If you are starting from a server distro (say ubuntu server) and you install the distro xfce4 and gdm, what will happen is that you will get a happily running distro with NO way to stop the xfce desktop and no way to get to a terminal so that you can add more functionality to it (like the terminal which is packaged separately) leaving you with a pretty busted desktop unless you can determine the IP address of the machine. If the machine is part of a server farm (on a virtual server) - good luck with that since you can't get to the terminal to do ifconfig or anything else. If xterm is available - add THAT to the menu. If there is a way to stop the window manager and that to the logout screen. There is no way to stop it :(
1 - Talk to your distro, they need to configure Xfce correctly. There is a terminal entry in the default Xfce menu. 2 - What do you mean, there's no way to stop it? You mean other than log out/restart/shutdown? Why should there be? 3 - You can always do Ctrl-Alt-F2 to get to a console login prompt, isn't it? 4 - You can run anything you want by choosing 'Run program...' from the menu, or pressing Alt-F2. I'm sorry, but I don't see how this is a bug in Xfce. Feel free to reopen it if you don't agree (but please do explain why ;-).
*** Bug 4238 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
1) The distro doesn't install XFCE - it is installed by the user using apt-get. I'm assuming that the Xfce project is the one that architects the apt repository. If that is incorrect then I will file this as a bug with the apt team. 2) You can log out, restart, and shutdown and when you do you will get back to the same situation as gdm will start xfce as soon as the machine is ready. 3) Is a valid solution for people who know something about Linux and don't rely on the desktop as most users do. 4) Again, if the functionality is there to actually open a terminal in the downloaded Xfce, how would a person know this when the install the core application from apt? When you right click on the desktop you will get {Settings, Accessories, Network, Help, About, Quit}. Nothing in settings addresses it, nothing in accessories talks about the terminal/xterm etc (so to the user - does it exist?), Network speaks to Lynx which is an application that is called out - so why wouldn't terminal be called out - lynx is of far less importance than being able to get to the command line, etc. So that's why I don't agree. Functionality for the terminal should be obvious and accessible. The only way to get terminal to show up is to download another apt package and if you don't grab that one by default you are left with a situation that a novice/normal user will be lost in because they won't see a clear way to get back to a terminal to remedy the problem. I can certainly understand that you may disagree, but this is low-hanging fruit that would make life MUCH easier for people who are unfamiliar with Xfce or Linux in general.
(In reply to comment #3) > 1) The distro doesn't install XFCE - it is installed by the user using apt-get. > I'm assuming that the Xfce project is the one that architects the apt > repository. If that is incorrect then I will file this as a bug with the apt > team. You are indeed wrong. The apt-get repository is build by your distribution. The Xfce project only provides tarballs containing the sources file (sometimes some rpm packages too). If you're not happy about what your distribution installs when you apt-get install Xfce see with them. There is nothing the Xfce Team can do for you except presenting some ways to reach a terminal like Jasper did.
Moving invalid bugs to the /dev/null product.