In my case xfsettingsd results segfault during the session startup: [Tue Oct 8 11:14:22 2019] xfsettingsd[2538]: segfault at 18 ip 00007fc318301f2d sp 00007ffdcfc9f2d0 error 4 in libxklavier.so.16.4.0[7fc3182f7000+d000] [Tue Oct 8 11:14:22 2019] Code: 48 89 45 28 48 c1 e2 03 4a 8d 7c e0 08 e8 eb 51 ff ff e9 1e fe ff ff e8 11 5a ff ff 90 41 54 48 89 d1 49 89 fc 55 48 89 f5 53 <48> 8b 42 18 48 89 d3 48 89 fa 48 89 ef 48 8b b0 28 01 00 00 e8 0a [Tue Oct 8 11:14:22 2019] traps: light-locker[2510] trap int3 ip:7f017b666c75 sp:7fff462b5400 error:0 in libglib-2.0.so.0.5800.3[7f017b62e000+7e000] When I start xfsettingsd afterwards from xterm, it starts and functions correctly. I have difficulty capturing the backtrace with gdb unless somebody can give a hint how to do it. I have added export XFSETTINGSD_DEBUG=1 ulimit -c unlimited /etc/X11/Xsession to ./.vnc/xstartup but it does not generate a core dump :( Additional info: * Debian Buster, uname: 4.19.0-6-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.19.67-2+deb10u1 (2019-09-20) x86_64 GNU/Linux * xfce4-settings:amd64 v4.12.4-1 * libxklavier16:amd64 v5.4-4 * Xfce is running under tightvncserver.
Ubuntu bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xfce4-settings/+bug/1837071 You could try using systemd-coredump to obtain a backtrace. https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd-coredump.html
Backtrace: Stack trace of thread 2513: #0 0x00007ff6195b4f2d n/a (libxklavier.so.16) #1 0x000055f59a9c9b15 n/a (xfsettingsd) #2 0x00007ff618dec107 g_type_create_instance (libgobject-2.0.so.0) #3 0x00007ff618dce548 n/a (libgobject-2.0.so.0) #4 0x00007ff618dcfcc5 g_object_new_with_properties (libgobject-2.0.so.0) #5 0x00007ff618dd0731 g_object_new (libgobject-2.0.so.0) #6 0x000055f59a9c584c n/a (xfsettingsd) #7 0x00007ff618ad909b __libc_start_main (libc.so.6) #8 0x000055f59a9c5ada n/a (xfsettingsd) It matches one provided in above mentioned bug (I've compared with https://launchpadlibrarian.net/433653979/Stacktrace.txt).
Sean Davis referenced this bugreport in commit b73852916f1b9f47466dd2d1c22c433ae3ee4528 Handle failure to get Xkl engine for display (bug #16017) https://git.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-settings/commit?id=b73852916f1b9f47466dd2d1c22c433ae3ee4528
Sean Davis referenced this bugreport in commit 9fc73425ab3bea380872bac813ce45890b4070d6 Handle failure to get Xkl engine for display (bug #16017) https://git.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-settings/commit?id=9fc73425ab3bea380872bac813ce45890b4070d6
The above commits (xfce-4.14 and master) should resolve this error. This issue came down to xkl_engine_get_instance occasionally returning NULL, but the rest of the code assumed it was always successful. If possible, please test this and let us know if you see any other issues.