Bug#526009: xfce4-utils: sessions started with startxfce4 lose hal/dbus functionality

[Scott Barker]

Just to bring this bug report back to it's original focus, I note that
bugs 526006 and 520720 have been closed, and consolekit has been changed
to properly use ck-launch-session for users of startx at the console.
There are now many ways to start xfce4 at the console with a correct
consolekit session, but the two best seem to be:

1) The "Debian" way:

Set xfce4-session as the default session manager for X (with
update-alternatives) and use "startx" at the console to start xfce4.
This will provide a minimal xfce4 session. For a more complete xfce4
session, the user can put "exec /usr/bin/startxfce4" in $HOME/.xsession,
so that various environment variables are set correctly for xfce4.

2) The "xfce4" way:

Put "exec ck-launch-session /etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc" in
$HOME/.config/xfce4/xinitrc, make $HOME/.config/xfce4/xinitrc
executable, and use "startxfce4" to start xfce4. This will ensure the
various environment variables are set correctly for xfce4, and will also
ensure that a correct consolekit session is started.

For either method, libpam-ck-connector can be installed or not
installed, it doesn't matter.

For method 2), perhaps one day the xfce4 developers will include
ck-launch-session in the startxfce4 script (as they did for dbus), and
then the xinitrc customization will no longer be necessary.

For users of gdm/kdm/xdm, I do not know if it is possible to get more
than the minimal xfce4 session - it will depend if those display
managers call startxfce4 and/or set the correct environment variables.
As I don't use gdm/kdm/xdm, I cannot test that.

--
Scott Barker sc...@mostlylinux.ca
Linux Consultant http://www.mostlylinux.ca/scott

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[Yves-Alexis Perez]

On mar, 2009-09-01 at 13:53 -0600, Scott Barker wrote:
> Just to bring this bug report back to it's original focus, I note that
> bugs 526006 and 520720 have been closed, and consolekit has been changed
> to properly use ck-launch-session for users of startx at the console.

Thanks for the summary, it'll definitely be quite helpful for users. It
might be a good idea to push that to the xfce4{-session} README.Debian.
Would you license it to GPL or something? :)

> There are now many ways to start xfce4 at the console with a correct
> consolekit session, but the two best seem to be:
>
> 1) The "Debian" way:
>
> Set xfce4-session as the default session manager for X (with
> update-alternatives) and use "startx" at the console to start xfce4.
> This will provide a minimal xfce4 session. For a more complete xfce4
> session, the user can put "exec /usr/bin/startxfce4" in $HOME/.xsession,
> so that various environment variables are set correctly for xfce4.

And this is the preferred way :)

>
> 2) The "xfce4" way:
>
> Put "exec ck-launch-session /etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc" in
> $HOME/.config/xfce4/xinitrc, make $HOME/.config/xfce4/xinitrc
> executable, and use "startxfce4" to start xfce4. This will ensure the
> various environment variables are set correctly for xfce4, and will also
> ensure that a correct consolekit session is started.

In fact, even method 1) will enable that, since startxfce4 will
run /etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc (or $HOME/.config/xfce4/xinitrc if it
exists)

>
> For either method, libpam-ck-connector can be installed or not
> installed, it doesn't matter.
>
> For method 2), perhaps one day the xfce4 developers will include
> ck-launch-session in the startxfce4 script (as they did for dbus), and
> then the xinitrc customization will no longer be necessary.

It's already not necessary, imho.

>
> For users of gdm/kdm/xdm, I do not know if it is possible to get more
> than the minimal xfce4 session - it will depend if those display
> managers call startxfce4 and/or set the correct environment variables.
> As I don't use gdm/kdm/xdm, I cannot test that.

Then don't worry, they already call (gdm at least does) startxfce4.

Cheers,

--
Yves-Alexis

[Scott Barker]

On 09/01/09 15:41, Yves-Alexis Perez wrote:
> Thanks for the summary, it'll definitely be quite helpful for users. It
> might be a good idea to push that to the xfce4{-session} README.Debian.
> Would you license it to GPL or something? :)

Please feel free to include it in the README.Debian file if you think it
will be helpful.

>> 1) The "Debian" way:
>>
>> Set xfce4-session as the default session manager for X (with
>> update-alternatives) and use "startx" at the console to start xfce4.
>> This will provide a minimal xfce4 session. For a more complete xfce4
>> session, the user can put "exec /usr/bin/startxfce4" in $HOME/.xsession,
>> so that various environment variables are set correctly for xfce4.
>
> And this is the preferred way :)
>> 2) The "xfce4" way:
>>
>> Put "exec ck-launch-session /etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc" in
>> $HOME/.config/xfce4/xinitrc, make $HOME/.config/xfce4/xinitrc
>> executable, and use "startxfce4" to start xfce4. This will ensure the
>> various environment variables are set correctly for xfce4, and will also
>> ensure that a correct consolekit session is started.
>
> In fact, even method 1) will enable that, since startxfce4 will
> run /etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc (or $HOME/.config/xfce4/xinitrc if it
> exists)

True, but only if "exec /usr/bin/startxfce4" is put into
$HOME/.xsession. Otherwise, it appears that the Debian "startx" process
just runs /usr/bin/x-session-manager, which for xfce4 is xfce4-session,
not startxfce4. (I determined this by looking at
/etc/X11/Xsession.d/50x11-common_determine-startup).

>> For either method, libpam-ck-connector can be installed or not
>> installed, it doesn't matter.
>>
>> For method 2), perhaps one day the xfce4 developers will include
>> ck-launch-session in the startxfce4 script (as they did for dbus), and
>> then the xinitrc customization will no longer be necessary.
>
> It's already not necessary, imho.

I have confirmed that if the user just runs "startxfce4" without making
any other customizations to the xfce4 or X11 startup process,
ck-launch-session does not get used, and thus the original problem remains.

>> For users of gdm/kdm/xdm, I do not know if it is possible to get more
>> than the minimal xfce4 session - it will depend if those display
>> managers call startxfce4 and/or set the correct environment variables.
>> As I don't use gdm/kdm/xdm, I cannot test that.
>
> Then don't worry, they already call (gdm at least does) startxfce4.

I note that gdm uses the .desktop files in /usr/share/xsessions to
determine what session managers are available. If startx used a similar
mechanism, then using $HOME/.xsession to spawn startxfce4 would become
unnecessary too.