I'm playing whack-a-mole with XFCE bugs - screensaver edition

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Guido
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Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2018 4:21 pm

I'm playing whack-a-mole with XFCE bugs - screensaver edition

#1 Post by Guido »

XFCE seemed so rock solid until I started to really use it.

When I use Code::Blocks 17.12 (based on wxWidgets 3.x), the screensaver will start randomly popping up while I'm editing. It comes up almost randomly. The screen looks like whatever the previous image for the screensaver *was* with a few widgets or a line of text randomly redrawn on top of it. It blocks the panel and background too. It's like there was a redraw command that didn't get propagated all the way and only drew the lowest level background. After the screensaver appears, Code::Blocks will redraw a few things, some of the panel icons will redraw, the background never does. It's random. If I move a window around, it will trigger a redraw and the whole screen redraws. However, killing the screensaver doesn't seem to help. So far as I can tell, wx 3.x has some basic ability to interfere with XFCE. They're both on top of gtk. Doesn't happen with anything else.

I have to have a screensaver to lock the screen.
I'm using the wx3.0.4 from the repo.

I really need to build my own wxWidgets and code::blocks. The code::blocks in the repo was built with wx3.0, which means the symbol browser is disabled. I think a build with wx2.8 will fix that problem and possibly the XFCE problem, but need to check it out. Either way, I'd like to report this as a problem and see if there are any suggestions for a workaround. Doing my own builds may not fix anything.

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manyroads
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Re: I'm playing whack-a-mole with XFCE bugs - screensaver edition

#2 Post by manyroads »

I'd remove the screensaver... but I don't like them so am biased.
Pax vobiscum,
Mark Rabideau - ManyRoads Genealogy -or- eirenicon llc. (geeky stuff)
i3wm, bspwm, hlwm, dwm, spectrwm ~ Linux #449130
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." -- H. L. Mencken

Guido
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Re: I'm playing whack-a-mole with XFCE bugs - screensaver edition

#3 Post by Guido »

LIke I said, I need a lock screen, and that means screensaver. ALSO, as I mentioned it's not the screensaver having the problem... I can kill the screensaver job and it still happens. This means it's something XFCE or related video driver is doing. It's just grabbing the last image the screensaver made and popping that to the top, then not doing a redraw. So, it's likely XFCE's problem.

I'm questioning the wisdom of using XFCE at all. The only reason I went with it is because I can actually get it to build and therefore, theoretically, have the possibility of fixing things. Does anybody on the MX actually do their own build of XFCE, or is this just repackaged? I'm not sure how to debug XFCE. Does it have a debugging or logging mode? The XFCE code is so old, glade-2 can no longer open the UI files. Also, the code isn't internally documented, so I'm in the process of creating my own documentation before trying fixes to the display settings.

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fehlix
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Re: I'm playing whack-a-mole with XFCE bugs - screensaver edition

#4 Post by fehlix »

Guido wrote: Sun Jan 13, 2019 11:05 pm .. I have to have a screensaver to lock the screen.
The default screen-locker in MX18 is light-locker:

Code: Select all

Package: light-locker
Description: simple screen locker for lightDM display manager
 light-locker is a simple screen locker that aims to have simple, sane, secure
 defaults and be well integrated with the desktop while not carrying any
 desktop-specific dependencies.
:puppy:
Gigabyte Z77M-D3H, Intel Xeon E3-1240 V2 (Quad core), 32GB RAM,
GeForce GTX 770, Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB, Seagate Barracuda 4TB

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Jerry3904
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Re: I'm playing whack-a-mole with XFCE bugs - screensaver edition

#5 Post by Jerry3904 »

I'm questioning the wisdom of using XFCE at all. The only reason I went with it is because I can actually get it to build and therefore, theoretically, have the possibility of fixing things. Does anybody on the MX actually do their own build of XFCE, or is this just repackaged? I'm not sure how to debug XFCE. Does it have a debugging or logging mode? The XFCE code is so old, glade-2 can no longer open the UI files. Also, the code isn't internally documented, so I'm in the process of creating my own documentation before trying fixes to the display settings.
Nothing forces you to use Xfce. There are many other possibilities in Package Installer and you can just log into the one you like instead.

We don't try to repackage Xfce any more than we try to repackage Debian Stable. Xfce 4.14 is in the works for release this year, so that should change a great deal. One other thing: "Xfce" is a collection of components, many if not all of which have a debug version (e.g., thunar-dbg) that can be installed via Synaptic.
Production: 5.10, MX-23 Xfce, AMD FX-4130 Quad-Core, GeForce GT 630/PCIe/SSE2, 16 GB, SSD 120 GB, Data 1TB
Personal: Lenovo X1 Carbon with MX-23 Fluxbox and Windows 10
Other: Raspberry Pi 5 with MX-23 Xfce Raspberry Pi Respin

Guido
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Re: I'm playing whack-a-mole with XFCE bugs - screensaver edition

#6 Post by Guido »

Nothing forces you to use Xfce. There are many other possibilities in Package Installer and you can just log into the one you like instead.
Not much snark in that helpful tidbit, eh? Well, as it turns out, someone is putting a gun in my back and telling me to use XFCE on MX. Same people who ruined KDE. So there. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

It may [not] interest you to know that the Conky MX-Full theme was the culprit. I disabled it, and now the screensaver no longer pops up randomly. Of course, the MX Conky utility no longer works, for unknown reasons, but I'd rather live without conky than be constantly annoyed. Don't know enough about conky to diagnose the exact problem. This report should probably be forwarded to whoever is configuring conky for MX. Or possibly not. Now that you're highly ranked on Distrowatch, you no longer have to fix stuff. You can ride that rating for years.

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Jerry3904
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Re: I'm playing whack-a-mole with XFCE bugs - screensaver edition

#7 Post by Jerry3904 »

Think we'd do better without all the attitude, honestly.

There are over 40 default conkies, and approximately 1.5 people trying to keep up with them. We know they all won't work, and say so in the README in the folder.

We have a revision in the pipeline for the Conky set that will come out as soon as we get time to finish it, and maybe that will help.
Production: 5.10, MX-23 Xfce, AMD FX-4130 Quad-Core, GeForce GT 630/PCIe/SSE2, 16 GB, SSD 120 GB, Data 1TB
Personal: Lenovo X1 Carbon with MX-23 Fluxbox and Windows 10
Other: Raspberry Pi 5 with MX-23 Xfce Raspberry Pi Respin

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Antediluvian
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Re: I'm playing whack-a-mole with XFCE bugs - screensaver edition

#8 Post by Antediluvian »

Nothing forces you to use Xfce. There are many other possibilities in Package Installer and you can just log into the one you like instead.
Not much snark in that helpful tidbit, eh?
As a bystander I don't see snark in Jerry3904's comment. Section 6.3 of the Manual shows how to install and run an alternate Desktop Environment (Budgie, Gnome Base, KDE5 Standard, LXDE, Mate).

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figueroa
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Re: I'm playing whack-a-mole with XFCE bugs - screensaver edition

#9 Post by figueroa »

Guido wrote: Tue Feb 05, 2019 8:05 pm
It may [not] interest you to know that the Conky MX-Full theme was the culprit. I disabled it, and now the screensaver no longer pops up randomly. Of course, the MX Conky utility no longer works, for unknown reasons
This really is snarky. You started off rudely casting blame on XFCE and MX devs. You sound like you know what you are doing, but if you disabled conky, re-enable it and try a different theme. BTW, conky just got upgraded, like NOW, mx-conky (19.1 => 19.2.1). And, be nice.

There is always the possibility there is something causing interference between your wx and conky. Perhaps a bug report upstream would be appropriate. Apparently not XFCE's fault.
Andy Figueroa
Using Unix from 1984; GNU/Linux from 1993

Guido
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Re: I'm playing whack-a-mole with XFCE bugs - screensaver edition

#10 Post by Guido »

And to make it worse, I got the wrong culprit. I waited 3 days to report the bug, and that wasn't it. It wasn't Conky. Still not sure where the bug is. Possibly Waterfox. Possibly just the build of XFCE on MX. Not at all certain now.

Look, you have to understand that you can't have a real distro unless you take responsibility for the desktop's performance. Pick one desktop and be responsible for it. I thought XFCE was your default desktop. You notice how I'm using "your" instead of "our". That's because I don't feel like MX has a future, not for me. I'm looking to get out.

I've had to rebuild so many things that aren't working that I may as well go with rolling my own Linux. I'm going to try the latest Mint, although I don't hold out much hope for those boys either.

I'm just writing to correct the record on Conky. Don't expect any more bug reports from me. I don't expect any help from you. K

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