openSUSE 11.4 XFCE desktop hangs

English Applications
#1

Please help!

I booted as usual but now there are no frames around windows, just a single workspace and pointing on desktop I constantly get the “loading” spinning cursor.

Here a screenshot:

http://en.zimagez.com/miniature/screenshot-08312011-112407pm.png](http://en.zimagez.com/zimage/screenshot-08312011-112407pm.php)

Maybe some update broke something?

How can I revert / recover someway?

Apps run fine (I’m writing this post in Firefox) but all appear in the top left corner with no title bar along with resize / close buttons.

Thanks for your support

#2

Could be a problem with xfwm4
alt-F2 and run the command xfwm4 --replace

#3

Are you running Compiz?

Try changing xfwm4 setting (under Window Manager and Window Manager Tweaks).

#4

Hey it worked!!!

Also after reboot everything is back in order, thanks a lot!

What did --replace do?

I guess it went over some corrupted config…

@sorbus: no Compiz, just plain XFCE, I want to keep it light, thanks anyway

#5

Try to open the terminal and run the command xfwm4 --help
it will show some insight of what it does.

#6

it looks like xfwm4 crashed.
xfwm4 --replace runs it again.

Missing window borders is a common problem with compiz on desktops other than KDE and GNOME, that’s why i asked.
btw. compiz is no heavier than xfwm4 :slight_smile: It has almost the same memory usage and way less cpu usage (gpu is used more, on the other hand).

#7

When I was using Opensuse 11.3 with Gnome I had Compiz enabled by default, with wobbler windows and desktop cube working otu of the box (I have a ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 PRO] (rev 01) card, lspci says)

Does this mean I could (probably) have it on XFCE just by installing it (like “sudo zypper install compiz” or whatever)?

I found a post by you but I don’t understand it properly…

Also I guess I could always switch back to xfwm4 with --replace, right?