Crash on Startup: Missing setup files?

[Jeff Hill]

I seem to be missing some setup files Xfce4, which I installed from CVS
source yesterday. Xfce4 crashes immediately after running startxfce4,
issuing critical messages about missing files in the ~/.xfce4 directory.

I've tried adding .xinitrc from the /usr/local/etc/xfce4 directory and
other setting files with no luck. I have no .xsession-errors file from the
crashes. I've tried starting Xfce4 from both a normal user and root with
no luck. I've been trying to start it without using gdm to avoid any
issues outside Xfce4.

After a crash, I always get something like:

   ** (xfce-mcs-manager:1091): libxfce4mcs-CRITICAL **: Unable to
       stat file /home/jhill/.xfce4/settings/display.xml to load
       data of channel "display": No such file or directory

   ** (xfce-mcs-manager:1091): WARNING **: module
       /usr/local/lib/xfce4/mcs-plugins/workspaces_plugin.so
      ("workspaces") has already been loaded before

   ** (xfce-mcs-manager:1091): libxfce4mcs-CRITICAL **: Unable
      to stat file /home/jhill/.xfce4/settings/session.xml to
      load data of channel "session": No such file or directory

   ** (xfce-mcs-manager:1084): WARNING **: Failed to get splash
       theme setting

   ** (xfce-mcs-manager:1084): WARNING **: Unable to open session
      file /home/jhill/.xfce4/sessions/xfsm-hill.hrpost.com for
      reading: No such file or directory smproxy: unable to connect
      to session manager
    ....

I've scanned the documentation (perhaps not thoroughly enough), and I've
googled without finding any notes on requirements for setting up all of
these. I thought initially Xfce4 could be run without even having
individual user configurations.

Any suggestions on what I've done wrong would be very much appreciated. I
did try initially installing Xfce4 v. 4.0.3 from Debian binaries, but the
panel crashed everytime. I removed all, including any config files, and
then built from the CVS tree per the Xfce "Installation from CVS" guide.

Thank you for your patience with a newbie. I've been using KDE for the
past several years and finally decided it was too bloated for my needs,
and Xfce4 sounds like the answer.

Jeff Hill

HRpost
Ph:416-604-7251
Fx:647-439-1414
http://www.HRpost.com