xfce4 fails to start on boot -- FIXED

[Fred Krogh]

After a recent upgrade involving a number of xfce4 packages, xfce4 fails to start in the usual way. I can get it to start using startx, but my panel has lost all information that I normally have in it. I imagine that is lost, but it would be nice if xfce4 would start when rebooting. I always do a revdep-rebuild after doing an emerge except today when I rebooted without doing this. Later revdep-rebuild updated a lot of packages, and there was still no decent xfce4. A later emerge of xfce4-panel at least gets me a desktop I can use. I'd appreciate ideas on where to start looking. Thanks,
Fred
Here are my current xfcer packages:

[chaseguard]

Not sure what you are describing: What normally starts XFCE for you (slim,gdm ...). At first, it sounds like something going on there.

Once called, I have had XFCE failures that were either in the ~/.config or the ~/.cache/sessions. It is simple and painless to blow away (delete) the ~/.cache/sessions folder and try a start. It is more painful to lose ~/.config/xfce4 since most of desktop is in there. If you are suspicious, it is best to rename this file and restart XFCE. Alternativeley, try logging in to XFCE as root just to see if it is a user based issue (which points to the config/cache, or worse, some priviedge issue).

Keep us posted what you find.

[ultraincognito]

Delete $HOME/.config/xfce4-session and $HOME/.config/xfce4. The panel will need configured newly.

[Fred Krogh]

Thanks, chaseguard, your comment was very helpful. Slim had disappeared from /etc/conf.d/xdm. I have deleted all of the stuff in ~/.config/xfce4 and ~.cache. It was pretty easy to get my desktop back the way I had it. Unfortunately it still doesn't start properly from a boot. It gives me a log in screen, and after I log in, it gives me a sreen with a design except for a terminal window in the upper left corner. If I type startx in that window all looks good. It would be nice if that extra step were not needed.

For what it's worth, I have

[chaseguard]

Before going any further, have you looked at http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/xfce-config.xml, it has a nice section on slim. Confirm the things mentioned in there are set correctly.

slim.conf requires nothing special. As I recall, it worked correctly out of the box and could be easily customized (login screens etc..)

I checked and I no longer even have an .xinitrc in my home directory. I don't think you should need any or have any entries in them since they can interfere with slim ..

However, the .gtkrc-2.0 is a handy place to make lots of XFCE customizations.

Regards,

[Fred Krogh]

I did indeed look at http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/xfce-config.xml (note the link you gave had a commma at the end). When I get a moment I'll try rebooting with ~/.xinitrc deleted. I don't have great hopes that this will fix things.

I have three ~/.gtkrc files

[chaseguard]

First, I am not an expert. Second, I am still at 4.8, so there may be bugs/differences that cause your problem.

But, if your not there yet, and all the stuff in the website + comma I posted are set, you can look in /etc/X11/Sessions and see if the Xfce4 and Xsession files are there. My Xfce4 file has the single line:

startxfce4

which looks a lot like something that would start xfce. The Xsessions file has a lot of script. I am not sure if some stuff is left over garbage from Gnome2 which I booted rather go to Gnome3.

The other xfce related file is /etc/xdg, but I do not think this part of the problem you describe.

[Fred Krogh]

Thanks all, for the suggestions. I deleted ~/.xinitrc and also had a recent update of some xfce4 packages. I don't know what fixed things, but I suspect the later.