Folk,

This morning I updated a Lenny system which has
XFCE4. After the update the desktop background
was a black & white houndstooth pattern and the
desktop menu was gone. The panels remained
operational.

Someone please explain why this happens and what
repair is recommended. Removing and reinstalling
the account seems more drastic than necessary.

Thanks, ... Peter E.

Desktops.OpenDoc http://carnot.yi.org/


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On Sun, Feb 10, 2008 at 11:53:11AM -0700, peasthope@shaw.ca wrote:
> Folk,
>
> This morning I updated a Lenny system which has
> XFCE4. After the update the desktop background
> was a black & white houndstooth pattern and the
> desktop menu was gone. The panels remained
> operational.
>
> Someone please explain why this happens and what
> repair is recommended. Removing and reinstalling
> the account seems more drastic than necessary.

my memory is that sometimes, on upgrades, xfce *unchecks* the "Allow
xfce to manage desktop" option in one of the preference screens. I
don't remember which one it's in, but there are only a few. I seem to
recall that just rechecking that option fixes it right up.

A

Andrew & others,

At Sun, 10 Feb 2008 14:28:47 -0800,
a> my memory is that sometimes, on upgrades, xfce *unchecks* the "Allow
xfce to manage desktop" option in one of the preference screens.

I might have caused the problem by running dselect
from a terminal in the xfce GUI. Will have to
remember to stick to single-user mode for non-trivial
maintenance in the future.

a> I don't remember which one it's in, but there are only a few. I seem to
recall that just rechecking that option fixes it right up.

There is no desktop menu. Without finding a
textual command, how can a preference screen
be opened?

Reinstalling xfdesktop4 changed nothing. Perhaps
reinstalling the xfce4 metapackage will fix it.
But if the problem is in a global configuration
file, which is left untouched, this won't help either.

Ouch!

Thanks for any further ideas, ... Peter E.



Desktops.OpenDoc http://carnot.yi.org/


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On Mon, Feb 11, 2008 at 05:13:57PM -0700, peasthope@shaw.ca wrote:
> Andrew & others,
>
> At Sun, 10 Feb 2008 14:28:47 -0800,
> a> my memory is that sometimes, on upgrades, xfce *unchecks* the "Allow
> xfce to manage desktop" option in one of the preference screens.
>
> I might have caused the problem by running dselect
> from a terminal in the xfce GUI. Will have to
> remember to stick to single-user mode for non-trivial
> maintenance in the future.
>
> a> I don't remember which one it's in, but there are only a few. I seem to
> recall that just rechecking that option fixes it right up.
>
> There is no desktop menu. Without finding a
> textual command, how can a preference screen
> be opened?

oh. well that's a problem. I sort of assumed you still had taskbars
available with a menu on them as opposed to the menu you get from
clicking on the desktop. If you have taskbars, you can right click to
add the xfce menu to them and then get at the preferences from there.

I know you probably already said this, but do you have both
xfce4-panel and xfdesktop running? You may have to switch over to a VT
to check.

A

Andrew,

At Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:23:37 -0800
as-w> ... taskbars available with a menu on them ...

Right oh. I'd overlooked that.

as-w> ... taskbars, you can right click ...

I'd never used "Add new item".

This should let me restore the desktop. Will
try this weekend.

as-w> ... do you have both xfce4-panel and xfdesktop running?

Yes. Is that normal?

Thanks, ... Peter E.


http://carnot.yi.org/



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On Wed, Feb 13, 2008 at 02:32:33PM -0500, PETER EASTHOPE wrote:
> Andrew,
>
> At Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:23:37 -0800
> as-w> ... taskbars available with a menu on them ...
>
> Right oh. I'd overlooked that.
>
> as-w> ... taskbars, you can right click ...
>
> I'd never used "Add new item".
>
> This should let me restore the desktop. Will
> try this weekend.

yes, you can add a new instance of the "xfce" menu which should then
get you to the preferences.

>
> as-w> ... do you have both xfce4-panel and xfdesktop running?
>
> Yes. Is that normal?

yes.

I don't know, btw, that this will help your situation, as I haven't
used xfce in a while, I'm only reporting my memory of the situation.

regardless, hth

A