[Pkg-xfce-devel] Bug#526009: xfce4-utils: sessions started with startxfce4 lose hal/dbus functionality

[Scott Barker]

Package: xfce4-utils
Version: 4.6.0-2
Severity: wishlist


With the new consolekit/policykit method of doing things, starting an xfce4
session using startxfce4 from a text terminal will cause the user to lose
hal/dbus functionality such as suspend/hibernate, mounting of removable
media, access to pulseaudio devices, etc.

The startx script in the xinit package, however, works fine (provided the
user does not have libpam-ck-connector installed, see bug # 526006 at
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=526006) since it sources
/etc/X11/Xsession.d/90consolekit, which handles launching the X session
using ck-launch-session as required.

However, I have noticed some differences between starting xfce4 with startx
vs. starting it with startxfce4, most notable of which is that the font
chosen in the User Interface Preferences seems to be ignored. I assume this
is the result (directly or indirectly) of the fact that startxfce4 sets
assorted shell variables via /etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc that startx does not.

The cleanest way around this issue that I could find is to start the X
session with:

  startx /usr/bin/startxfce4

Until/unless startxfce4 is adapted to use ck-launch-session, perhaps this
could be documented somewhere obvious?

-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.26-2-686 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=en_CA.iso8859-1 (charmap=ISO-8859-1)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages xfce4-utils depends on:
ii  exo-utils                    0.3.100-2   Utility files for libexo
ii  gnome-terminal [x-terminal-e 2.24.3-3    The GNOME 2 terminal emulator appl
ii  libc6                        2.9-4       GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libglib2.0-0                 2.20.0-2    The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgtk2.0-0                  2.14.7-5    The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  libxfce4util4                4.6.0-2     Utility functions library for Xfce
ii  libxfcegui4-4                4.6.0-2     Basic GUI C functions for Xfce4
ii  libxml-parser-perl           2.36-1.1+b1 Perl module for parsing XML files
ii  x11-xserver-utils            7.4+2       X server utilities
ii  xfce4-terminal [x-terminal-e 0.2.8-5     Xfce terminal emulator
ii  xinit                        1.1.1-1     X server initialisation tool
ii  xterm [x-terminal-emulator]  242-1       X terminal emulator

Versions of packages xfce4-utils recommends:
ii  dbus-x11                      1.2.12-1   simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  thunar                        1.0.0-2    File Manager for Xfce
ii  xdg-user-dirs                 0.10-1     tool to manage well known user dir
ii  xfce4-panel                   4.4.2-6    The Xfce4 desktop environment pane
ii  xfwm4                         4.6.0-2    window manager of the Xfce project
ii  xinput                        1.3.0-1    Runtime configuration and test of 
ii  xscreensaver                  5.05-3     Automatic screensaver for X

Versions of packages xfce4-utils suggests:
ii  xfce4-session                 4.4.2-6    Xfce4 Session Manager

-- no debconf information