Bug 29472 - I suddenly lost some important features of Xfce interface
Summary: I suddenly lost some important features of Xfce interface
Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Alias: None
Product: Mageia
Classification: Unclassified
Component: RPM Packages (show other bugs)
Version: 8
Hardware: x86_64 Linux
Priority: Normal major
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Mageia Bug Squad
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2021-09-17 19:00 CEST by Michel AUTEM
Modified: 2021-10-28 20:45 CEST (History)
5 users (show)

See Also:
Source RPM: ? Xfce??
CVE:
Status comment:


Attachments

Description Michel AUTEM 2021-09-17 19:00:33 CEST
Description of problem:
After a system reboot, some important Xfce interface features appear to be lost or significantly degraded. This occurs in my session only (when I reconnect as root or somebody else, everything works as usual).
Some degraded features (at least those that I noticed ...):
- All windows lost their title bar. The reduce/close buttons cannot be accessed anymore.
- I defined 4 virtual desktops, but only the first one can be accessed yet.
- The windows cannot be resized, nor moved.
- The drop-down menus and all drop-down lists are unusable  with the mouse : they close when the mouse cursor comes on and you can't select any action. But you can still use them with the keyboard.
- The mouse pointer is functional but always remains displayed in "wait" mode (with the little blue circle rotating), as to indicate some process running in the background. 
- The windows manager utility (Xfce parameters panel) cannot be launched at all.

I got this problem already once a couple of months ago and I had to reinstall completely Mageia.   


Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
Xfce 4.14


How reproducible:
I don't know how to reproduce this problem at will. It occurs when the system is stopped and restarted.
Comment 1 Michel AUTEM 2021-09-17 19:20:52 CEST
And I forgot (last but not least) : *all* the icons on my screen have disappeared ...
Comment 2 Dave Hodgins 2021-09-17 19:38:31 CEST
What's the output of the commmand (in a terminal) ...
$ tree -ifaug /home/$USER|grep -v ^'\['$USER

CC: (none) => davidwhodgins

Comment 3 Michel AUTEM 2021-09-17 21:06:13 CEST
Hi Dave,
---------------------------------
[michel@localhost ~]$ tree -ifaug /home/$USER|grep -v ^'\['$USER
/home/michel
[root     root    ]  /home/michel/.config/yelp/yelp.cfg
[root     root    ]  /home/michel/Photographies/.mysql.digikam
[root     root    ]  /home/michel/Photographies/.mysql.digikam/db_data
[root     root    ]  /home/michel/Photographies/.mysql.digikam/db_data
aria_log.00000001
[root     root    ]  /home/michel/Photographies/.mysql.digikam/db_data/aria_log_control
[root     root    ]  /home/michel/Photographies/.mysql.digikam/db_data/ib_buffer_pool
[root     root    ]  /home/michel/Photographies/.mysql.digikam/db_data/ibdata1
[root     root    ]  /home/michel/Photographies/.mysql.digikam/db_data/mysql [error opening dir]
[root     root    ]  /home/michel/Photographies/.mysql.digikam/db_data/mysql-bin.000001
[root     root    ]  /home/michel/Photographies/.mysql.digikam/db_data/mysql-bin.index
[root     root    ]  /home/michel/Photographies/.mysql.digikam/db_data/mysql-bin.state
[root     root    ]  /home/michel/Photographies/.mysql.digikam/db_data/mysql.err.old
[root     root    ]  /home/michel/Photographies/.mysql.digikam/db_data/performance_schema [error opening dir]
[root     root    ]  /home/michel/.xmind/configuration-cathy_linux_64/1608200699423.log
[root     root    ]  /home/michel/.xmind/configuration-cathy_linux_64/1608200701865.bak_0.log
[root     root    ]  /home/michel/.xmind/configuration-cathy_linux_64/1608200701865.log
[root     root    ]  /home/michel/.xmind/configuration-cathy_linux_64/org.eclipse.osgi
[root     root    ]  /home/michel/.xmind/configuration-cathy_linux_64/org.eclipse.osgi/517
[root     root    ]  /home/michel/.xmind/configuration-cathy_linux_64/org.eclipse.osgi/517/data
[root     root    ]  /home/michel/.xmind/configuration-cathy_linux_64/org.eclipse.osgi/517/data/SCR
[root     root    ]  /home/michel/.xmind/configuration-cathy_linux_64/org.eclipse.osgi/framework.info.1
[root     root    ]  /home/michel/.xmind/configuration-cathy_linux_64/org.eclipse.osgi/.manager
[root     root    ]  /home/michel/.xmind/configuration-cathy_linux_64/org.eclipse.osgi/.manager/.fileTable.1
[root     root    ]  /home/michel/.xmind/configuration-cathy_linux_64/org.eclipse.osgi/.manager/.fileTable.2
[root     root    ]  /home/michel/.xmind/configuration-cathy_linux_64/org.eclipse.osgi/.manager/.fileTableLock

5192 directories, 59203 files
Comment 4 Dave Hodgins 2021-09-17 21:35:01 CEST
As per https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Never_use_just_su ...

su -
chown -Rc michel:michel /home/michel

Then logout/in. Does that fix the issue?
Comment 5 Michel AUTEM 2021-09-18 08:55:33 CEST
Dave,
The "chown" command appears to have worked normally and without error, but the symptoms remain exactly the same.
Comment 6 Dave Hodgins 2021-09-18 21:18:23 CEST
That rules out file ownership as the cause (though as per that web page, care
should still be taken in future to use "su -", not just "su" to become root).

Adding Jani to the cc list as the packager responsible for xfce-panel.

Jani, any suggestions?

CC: (none) => jani.valimaa

Comment 7 Dave Hodgins 2021-09-18 21:22:16 CEST
Also, Michel, please use userdrake (mcc/System/Manage users on the system) to
create a new user. Log out, login as the new user, being sure to select the
xfce desktop. Is that user also affected (indicating a system wide problem),
or not (indicating a problem in a /home/$USER/.config/ file for xfce).
Comment 8 Lewis Smith 2021-09-18 22:34:56 CEST
[collision]
Since none of the not-user owned files in comment 3 relate to Xfce, and other system users do not suffer the problem, this suggest that the principle user's Xfce config details are not right.
On my system, they show up thus:
./.cache/xfce4:
./.cache/xfce4/notifyd:
./.cache/xfce4/notifyd/icons:
./.config/xfce4:
./.config/xfce4/desktop:
./.config/xfce4/panel:
./.config/xfce4/panel/launcher-13:
./.config/xfce4/panel/launcher-14:
./.config/xfce4/panel/launcher-3:
./.config/xfce4/panel/launcher-4:
./.config/xfce4/panel/launcher-5:
./.config/xfce4/panel/launcher-6:
./.config/xfce4/panel/launcher-7:
./.config/xfce4/panel/launcher-8:
./.config/xfce4/panel/launcher-9:
./.config/xfce4/terminal:
./.config/xfce4/xfconf:
./.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml:
./.config/xfce4/xfwm4:
xfce4/
xfce4-appfinder.xml
xfce4-desktop.xml
xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts.xml
xfce4-notifyd.xml
xfce4-panel.xml
xfce4-power-manager.xml
xfce4-screensaver.xml
xfce4-session-localhost.localdomain:0
xfce4-session-localhost.localdomain:0.bak
xfce4-session.xml
xfce4-settings-manager.xml
xfce-perchannel-xml/
[I got this list from 'ls -aR | grep xfce | sort -u', but trying other commands (straight ls, find) give different subsets, which puzzles me.]

Before attempting to identify differences between users, I am tempted to say "delete xfce4/ and./.config/xfce4 and ./.cache/xfce4" [rm -rf] from a virtual console [Ctl/Alt/F2-6] at the login screen, and imagine that Xfce will re-create what it needs on being launched.
But before trying that, please await a more expert comment from Jani (CC'd).

CC: (none) => lewyssmith

Comment 9 Michel AUTEM 2021-10-01 16:48:04 CEST
Hello guys,
Thanks for your sweat and your researches.
Sorry, I gave no signal because .. I was at the hospital for 13 days.
But I'm back and better, and ready to help you when you need.
Comment 10 Lewis Smith 2021-10-01 20:39:29 CEST
Sorry about the hospitalisation; in fact we await wally's view.

Ping Jani.
Comment 11 Michel AUTEM 2021-10-06 10:55:25 CEST
Hi friends,

As my case seems a little silted up , I made some more tests :

1) I confirmed that the problem is linked to my account. "root" and other users get no problem.

2) When I rename "./.config/xfce4" in "xfce.old", xfce4 recreates its directory . The interface is reinitialized to the default, but the problem itself remains *exactly* the same (see first post).
Comment 12 Dave Hodgins 2021-10-06 21:03:17 CEST
Easiest way I find for debugging this type of problem is to reboot, login
at a text terminal as root, then ...
mv /home/michel /home/michel.old
cp -a /etc/skel /home/michel
chown -R michel:michel /home/michel

Then login normally and copy wanted parts back. See if you can narrow down
what configuration issue is triggering the problem.
Comment 13 Michel AUTEM 2021-10-07 12:35:11 CEST
Hi Dave,
I did exactly what you advised Me.
First (with an empty /home directory) all functionalities worked fine, but with only the default desktop icons.
Then, by re-importing the old subfolders one per one, I found that the problem is in /.cache directory. ./.config is OK. Re-importing /.cache reproduces the problem.
I tried already to delete my /.cache directory before but my mistake was to do it from within my session, and not from a root session.
At the end, I performed a new "chown -R michel:michel /home/michel" and everyting still lacking came back as if by a miracle.
I think that something had corrupted the permissions patterns here and there in my /home and the first trick to try is to launch a "chown -R" command.
Now everything works like a charm. Thanks a lot to all.
Comment 14 Morgan Leijström 2021-10-07 16:06:20 CEST
Thank you for that test and report.

We may close this bug as invalid, but any idea what could have caused the wrong permissions?

CC: (none) => fri

Comment 15 Michel AUTEM 2021-10-14 09:03:54 CEST
The only thing I can say is that I tinkered nothing on my end. I just stopped and restarted my computer as usual.
Comment 16 Marja Van Waes 2021-10-28 20:45:46 CEST
(In reply to Morgan Leijström from comment #14)
> Thank you for that test and report.
> 
> We may close this bug as invalid, but any idea what could have caused the
> wrong permissions?

(In reply to Michel AUTEM from comment #15)
> The only thing I can say is that I tinkered nothing on my end. I just
> stopped and restarted my computer as usual.

Closing as worksforme, then

CC: (none) => marja11
Status: NEW => RESOLVED
Resolution: (none) => WORKSFORME


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