Sometimes, xfwm4 doesn't start when I log into my user account. This only happens randomly, but about 50% of the time. I could not find any logs that xfwm4 would produce and there are no core dumps, or stack traces in the journal. The xfwm4 version is 4.12.3 (revision 7fdcb53). The computer is running Arch Linux.
Not necessarily a race, xfwm4 tries to wait for another window manager to exit first. How do you start xfce? Which display manager do you use (e.g. gdm)? Also possibly xfwm4 is not saved along the session when you logged out last. Do you automatically save session on logout (in xfce4-session-settings)?
I am starting XFCE using lightdm. It is the only DE that is installed on this system, however components of KDE and Gnome are installed as well to be able to use certain applications from those DEs. xfwm4 is part of the session AND listed in the automatically started applications. The session is not set to be saved when I log out. However, the problem occurs sometimes and sometimes not. When it occurs, there are no borders drawn around the windows and I can't select any windows.. I can then start xfwm4 using the alt+f2 menu (and hoping it gets the focus). Then the borders appear and I can select windows and start working.
What's in the session/journalctl logs when this occurs? If xfwm4 is launched by the sessio nbut fails to start, it should tell why or else a possible crash would show.
Created attachment 7051 .xsession-errors
I found errors regarding xfwm4 and xfdesktop in ~/.xsession-errors. The complete file is attached.
Does not happen anymore.
It happens again with 4.12.5.
Still happens with 4.14.0.
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