Minor problems with Xfce

[Manolis Kiagias]

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]
>
> /* 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.