I can replicate this on xubuntu 11.10. I get a message: Failed to execute child process "/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/xfce4/exo-1/ex-compose-mail-1" (No such file or directory) aspiers at cape:~$ locate exo-compose-mail /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/exo-1/exo-compose-mail-1 Making a hard link in /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/xfce4/exo-1/ fixed it.