niceToHave: desktop background after mx-* update

[theRebooter]

Hi Dear MX17 Makers

i follow up all updates offered by the synaptic package updater (green icon). Unfortunatly, after each second time any mx-tools-* update is involved following tools or decorations vanish from the screen:

(a) on all xwindows the 4 xfce win-close, win-max, win-min, win-roll, etc do not appear and the xwindow borders are off. This does not happen after the update itself, but after merely 20 reboots after the update, with no other updates inbetween. I admit i shutdown my pc 4 times a day, to reduce energy costs.

(b) the desktop backgroud (xfce-backdrop-settings.desktop) cannot be started at all or the /usr/share/backgrounds/*.jpg seem not to exist or /usr/share/backgrounds/*.jpg cannot be choosen, just depending on the quirks innerly fermenting. Even the mouse-right-click properties panel of the desktop does not appear.

(c) the picture (/usr/share/backgrounds/*.jpg) previously choosen for the desktop does not appear and the greyish MX login picture appears instead.

(d) all other *.desktop seem to work.

(e) this behaviour started in Feb 2017 with MX 17.1. After some other and more mx-* updates those quirks (a,b,c) vanish, for then reapper one week later.

(f) Uname -a gives: Linux NamE 4.13.0-1-686-pae #1 SMP Debian 4.13.13-1mx17

Furthermore i found a workaround, very old fashioned. Pressing *Ctrl.Alt.F2* and typing *user/passw startx* works fine and all problems (a,b,c) are gone for that one startx session. The problems (a,b,c) persist on the main login procedure.

If i may interfer with your MX17 creation, i would like to propose you please try to test your mx-* updates on a freshly installed mx17 32bit pae partition first, and then do a multiple reboot+login with that installation.

Is there a chance you could fix that combined mx-* update problem? I admit i am too lazy to do a *Ctrl.Alt.F2 user/passw startx* each time.

Best regards

[Jerry3904]

When you say you have been updating, have you been using Basic upgrade or Full upgrade?

[theRebooter]

Hi, the first time the xwindow borders diappeared i panicked and i created a full MX17.1 cd and re-installed from there, so i think it is a full upgrade. Afterwards i reloaded the repositiories by the knob offered in synaptic.

Nonetheless i found out ...
the xfce4 has a quirk in the way it handles the innermost xfce4 properties and sessions.
(a) In xfce4-session-settings, general is a selection-kob for DisplayChooserOnLogin, which then brings up a strange question popup on next login, wherein i filled any nice name. This seemes to make xfce store the session settings correctly.
(b) furthermore inside xfce4-session-settings, applicAutostart i switched off and on the xfsettingsd, which might force the xfce4 to work properly too.

Maybe by each update those xfce4 settings get lost again, but now i know to handle that.
For me my problem is solved now.

[dolphin_oracle]

Thanks for posting your solution.

Another option might be to clear all the saved sessions. The save session feature is neat, but it's possible that some xfce componeness to crash and if you shutdown while one is crashed they won't be restored on next login because the saved session didn't have them running at the time of the session save.

[Auro Kumar Sahoo]

I have made full upgrade each time, but as I tweak nothing, probably I have not found any mentioned problem,
But things I tweak are, making windows manager buttons shifting to left, making window moving command from alt to none for gimp and inkscape functionality and changing wallpaper, but as you mentioned changed wallpaper changed or not showing in login window , here I have to tell I have changed but from provided one, but it showed no problem. I have different wallpaper for different desktop, but desktop 1 and my login screen wallpaper are same and they don't disturb after update, but again I will say I use one from provided wallpapers.

One more thing I would love to get in mx tools, like xubuntu, it saves the panels in backup and you can go through it and named it and copy that setting and reinstall that when you make a fresh install.

[asqwerth]

MX-Tweak - you can backup your panels.

[Eadwine Rose]

MX-Tweak - you can backup your panels.

Yep.. you can.. it is however (for me anyway) a bit of a process that I tend to mess up, so I wrote that down

First set everything to the way you like it, panel wise. I have two panels, one horizontal on the bottom, one vertical on the left that autohides. Doesn't matter, everything gets backed up.

The location where these panels are is /home/username/, in the folder .restore


1. backing up the panel you want
start Tweak in MX Tools
check backup current panel configuration – apply
close mx tweak

If it wasn't there before, you can now find that .restore folder there for sure and you can copy that elsewhere for safekeeping.


2. putting your backup folder in place
copy the folder .restore you backed up earlier into
/home/username/ (rename the old .restore if there is one, you can delete that later if you want)


3. loading your backup
start mx tweak
check restore backup panel configuration – apply


Give it a few seconds, it might take a wee bit.


That is how I do it :)