xfce4 unusable

[Dominique Michel]

Hi all,

I am on gentoo and have a very strange problem. I have an old install
(2006.0, gcc-3.4.5) where xfce4 is just running fine, and I am doing a fresh
install on a free partition with the 2006.1 profile based on gcc-4.1.1.

I use exactly the same 2.6.16-rt29 kernel on both install.  I installed the base
system, the kernel and done an emerge xfce4 xfce4-extras to get most of the
xfce4 stuff installed by portage.

xfce4 was starting, but both the panel and the taskbar just disappear after a
few second, and it was no menu either with the mouse. So, a full unusable
desktop.

I unmasked the 4.3.90.2 in portage (beta2) and get the same behaviour with it.
I installed the xfce-svn overlay, removed 4.3.90.2 and installed the svn and
get the same behaviour again.

At first, I was thinking at it was an ipv6 related problem, because the ipv6
module was not loaded.

The only error message I get was:
/usr/bin/startxfce4: X server already running on display :0
Agent pid 8505

(xfdesktop:8522): libxfcegui4-CRITICAL **: netk_workspace_get_number: assertion
`NETK_IS_WORKSPACE (space)' failed

** (xfce4-panel:8520): CRITICAL **: An item was unexpectedly removed: "Xfce
Menu".

and in /var/log/Xorg.0.log:
_XSERVTransSocketOpenCOTSServer: Unable to open socket for inet6
_XSERVTransOpen: transport open failed for inet6/localhost:0
_XSERVTransMakeAllCOTSServerListeners: failed to open listener for inet6 

So, I loaded the ipv6 module, and now I get:
/usr/bin/startxfce4: X server already running on display :0
Agent pid 8470

(xfdesktop:8488): libxfcegui4-CRITICAL **: netk_workspace_get_number: assertion
`NETK_IS_WORKSPACE (space)' failed

(xfce4-menu-plugin:8489): Gdk-WARNING **: GdkWindow 0x1000018 unexpectedly
destroyed

(xfce4-menu-plugin:8489): Gdk-WARNING **: GdkWindow 0x1000003 unexpectedly
destroyed
The application 'xfce-mcs-manager' lost its connection to the display :0.0;
most likely the X server was shut down or you killed/destroyed
the application.
xfdesktop: Fatal IO error 104 (Connection reset by peer) on X server :0.0.

I think at the 2 last one is when I kill xdm. But I get the
libxfcegui4-critical and the gdk warnings after xfce4 start.

I don't get any Xorg error message anymore. The only difference I see between
the 2 install is at with the working one, I start X with kdm, but with the new
one, I do it with xdm.

Dominique