XFCE crashes immediately after login

[Andrew Conkling]

On 2/16/06, Chris Dufresne <duf82z24 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I'm using RHEL-3, installed all the dependencies, and
> ran the xfce graphical installer. So now I have xfce
> in my sessions list of gdm but when I attempt to login
> using it the session immediately terminates with the
> "The session lasted less than 10 seconds" error
> sending me back to the login screen.
>
> I have checked both .xsession-errors and
> /var/log/messages neither has any information about
> what went wrong. The gnome desktop still works. This
> problem is especially frustrating because I can't seem
> to find an error report on it anywhere.
>
> Has anyone ran into this error or have any ideas what
> could be causing it?

Not sure, but you could try killing GDM (should be able to do that by
executing 'telinit 3' as root on a vt) and executing 'startxfce4'* as
a regular user.  This will output a bunch of info to the vt and
immediatlely start Xfce.  If there's an error, your session should die
and you should see the reported message right there. :)

*- You could also execute 'startxfce4 > ~/xfcelog.txt' to output the
messages to a file that you can read in case you have trouble reading
it on the terminal screen.  You could also paste it here if you need
help deciphering it. :)

HTH,
Andrew

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