Ok, this is a bit weird. How can I make the post short and succint…
I set up Xfce settings like keyboard layout, keyboard shortcuts, panel, etc etc… I also logoff and log back in to make sure that I check that button “Save Session”. I even have the Session Chooser dialog Enabled to make sure that I’m logging in into my session that I saved before.
When I reboot the system, all my changes are lost.
But this is the weird part: I see the XML files stored and up-to-date on /home/user/.config/xfce4/xfconf/…-per-channel/
The files are there, my settings are there, but Xfce seems to not be reading the settings from there. Is it reading from somewhere else?
Is there something like a “real-time memory debugger” or “tracker” or “monitor” to see where these values are being stored when I make any changes?
I tried using the find command to see files modified in the last 20 minutes, the only results are these XML on /home/…/xfce4/…/-per-channel/ mentioned above.
Or, Plan B: is there a way for me to purposely roll back to an older version of Xfce entirely (on Manjaro) to pinpoint if this happens there too?
I was trying to track down what the source code does on github, but it’s not clear what exactly Xfconf is doing with the changes, I’m not a coder myself so browsing through multiple header files like that I don’t even know from where to begin with. ATTEMPT IN PICTURES
Please read this as IMGUR doesn’t work unless you activate tracking cookies:
Also read this:
and post some more information so we can see what’s really going on. Now we know the symptom of the disease, but we need some more probing to know where the origin lies…
An inxi --admin --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host --width would be the minimum required information… (Personally Identifiable Information like serial numbers and MAC addresses will be filtered out by the above command)
Are you running on a Live USB or an installed version?
Kernel 5.8 is EOL, please change to 5.4 LTS or 5.9
P.S. If you enter a bit more details in your profile, we can also see which Desktop Environment you’re using, which CPU/GPU you have, …
The meat of the issue is that I used Xubuntu (Xfce) 16.04 for 4 years and everything worked fine there, I would only need to replace XML files on ~/.config/xfce4 (I had a script to replace this entire directory, and then logoff/login…) And it worked. It was simple, elegant and beautiful.
There is another user reporting the same problems, with the same use-case as mine, which is to deploy multiple machines, or to create our own custom ISO’s (things that are made not possible anymore due to this issue, or not viable having to change settings all the time) https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=14499
Some Xfce update along the years changed the way this mechanism works and something broke along the way. We have to track down when this happened and try to revert it. Their new method of controlling Sessions seem to be too convoluted for its own good, and too much chance for errors, having to track multiple paths at once. This issue I consider a priority, since it is affecting most major distros right now that use Xfce.
Also, I have a question, and this applies specifically to Manjaro:
I notice that there are a bunch of scripts on the Autostart directory on ~/.config/
There are also Autostart scripts located at /etc/xdg/
Are these scripts needed only for the 1st time the Live-Session User logs in? (for the creation of the Live Session?)
Or are they needed to continued use of one Live-Sessions across multiple logoff/login cycles? Can I remove them? Will it break anything?
(this place is called “Manjaro Forum”, so it’s my assumption that this is the place to potentially get in contact with the Manjaro devs themselves, the people responsible for building the system… So I would prefer that anyone that does NOT have DIRECT hands-on experience in this specific area to not reply to the thread, that would filter a bunch of noise… Or recommend me a place to get in touch with the specific person or username who is the responsible for taking care of the Xfce subsystem, or the responsible for building the live-session environment… So that I can make questions directly)
I consider this issue an urgent priority since it is BREAKING usability of the system, and it is also affecting users that install on disk, settings are lost across reboots
But this issue has been present (threads on Manjaro forums and Ubuntu forums) since at least 2012. Distro maintainers know about this, and they still ship their distros with a broken piece of software.
The thread will probably close automatically in a few weeks (very convenient for them to never address issues) but the issue will likely remain, because apparently no one cares. Users are not a top priority anymore. Bowing to systemd’s demands is their priority.
OS’s broken by design and neglect. The bug itself stems from Xfce, but distro maintainers don’t do anything either. Not putting more time into this.
