startxfce4 and ck-launch

Paul Menzel pmenzel+xfce at molgen.mpg.de
Thu Nov 30 19:24:31 CET 2017


Dear Silvio,


Am 30.11.2017 um 13:34 schrieb Silvio Knizek:
> Am Donnerstag, den 30.11.2017, 13:27 +0100 schrieb Paul Menzel:

>> In chapter 35 *Xfce Desktop* from the book *Linux from Scratch* [1],
>> for
>> xfce4-session-4.12.1 the following line is suggested for `~/.xinitrc`
>>
>> ```
>> ck-launch-session dbus-launch --exit-with-session startxfce4
>> ```
>>
>> Now looking at the help text of `startxfce4`, it has a similar
>> switch.
>>
>> ```
>> $ startxfce4 --help
>> […]
>>     --with-ck-launch         Start xfce4-session inside a
>>                              ConsoleKit session
>>
>> ```
>>
>> Adding that switch, sets the the environment variable
>> `XFCE4_SESSION_WITH_CK` to 1.
>>
>> ```
>> $ more /usr/bin/startxfce4
>> […]
>>         XFCE4_SESSION_WITH_CK="1"
>>         export XFCE4_SESSION_WITH_CK
>> […]
>> ```
>>
>> Is there a difference between the two? Is one recommended?
>>
>> Does the same apply for desktop files?
>>
>> The upstream `/usr/share/xsessions.available/xfce.desktop` only
>> contains
>> the execution command below.
>>
>> ```
>> Exec=startxfce4
>> ```

>> [1] http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/cvs/xfce/xfce4-session.html

> if you want to run Xfce4 from .xinitrc, only use »startxfce4 --with-ck-
> launch« (only on non-systemd systems). »startxfce4« itself starts dbus
> and (if advised and not already running) consolkit in a proper way.
> »ck-launch-session dbus-launch …« tend to break session stuff and is
> wrong.
> 
> For the xsession file in this case the display manager (GDM, LightDM,
> etc.) will start the proper consolekit environment (or session
> environment in general), so no special treatment is required.
> 
> As a general suggestion: use a modern display manager (a.k.a. not slim)
> and everything works as expected.

Thank you very much for the quick reply. In the beginning you comment 
about non-systemd systems. So from a certain systemd version onwards 
ConsoleKit is not needed anymore, right, and only `startxfce4` should be 
used on systems with recent systemd version?


Kind regards,

Paul


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