Slackware 11.0 Xfce problem - failing to start xfdesktop
 

Hey everyone,
My laptop randomly started giving me a black desktop yesterday. Everything seems to work except all interaction with the desktop itself...I have toolbars and such (which work), but i.e. I can't use the right mouse button. I have found a help topic on this, and it turns out when I start 'xfdesktop' it fixes the problem. However, I do not know how to put this in a startup script or something, so that it starts every time I do startx. Anyone know an easy way to do that?

As I said above, I'm using Slackware 11.0, X11 version 6.9.0, and a 2.6.20 kernel. Thanks a bunch!

check your xinitrc file. That is where one usually tweaks to start various programs when X is launched.

Actually, starting xfdesktop while XFCE is running and then logging out of XFCE (with "save settings" enabled) should do the job, next time xfdesktop should start automatically (the same is true for panels etc.).

Also, there's the option "Allow XFCE to manage the desktop" in the desktop settings of XFCE. Enable that, if it's not so already.

Had a similar problem caused by me farting around with hal.conf. Starting xfdesktop in the background (type xfdesktop & in a console window) while in X seems to have fixed the problem and my desktop is back even when I start a new X session. At the very least, if it doesn't work you should see an error message that might help you troubleshoot the problem?

Edit - Like he said ^^^ :)

That got it, thanks guys! I'm such a newbie...I started xfdesktop without running in the background :-P. Anyway, running it in the background worked fine. Another fix by LQ. thanks again.