Xfce 4.8

rmjohnso · 11-22-2010, 07:00 PM

I'm coming in from a console with startx. I ran "ck-list-sessions" (both as my normal user and as root), and it didn't return anything. I also re-ran xwmconfig just to be sure everything was correct there, but it looks like I still have the reboot / shutdown issue with polkit.

rworkman · 11-25-2010, 05:16 PM

If ck-list-sessions is not returning *anything* then there's a problem somewhere, but I'm not sure where it would be - you should have been having issues even in your old environment before upgrading xfce.

rmjohnso · 11-27-2010, 12:28 PM

I edited /etc/X11/xinit/xinit.xfce as such (emphasis with the bolded line):

Code:

# Run xfce4-session if installed
if which xfce4-session >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    ck-launch-session xfce4-session

    if test "$ssh_agent_kill_cmd"; then
        echo "running '$ssh_agent_kill_cmd'"
        eval "$ssh_agent_kill_cmd"
    fi

    exit 0
fi

"ck-list-sessions" now returns session information, and I can reboot and shutdown from within xfce. I still don't have an option to suspend, even though "xfce4-power-manager --dump" says I have the option and that I'm authorized. Suspend is an option if I'm logged in as root.

I never really use suspend, so I'm not losing anything, but it does make me wonder what is still screwed up. I don't do a lot of extreme customizations (except playing around with this new version of xfce), so I'm not sure either why all of this is a problem with 4.8pre1 and was not a problem with 4.6.2.

rworkman · 11-27-2010, 02:51 PM

You should not have to do that (in fact, it's emphatically discouraged as being "wrong" now) since xfce4-session knows how to talk to consolekit on its own.

rmjohnso · 11-27-2010, 08:29 PM

Does xfce4-session only know how to talk to consolekit if the XDG_SESSION_COOKIE is set? If so, then it's not being set when I run 'startx', unless I have 'ck-launch-session' in the xinit.xfce script.

Just to test something out, I grabbed the latest source for xfce4-session from git, and now I can see standby in the logout menu.

rworkman · 12-05-2010, 02:39 AM

With the latest updates to -current, I was able to do a few more bumps:

Code:

Sun Dec  5 07:00:54 UTC 2010
  Upgraded udisks to 1.0.2
  Upgraded upower to 0.9.7
  Rebuilt GConf (gzipped manpages)
  Rebuilt main xfce package
    - this upgrades libxfce4util, xfce-utils, xfce4-panel,
      xfce4-settings, xfce4-session, xfconf, xfdesktop

Sun Dec  5 08:23:47 UTC 2010
  Rebuilt Terminal

rmjohnso · 12-05-2010, 11:04 AM

I was playing around with these update last night as well. It looks like the new xfce4-panel fixes the notification area / systray icon issue, though, I'm not fond of their solution. Scaling the icons in the tray to be smaller when more than two or three icons are there is not really what I was looking for.

With the latest -current and xfce updates, I still haven't found a solution to my consolekit issue, so I'm having to stick with the hack above.

rworkman · 12-05-2010, 01:40 PM

I found the problem; it will be corrected in the next build (I'm working on 4.8.0pre2 now).
The systray still isn't quite right, but Nick is working on it.

mlpa · 12-05-2010, 01:43 PM

Will XFCE 4.8 get to current? For what I understand have a lot of dependencies new to Slackware, special Gnome Stuff.

rworkman · 12-05-2010, 01:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mlpa

Will XFCE 4.8 get to current? For what I understand have a lot of dependencies new to Slackware, special Gnome Stuff.

Almost surely not this time - the current plan is to wait for the next round.

rmjohnso · 12-05-2010, 02:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rworkman

I found the problem; it will be corrected in the next build (I'm working on 4.8.0pre2 now).
The systray still isn't quite right, but Nick is working on it.

You found which problem?

rworkman · 12-05-2010, 03:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rmjohnso

You found which problem?

The consolekit issue you hit.

rworkman · 12-05-2010, 05:29 PM

Code:

Sun Dec  5 22:48:11 UTC 2010
  Upgraded main xfce package to 4.8.0pre2
    - this upgrades Thunar, garcon, tumbler, xfce4-panel, xfce4-settings,
      xfce-utils, xfdesktop, xfwm4
    - this now calls ck-launch-session to start xfce4-session in xinitrc
      if we're not running from a graphical login manager
    - fixed libcanberra usage (xfce4-settings rather than xfce4-session
      needs it, and it needed a patch from xfce4-settings git)
    - add gnome-keyring support to xfce4-session
  Upgraded thunar-volman to 0.5.3

rmjohnso · 12-05-2010, 05:48 PM

I should read the whole changelog next time.

foodown · 12-06-2010, 11:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ilgar

I used to be quite fond of lightweight systems but these days I find, say, fluxbox needlessly primitive on an average computer.

I used to love blackbox . . . then again, in those days my systems were incredibly under-powered compared even with my cell phone now. Nowadays, fluxbox and such don't really appeal to me. More recently, if I'm running a big, resource-intensive application, like a new game under WINE, I'll just go with twm.

Honestly, the functionality increase from twm to fluxbox doesn't even seem worthwhile to me anymore.

XFCE is a whole other story. It may be "feature creeping" just a tad, but to try and liken it to KDE or GNOME is ridiculous.

Really, comparing anything to KDE is not fair. It is in a class all its own for unnecessary feature bloat. For how much processor and GPU it consumes, the experience of using it isn't even all that great. It may be apples and oranges, but I've even found Windows 7 with Aero to be a better trade-off in terms of utility for processor use than KDE; not the underlying OS, mind you, just the GUI. Windows 7 in VirtualBox running alongside XFCE actually seems smoother and faster than KDE on my machine.

I love XFCE, and based on what I've read, XFCE 4.8 will be a nice incremental improvement.