XFce not saving sessions

[Brian J. Tarricone]

Lasse Bigum wrote:

> I'm having problems with XFce not saving my session, and I have already
> tried getting help on #xfce, but with no success. I was hoping that
> getting the new packages from the Debian repository last night had
> helped, but no. My current version is 4.0.3
>
> I do not have a .xfce4/xinitrc, can that have something to say? I do
> have a .xsession where the following is in:
>
> /usr/bin/xfce-mcs-manager
> /usr/bin/xfwm4 --daemon
> /usr/bin/xftaskbar4 &
> /usr/bin/xfdesktop &
> exec /usr/bin/xfce4-panel

there's your problem.  you're not running xfce4-session at all.  even if 
it _is_ running, it won't actually control the session with this setup.  
if all you have installed are debian 4.0.3 packages, you probably don't 
even have xfce4-session installed.  it's not included in 4.0.x.  you'd 
need to get a copy from CVS (or possibly somewhere else).  if you don't 
use xfce4-session, the way to make apps start on xfce4 startup is to 
make links to the apps (or write scripts to start them) in 
~/Desktop/Autostart.  if you want to install xfce4-session, read below...

> My .xinit file only has the following:
>
> /usr/X11R6/bin/xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 2 3 6 7 4 5"
> BINARY=$(which imwheel)
> $BINARY -k -p -b "67"
>
> #startkde
>
> I've checked the permissions on all files relating to XFce, and it looks
> fine. Any ideas?

.xinit?  i wasn't aware that that file did anything (unless you mean 
.xinitrc).

assuming you have xfce4-session installed, here's what we'll do to get 
you into a 'normal' xfce4 setup.  get rid of your ~/.xsession and 
~/.xinit[rc] files.  if you want to keep the stuff in your ~/.xinit[rc] 
file, move it elsewhere for safekeeping.

copy /etc/xfce4/xinitrc to ~/.xfce4.  IMPORTANT: make it executable 
(chmod +x ~/.xfce4/xinitrc).  if you want to add anything to X startup 
(e.g. the xmodmap stuff above), add that somewhere near the top of 
~/.xfce4/xinitrc.  next what we do depends on how you start X.

1) from console, via 'startx':
- just run 'startxfce4' instead.  nothing else you need to do.
2) from an actual XFce4 item in gdm/kdm/other display manager:
- this session entry should be set up to just run 'startxfce4' and you 
should be ok.
3) from the 'Xsession' entry in gdm/kdm/etc.:
- make a symlink from ~/.xfce4/xinitrc to ~/.xsession.

if you really want to run 'startx', i believe if you link 
~/.xfce4/xinitrc to ~/.xinitrc that will do the trick.

hope this works out for you.

    -brian