrdb" "$BASEDIR"/
XRESOURCES="$XRESOURCES $BASEDIR/Xft.xrdb"
fi

# merge in X cursor settings
test -r "$BASEDIR/Xcursor.xrdb" && XRESOURCES="$XRESOURCES $BASEDIR/Xcursor.xrdb"

# ~/.Xresources contains overrides to the above
test -r "$HOME/.Xresources" && XRESOURCES="$XRESOURCES $HOME/.Xresources"

# load all X resources (adds /dev/null to avoid an empty list that would hang the process)
cat /dev/null $XRESOURCES | xrdb -nocpp -merge -

# load local modmap
test -r $HOME/.Xmodmap && xmodmap $HOME/.Xmodmap

# Launch xscreensaver (if available), but only as non-root user
if test $UID -gt 0 -a -z "$VNCSESSION"; then
if test x"`which xscreensaver 2>/dev/null`" != x""; then
xscreensaver -no-splash &
elif test x"`which gnome-screensaver 2>/dev/null`" != x""; then
gnome-screensaver &
fi
fi

# Use ssh-agent if installed and not already running. Run it separately
# so it populates the environment here, so we can clean it up later.
sshagent=`which ssh-agent`
kill_sshagent=0
if test -z "$SSH_AGENT_PID" -a "$sshagent" -a "x$sshagent" != "xno"; then
eval `$sshagent -s`
kill_sshagent=1
fi

# Use dbus-launch if installed.
if test x"$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS" = x""; then
dbuslaunch=`which dbus-launch`
if test x"$dbuslaunch" != x"" -a x"$dbuslaunch" != x"no"; then
eval `$dbuslaunch --sh-syntax --exit-with-session`
fi
fi

# Run xfce4-session if installed
xfcesm=`which xfce4-session`
case "x$xfcesm" in
x|xno*)
;;
*)
if [ -z "$DESKTOP_SESSION" -a -x /usr/bin/ck-launch-session ]; then
ck-launch-session $xfcesm
else
$xfcesm
fi

if test $kill_sshagent -eq 1; then
eval `$sshagent -k`
fi
exit 0
;;
esac

##################
# IMPORTANT NOTE #
##################

# Everything below here ONLY gets executed if you are NOT using xfce4-session
# (Xfce's session manager). If you are using the session manager, everything
# below is handled by it, and the code below is not executed at all. If you're
# not sure if you're using the session manager, type 'ps -e|grep xfce4-session'
# in a terminal while Xfce is running.

##################

# this is only necessary when running w/o xfce4-session
xsetroot -solid black -cursor_name watch

# or use old-fashioned startup script otherwise

xfsettingsd &
xfwm4 --daemon

# start up stuff in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/autostart/, as that looks to be
# the new standard. if that directory doesn't exist, try the old
# ~/Desktop/Autostart method. we're not going to do any migration here.
if test -d "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/autostart"; then
for i in ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/autostart/*.desktop; do
grep -q -E "^Hidden=true" "$i" && continue
if grep -q -E "^OnlyShowIn=" "$i"; then
# need to test twice, as lack of the line entirely means we still run it
grep -E "^OnlyShowIn=" "$i" | grep -q 'XFCE;' || continue
fi
grep -E "^NotShowIn=" "$i" | grep -q 'XFCE;' && continue

# check for TryExec
trycmd=`grep -E "^TryExec=" "$i" | cut -d'=' -f2`
if test "$trycmd"; then
type "$trycmd" >/dev/null 2>&1 || continue
fi

cmd=`grep -E "^Exec=" "$i" | cut -d'=' -f2`
if test "$cmd" && type "$cmd" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
$cmd &
fi
done
elif test -d "$HOME/Desktop/Autostart"; then
for i in `ls -1 -L ${HOME}/Desktop/Autostart/ 2>/dev/null`; do
if test -x $HOME/Desktop/Autostart/$i; then
$HOME/Desktop/Autostart/$i &
fi
done
fi

xfdesktop&
orage &

panel=`which xfce4-panel`
case "x$panel" in
x|xno*)
;;
*)
$panel
ret=$?
while test $ret -ne 0; do
xmessage -center -file - -timeout 20 -title Error <<EOF
A crash occured in the panel
Please report this to the xfce4-dev@xfce.org list
or on http://bugs.xfce.org
Meanwhile the panel will be restarted
EOF
cat >&2 <<EOF
A crash occured in the panel
Please report this to the xfce4-dev@xfce.org list
or on http://bugs.xfce.org
Meanwhile the panel will be restarted
EOF
$panel
ret=$?
done
;;
esac

if test $kill_sshagent -eq 1; then
eval `$sshagent -k`
fi

xsetroot -bg white -fg red -solid black -cursor_name watch

xri · 08-18-2010, 03:25 PM

@foodown, I was able to get into her computer and did (as the same user having this problem):
telinit 3
startx

The result is -> the same blank screen she was getting when she tried a login from the KDM dialog on level 4.

After startx, the active processes are:

Quote:

xfce4-session
xfconfd
xfsettingsd
xfwm4
xfce4-settings-
xfce4-volumed

Not different from what happened on level 4.

xri · 08-21-2010, 01:00 PM

SOLUTION

The directory $USER/.cache/sessions had a number of files from previous xfce sessions. I deleted all the content on that directory.

COMMENTS:

You can speculate that somehow (how?) the user managed to crash xfce4-panel and xfdesktop and, frustrated, decided to log out, saving the crippled session.
Maybe it would be good if xfce had some sort of checking mechanism implemented to avoid saving crippled sessions. Users do make mistakes and will keep making them.
The moral for me is not to allow any user to do anything more than the indispensable tasks. For example here, I disabled the session saving feature, and asked her not to mess with any config feature (at least not without letting me know).

Thanks to all the good folks who chipped in here.

xri · 08-21-2010, 01:04 PM

Note about my post about startx:

On that post, I should have specified, that I ran telinit 3 as root and then ran startx as the user I'd been helping.

Sorry for that.