I'm trying to get XFce4 working a bit better under the current release
of Knoppix, and want to get it going in Debian Woody as well.

Problem: I have apt-get'ed all of the various XFce4 files, and XFwm4
automatically shows up as an option at the KDM login screen. But I don't
get a desktop, panel or anything else useful. Switching over to another
console, top informs me that xfce-mcs-manager and xfwm4 are running.

What info I did find online suggested (among other things) editing my
..xsession and .xinitrc files. I simply commented out portions pertaining
to XFce 3.x and replaced them with:

xfce-mcs-manager
xfwm4 --daemon
xfaskbar4 &
xfdesktop &
exec xfce4-panel

Still no luck launching XFwm4 directly from KDM, but... if go to a
console login, then execute "startx", XMwm4 comes up and seems to work
perfectly!

I'll be the first to admit that I don't really know where .xinitrc and
..xsession are being invoked, and neither do I have a good grasp on what
script KDM uses, but I'm assuming it's neither of the above. Help?

Jeff

4seasonphoto (four_season_photo@yahoo.com) wrote:
: I'm trying to get XFce4 working a bit better under the current release
: of Knoppix, and want to get it going in Debian Woody as well.

: Problem: I have apt-get'ed all of the various XFce4 files, and XFwm4
: automatically shows up as an option at the KDM login screen. But I don't
: get a desktop, panel or anything else useful. Switching over to another
: console, top informs me that xfce-mcs-manager and xfwm4 are running.

: What info I did find online suggested (among other things) editing my
: .xsession and .xinitrc files. I simply commented out portions pertaining
: to XFce 3.x and replaced them with:

: xfce-mcs-manager
: xfwm4 --daemon
: xfaskbar4 &
: xfdesktop &
: exec xfce4-panel

: Still no luck launching XFwm4 directly from KDM, but... if go to a
: console login, then execute "startx", XMwm4 comes up and seems to work
: perfectly!

: I'll be the first to admit that I don't really know where .xinitrc and
: .xsession are being invoked, and neither do I have a good grasp on what
: script KDM uses, but I'm assuming it's neither of the above. Help?

: Jeff

I believe this is the script
"/etc/X11/Xsession.d/20xfree86-common_process-args" which processes
your "Session Type" selection after your successful kdm login. What is
on your "Session Type" drop down list? Is it "XFwm4" or "xfwm4"?
According to the script, the string of the drop down list will be the
name of the real program to be executed. Your drop down list is
located in "/etc/kde2/kdm/kdmrc" if you are running Debian Woody
(stable).

Alex,

Many thanks, I've got it working! I'm no programmer, but just for grins,
you can see my kludgy workaround for what I think is probably a slightly
broken Debian package.

And so, I had a look at

/etc/X11/Xsession.d/20xfree86-common_process-args

And presumed (did I mention that I'm no programmer) that what it's doing
is simply
========================
If xfwm4 (or any other arbitrary string contained in the appropriate
section of /etc/kde3/kdm/kdmrc <-in the case of Knoppix 3.2) exists and
can be executed

execute xfwm4

else do something else
========================
As far as I can see, executing "xfwm4" is normally supposed to launch
all necessary components without futher fuss, but obviously that isn't
happening. So in the meantime, I used a script to do the deed, and
called it "/usr/bin/xfwm4.0"

#!/bin/bash
xfce-mcs-manager
xfwm4 --daemon
xfaskbar4 &
xfdesktop &
exec xfce4-panel

I then edited /etc/kde3/kdm/kdmrc, changing the reference to "xfwm4" to
point to my new script, in this case "xfwm4.0"

Now XFwm4 launches beautifully from KDM. But I suppose I should email
the package maintainer about the quirkiness.

Alex Yung wrote:
> 4seasonphoto (four_season_photo@yahoo.com) wrote:
> : I'm trying to get XFce4 working a bit better under the current release
> : of Knoppix, and want to get it going in Debian Woody as well.
>
> : Problem: I have apt-get'ed all of the various XFce4 files, and XFwm4
> : automatically shows up as an option at the KDM login screen. But I don't
> : get a desktop, panel or anything else useful. Switching over to another
> : console, top informs me that xfce-mcs-manager and xfwm4 are running.
>
> : What info I did find online suggested (among other things) editing my
> : .xsession and .xinitrc files. I simply commented out portions pertaining
> : to XFce 3.x and replaced them with:
>
> : xfce-mcs-manager
> : xfwm4 --daemon
> : xfaskbar4 &
> : xfdesktop &
> : exec xfce4-panel
>
> : Still no luck launching XFwm4 directly from KDM, but... if go to a
> : console login, then execute "startx", XMwm4 comes up and seems to work
> : perfectly!
>
> : I'll be the first to admit that I don't really know where .xinitrc and
> : .xsession are being invoked, and neither do I have a good grasp on what
> : script KDM uses, but I'm assuming it's neither of the above. Help?
>
> : Jeff
>
> I believe this is the script
> "/etc/X11/Xsession.d/20xfree86-common_process-args" which processes
> your "Session Type" selection after your successful kdm login. What is
> on your "Session Type" drop down list? Is it "XFwm4" or "xfwm4"?
> According to the script, the string of the drop down list will be the
> name of the real program to be executed. Your drop down list is
> located in "/etc/kde2/kdm/kdmrc" if you are running Debian Woody
> (stable).

4seasonphoto wrote:
> I'm trying to get XFce4 working a bit better under the current release
> of Knoppix, and want to get it going in Debian Woody as well.
>
> Problem: I have apt-get'ed all of the various XFce4 files, and XFwm4
> automatically shows up as an option at the KDM login screen. But I
> don't get a desktop, panel or anything else useful. Switching over to
> another console, top informs me that xfce-mcs-manager and xfwm4 are
> running.
>
> What info I did find online suggested (among other things) editing my
> .xsession and .xinitrc files. I simply commented out portions
> pertaining to XFce 3.x and replaced them with:
>
> xfce-mcs-manager
> xfwm4 --daemon
> xfaskbar4 &
> xfdesktop &
> exec xfce4-panel
>
> Still no luck launching XFwm4 directly from KDM, but... if go to a
> console login, then execute "startx", XMwm4 comes up and seems to work
> perfectly!
>
> I'll be the first to admit that I don't really know where .xinitrc and
> .xsession are being invoked, and neither do I have a good grasp on
> what script KDM uses, but I'm assuming it's neither of the above.
> Help?
>
> Jeff

http://docs.kde.org/en/3.1/kdebase/k...rs-with-kdm.ht
ml

Binh.