I’m trying to figure out if the problem I’m having with XFCE is local configuration or more general. We usually run GNOME or ICEWM, and KDE seems to be installed by default. On one test workstation I’m trying out XFCE, or would be if I could get it to work.

I basically did

yum groupinstall xfce

This completed. I rebooted the workstation and used the gear icon to switch from KDE to XFCE on my login. When I logged in, the wallpaper came up fine. The desktop icons and launcher blinked a few times, and then went away, leaving me with a mouse and a wallpaper.

Logging in at the CLI as root gave me a notice to run abrt-cli list --since 1438605607 so I did:

id e9c3ab355ae415d99e7b3c7ec308f60adae4c1f0

reason:         wrapper killed by SIGTRAP

time:           Mon 03 Aug 2015 09:08:35 AM EDT

cmdline:        /usr/lib64/xfce4/panel/wrapper /usr/lib64/xfce4/panel/plugins/libactions.so 2 14680098 actions 'Action Buttons' 'Log out, lock or other system actions' ''

uid:            1994

Directory:      /var/spool/abrt/ccpp-2015-08-03-09:08:35-23138

Reported:       cannot be reported

id f875f7a88ea4fc44173f80d5ad1d35915224f5df

reason:         wrapper killed by SIGTRAP

time:           Mon 03 Aug 2015 09:08:35 AM EDT

cmdline:        /usr/lib64/xfce4/panel/wrapper /usr/lib64/xfce4/panel/plugins/libsystray.so 6 14680097 systray 'Notification Area' 'Area where notification icons appear' ''

uid:            1994

Directory:      /var/spool/abrt/ccpp-2015-08-03-09:08:35-23136

Reported:       cannot be reported

id 94c381491027f9eaef3ef9cdd993ac12ebdaec12

reason:         xfdesktop killed by SIGSEGV

time:           Mon 03 Aug 2015 09:08:35 AM EDT

cmdline:        xfdesktop --display :1.0 --sm-client-id 282b012db-663e-4f98-8696-5992d1e4b880

uid:            1994

Directory:      /var/spool/abrt/ccpp-2015-08-03-09:08:35-23163

Reported:       cannot be reported

id 19830963ababd77418bacf7a4e4a1538a3133b3d

reason:         xfce4-panel killed by SIGSEGV

time:           Mon 03 Aug 2015 09:08:34 AM EDT

cmdline:        xfce4-panel --display :1.0 --sm-client-id 2edda8ad9-738d-4a9b-a7b9-792dd6c1e6a2

uid:            1994

Directory:      /var/spool/abrt/ccpp-2015-08-03-09:08:34-23131

Reported:       cannot be reported

id b90d98c9a1120a215adce7929b2196e3de3426c7

reason:         wrapper killed by SIGTRAP

time:           Mon 03 Aug 2015 09:08:34 AM EDT

cmdline:        /usr/lib64/xfce4/panel/wrapper /usr/lib64/xfce4/panel/plugins/libactions.so 2 27263010 actions 'Action Buttons' 'Log out, lock or other system actions' ''

uid:            1994

Directory:      /var/spool/abrt/ccpp-2015-08-03-09:08:34-23112

Reported:       cannot be reported

id f6335de65e2286d905dfb72acf7b55f06fee2642

reason:         xfdesktop killed by SIGSEGV

time:           Mon 03 Aug 2015 09:08:34 AM EDT

cmdline:        xfdesktop --display :1.0 --sm-client-id 282b012db-663e-4f98-8696-5992d1e4b880

uid:            1994

Directory:      /var/spool/abrt/ccpp-2015-08-03-09:08:34-23135

Reported:       cannot be reported

And so on. I’m assuming this is in fact the xfce parts getting killed. 

So then I googled and my googlefu is apparently weak – I can find lots of instructions on installation such as:

http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/181503/how-to-install-desktop-environments-on-centos-7

and they all suggest

echo "exec /usr/bin/xfce4-session" >> ~/.xinitrc

so I’ve done that with no change I can tell.

I believe the issue may have been my first run of XFCE was when my home directory was full. I have since cleaned it up, but cannot find a .xfce or anything obvious in my home directory to delete to “re-set” XFCE so it asks me to run initial setup again.

I’m not at all sure how to debug further.

--

James Pulver

CLASSE Computer Group

Cornell University