[fixed?] Re: Minor problems with Xfce

[James Butler]

Just a followup...

2008/10/14 Manolis Kiagias <sonic2000gr at gmail.com>:
> James Butler wrote:
>>
>> Greetings all,
>>
>> I'm using 7-stable on my Thinkpad X31, with Xfce recently (2 weeks or
>> so) installed from packages. I have two minor problems with Xfce, at
>> least one of which could be HAL/DBUS related - I'd appreciate some
>> advice to rule out misconfiguration on my part.
>>
>> Firstly, when I bring up the Xfce Exit dialog, the Restart and
>> Shutdown buttons are greyed out. I have read the Xfce FAQ on the
>> subject, which mentions that the session manager tries HAL shutdown
>> methods first, then falls back to sudo. I don't have sudo installed,
>> but I have both hald and dbus (system and session) running.
>>
>> Checking the xsession error log after an attempted Exit reveals:
>>
>> ** Message: xfsm-shutdown-helper.c:215: HAL not available or does not
>> permit to shutdown/reboot the computer, trying sudo fallback instead.
>>
>> and (as expected):
>>
>> ** (xfce4-session:1066): WARNING **: sudo was not found. You will not
>> be able to shutdown your system from within Xfce
>>
>> Looking at xfsm-shutdown-helper.c I see that the session manager
>> probes HAL for shutdown support by trying a dummy method call:
>>
>> /* this is a simple trick to check whether we are allowed to
>>   * use the org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.SystemPowerManagement
>>   * interface without shutting down/rebooting now.
>>   */
>>  message = dbus_message_new_method_call ("org.freedesktop.Hal",
>>
>> "/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer",
>>
>> "org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.SystemPowerManagement",
>>                                          "ThisMethodMustNotExistInHal");
>>
>> [snip]

I decided to build xfce4-session from ports, and add a debugging
printf() between these lines to see exactly which error dbus was
returning. So I installed it, and selected 'Quit' from the menu while
tail-ing the error log... and the shutdown/reboot buttons came up
enabled!! It all seems to work fine now. Does this mean there's
something wrong with the package builds? I guess I could file a PR.

>>
>> /* if we receive org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod, then
>>   * we are allowed to shutdown/reboot the computer via HAL.
>>   */
>>  if (strcmp (error.name, "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod") == 0)
>>
>> So out of curiosity I tried this manually and got the 'correct' error:
>>
>> $ dbus-send --system --print-reply  --dest=org.freedesktop.Hal
>> /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer
>>
>> org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.SystemPowerManagement.ThisMethodMustNotExistInHal
>> Error org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: Method
>> "ThisMethodMustNotExistInHal" with signature "" on interface
>> "org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.SystemPowerManagement" doesn't exist
>>
>> Now I don't claim to understand much of this, so any help would be
>> greatly appreciated. I have provided the output of various commands
>> from the freebsd-gnome Bugging guide at
>> http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~sweetnavelorange/.
>>
>> My other problem is possibly unrelated, but any actions I perform
>> which would remove or update icons on the desktop (deleting a file,
>> emptying Trash) don't take effect until xfdesktop is restarted or I
>> log out and then in. Any ideas? Notably, automatic detection and
>> mounting of USB drives, which seems to be a fragile area for many HAL
>> users, works perfectly for me.
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>> -James Butler
>>
>
> Insert something like the following in your
> /usr/local/etc/PolicyKit/PolicyKit.conf (between the <config> tags):
>
>   <match action="org.freedesktop.hal.power-management.shutdown">
>      <match user="yourusername">
>         <return result="yes"/>
>      </match>
>   </match>
>   <match action="org.freedesktop.hal.power-management.reboot">
>      <match user="yourusername">
>         <return result="yes"/>
>      </match>
>   </match>
>
> Have a look at /usr/local/share/PolicyKit/policy. Examine the contents of
> the files there to see possible actions.
> It may also help to have a look at this page, if you haven't already:
>
> http://www.freebsd.org/gnome/docs/halfaq.html
>
> I have some annoyances with XFCE myself, but I haven't bothered seriously to
> fix them. I have the same no-icon-update problem on my desktop. I keep
> pressing F5 as a workaround. Like in your case, USB flash drive mounting
> works perfectly. Another thing that does not work for me, is clicking an
> http link in an app: it will not open firefox. Weird, as firefox is selected
> as the default / preferred browser.
>

Regards,
James Butler