[SOLVED][Community XFCE] Unresponsive GUI

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digifuzzy
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[SOLVED][Community XFCE] Unresponsive GUI

Post by digifuzzy »

Community version XFCE - ver 21.11.24
Used on Linux Host running VirtualBox 6.1.30

Both during install and post-install after reboot, GUI will lock up and become unresponsive after a period of time of inactivity.
Mouse can be observed to move but unable to select any element on the desktop or menu.
Mouse cursor will change (e.g. going from open terminal window to desktop) but selection is not possible.

GUI works as expected prior to period of inactivity. Suspect there is an issue with screen saver/blanking. Only possible action is to send a terminate signal (via VirtualBox menu). Both the Live and installed system responds as expected to terminate signal.

Edit: final result is here. Problem stems from XFCE lock screen usage and VirtualBox settings.
Last edited by digifuzzy on Tue Dec 14, 2021 10:33 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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neville
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Re: [Community XFCE] Unresponsive GUI

Post by neville »

Hi. Welcome to GhostBSD! Sorry about the trouble you're having. I'm running the same version of GhostBSD as you and I have no trouble. Unfortunately I don't run Linux or use VirtualBox.

I think you're correct that it's probably a problem with the screensaver. You could open the screensaver settings and set the screensaver activation time to about 120 minutes and see if the problem goes away. Or you could disable it.

To turn off blanking, try going to the power manager and tell it to never blank the screen.

Hope this helps. Thanks for the feedback.

Also consider joining our telegram channel.

https://t.me/ghostbsd
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digifuzzy
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Re: [Community XFCE] Unresponsive GUI

Post by digifuzzy »

@neville While those are all good answers to delay/disable screensaver or blanking, they do not address the root cause of unresponsive UI after a delay. It is troublesome that the problem occurs on the Live disc.

The install process happens and I walk away for a few minutes to let it all happen. I come back to the finished dialog but am unable to select reboot. I have not had this situation happen before with either FreeBSD or Linux XFCE. This situation, in my mind, could be a bigger problem with the XFCE setup both in how the Live disc is structured and what is installed. I could be wrong.
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neville
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Re: [Community XFCE] Unresponsive GUI

Post by neville »

Have you tried using the live USB on real hardware and seeing if the same problem exists?
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digifuzzy
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Re: [Community XFCE] Unresponsive GUI

Post by digifuzzy »

A google search indicated that XFCE changed a few things in terms of Power Settings and Screensaver Settings with the release of XFCE 4.16. I went to tweak settings in the XFCE to produce repeatable steps to indicate the problem. Here is what has been done...

1. Started LiveCD and started XFCE settings editor. Changed xfce4-session -> shutdown -> LockScreen to false.
Error re-occurred after several minutes of system idle.

2. Started LiveCD and started XFCE Screensaver preferences. Set to 'Off' Lock Screen tab -> Enable Lock Screen.
Error re-occurred after several minutes of system idle.

3. Started LiveCD and started XFCE Screensaver preferences. Set to 'Off' Screensaver tab -> Enable Screensaver.
Error re-occurred after several minutes of system idle.

4. Started VBox instance using SystemRescueCD to confirm blanking can occur on virtual instance. Blanking was triggered with

Code: Select all

sleep 1;xset s activate
Test was successful and without error.

5. Started LiveCD and tested blanking as in #4. Error re-occurred. (see attached screen shot of tty1 console).

My suspicion is that there is a misspelled parameter causing Xorg to choke when system is set to sleep. When Xorg chokes it doesn't take down the whole system but just XFCE.
Attachments
ghostbsd_xfce_console.png
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neville
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Re: [Community XFCE] Unresponsive GUI

Post by neville »

I tested on an earlier version of XFCE GhostBSD. Downloading the 21.11.24 version now to see if I get the same problem. Please wait.
What graphics card are you using?
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neville
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Re: [Community XFCE] Unresponsive GUI

Post by neville »

I cannot reproduce your problem.
I have tested the same ISO on real hardware in live mode. I let the screen go black. I moved the mouse to get the screen back again and it came right back.
Perhaps you could try downloading the ISO again or try the MATE ISO and see if that works
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digifuzzy
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Re: [Community XFCE] Unresponsive GUI

Post by digifuzzy »

XFCE ISO was obtained via torrent so integrity of ISO is, in my mind, not in question. However, verified sha256 sum as correct.

The video card for VirtualBox instance should only be of concern when utilizing certain features (i.e. clipboard sharing, specialized display modes, etc). The instance was set to use VBSVGA (VirtualBox SVGA driver). Blanking works as expected as from test with SystemRescueCD.

I'll try the MATE ISO. I would be surprised if it showed the same issue as the XFCE iso.
I do not believe that VirtualBox is the culprit here. Something in LiveCD screen blanking is causing GUI to fail.

@neville - did you test by triggering screen blank as described above?

@ericbsd - FWIW, the error message given on the console (Theme parsing error - "bordert") appears in a few unrelated GhostBSD bug reports(e.g. GBI #36 ) from late 2020 forward.
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digifuzzy
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Re: [Community XFCE] Unresponsive GUI

Post by digifuzzy »

As expected, Mate desktop does not exhibit same behavior. Triggering screen blanking with

Code: Select all

 sleep 1; xset s activate 
causes expected screen blanking activation with desktop returning on mouse movement. Console tty1 output is shown in attached image.

Problem appears with XFCE screen blanking and some kind of Xorg failure.
Attachments
ghostbsd_mate_console.png
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digifuzzy
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Re: [Community XFCE] Unresponsive GUI

Post by digifuzzy »

It appears that the problem with bad value in theme warnings stem from Vimix theme gtk.css files. This was flagged as an issue there (github #140) in 2019 and resolved. GhostBSD shows that Vimix was updated to "latest" this year but there may be some kind of disconnect.

After manually editing the gtk.css files, this removed quite a bit of clutter from console output. No information of interest could be discerned from log files. There was a message in the console from gtk (xfce4 session) that pulseaudio connection was refused as daemon was already running(?). There was no other error or fault indications other than gtk warnings about negative width elements. My impression is that XFCE is showing a dialog or other widget, is waiting for input, and this non-presentable widget/dialog having the focus prevents any other desktop interactions. Not knowing the name or nature of widget I am unable to "kill" that process.

Edit:
Killing Xorg from tty1, console produces the error message:

Code: Select all

core-util.c: Failed to create secure directory (/var/run/user/1001/pulse): No such file or directory
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