Hi there.

All of a sudden one day, the top bar of my windows disappeared - the one with the minimize, maximize and close icons. All windows dock to the upper left corner. Although I have multiple desktops I can only access one. Although I have multiple windows open I can only see the top one - and I cannot switch between windows with the ALT-TAB button.

This means whenever I read email and click on an URL to open in the browser ... I have to finish reading it and close the browser to get back to my email ... there's one "work-around":

If IceWeasel is covering up over IceDove ... I can find IceDove by clicking the icon in the bottom menu bar (like a "re-start" - then the desktop knows the software should only start once - and finds the already open one).

If I open a terminal ... I can only access this terminal until I close it (or start another software on top - but then the terminal is no longer accessible).

I tried to copy from skel to my .config directory ... didn't work. I also tried to create a new user and copy that user .config to my old .config ... which didn't work either.

What the heck is going on? Anyone who can provide any help?

Perhaps your window manager did not start? Run xfwm4 from terminal.
With me this happens when I close down with something still running in the background, like Clementine or HP printer program. Symptoms sound the same. If you have a panel at the top of the screen, the top of the window with the 'close' button is underneath, that's why it seems gone. When xfwm4 is running again you just have to hide the panel to move the windows back in place.
When xfwm4 is working again it should startup again next time.

Blackbird

Hi there. Thanks for the feedback. You're probably right. Here is the response in terminal:



Sounds like the process is not so easy. I wonder what I have to do now?

UPDATE: I searched and found http://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=5932.
I tried moving .config/xfce4 but it didn't work. Only now icons are missing in the bottom menu bar.
I tried deleting the cache. It didn't work either.

/Claus

Hmm, this is more complicated than I hoped. Does .xsession-errors give any useful information, on what exactly is missing? And you said it works for a new user?

I'm afraid this is about as far as my knowledge goes, the rest would be googling like you are doing yourself.....

Blackbird

Edit:
About removing the session/cache, I found this remark on the Ubuntu forum:



So you should not save your session after removing the cache, could it be that simple? (Do we have that option on shutdown, never noticed , or must it be done beforehand with the session manager)

Hi Blackbird

Thank you for your help. It is exactly the "save session" checkmark that was the culprit. After logging in. Moving xfce, deleting cache (doing everything I did before) + on shutdown removing the checkmark, I am now back to a normal Xfce setup (with multitasking capability). Thank you. I haven't paid attention to that checkmark for years.

/Claus

Hi Claus,

Well, I am very pleased this worked. Wonder what caused it though.....
Glad to have been of help,

Blackbird

Hi,

I solved similar problem without using the terminal :
- start Thunar
- open ~/.cache/sessions/
- delete all xfce4*
- open ~/.config/xfce4/
- rename xfconf to xfconf.old
- reboot with unchecked "save session for future logins"

The only problem: NumLock is set after reboot, which is a pity on the laptop keyboard (e.g. typing 'o' prints '6'), hopefully I find the setting to revert this.

EDIT: I have it. I copied keyboard.xml from xfconf.old/xfce-perchannel-xml to xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml
Now I'm wondering, that there are only 3 xml files in xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml, but there have been 15 files in xfconf.old/xfce-perchannel-xml
Hopefully I don't miss something in the future.

I suppose, if you turn numlock off and then save your settings while everything is working like it should, things should stay that way?

Blackbird

Edit:
ah, you've solved it

Should I worry about the other missing files ?
displays.xml
xfce4-settings-editor.xml
xfce4-mixer.xml
xfce4-settings-manager.xml
xfce4-notifyd.xml
thunar-volman.xml
xsettings.xml
xfce4-appfinder.xml
xfce4-power-manager.xml
xfce4-desktop.xml
xfce4-session.xml

I now only have:
keyboards.xml
xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts.xml
xfwm4.xml
xfce4-panel.xml

-Ulf

Only if you like to keep your personal settings, like a wallpaper, panelsettings, etc. At least I tried what you did and then my bird-wallpaper was gone, look off the panel changed and I didn't check the rest.
So I would think either you could tweak everything to your liking again and then some off those missing files will reappear, or put the old missing files back, if the numlock is back on turn it off and then save your settings.

Blackbird

This problem I always solved with

xfwm4 --replace


fra[~]$ xfwm4 --help
Usage:
xfwm4 [OPTION...] [ARGUMENTS...]

Help Options:
-h, --help Show help options
--help-all Show all help options
--help-gtk Show GTK+ Options
--help-sm-client Show session management options

Application Options:
--daemon Fork to the background
--compositor=on|off|auto Set the compositor mode
--replace Replace the existing window manager
-V, --version Print version information and exit
--display=DISPLAY X display to use