[Pkg-xfce-devel] Bug#714480: Unable to start xfce if home in different locations

[Carlo Contavalli]

Package: xfce4-session
Version: 4.10.1-1
Severity: normal
Tags: upstream

In ~/.config/xfce4* and ~/.cache/sessions, xfce4-session hard codes many
path pointing to your home directory, for example /home/ccontavalli.

If you:
- move your home directory somewhere else (eg, space full or similar)
- have your home in some shared file system (NFS, SMB, ...) and mount
  it in different locations (example: your desktop, home ends up being
  /home/ccontavalli, shared lab machine home ends up in
  /home/users/c/ccontavalli), xfce4 again can't start.

The error is visible on the console only (not logged anywhere that I can tell), and if running startxfce4 manually.
Using slim would hide the message.

(xfce4-session:16876): xfce4-session-WARNING **: Unable to launch "xfwm4": Failed to change to directory '/home/ccontavalli' (No such file or directory)
(xfce4-session:16876): xfce4-session-WARNING **: Unable to launch "xfwm4": Failed to change to directory '/home/ccontavalli' (No such file or directory)
(xfce4-session:16876): xfce4-session-WARNING **: Unable to launch "xfce4-panel": Failed to change to directory '/home/ccontavalli' (No such file or directory)
(xfce4-session:16876): xfce4-session-WARNING **: Unable to launch "xfce4-panel": Failed to change to directory '/home/ccontavalli' (No such file or directory)
(xfce4-session:16876): xfce4-session-WARNING **: Unable to launch "xfdesktop": Failed to change to directory '/home/ccontavalli' (No such file or directory)
(xfce4-session:16876): xfce4-session-WARNING **: Unable to launch "xfdesktop": Failed to change to directory '/home/ccontavalli' (No such file or directory)

This bug to track two things:
1) it'd be nice to log those messages somewhere, so one can find them in the logs.
2) xfce4 should use ~/ or any other mechanism to detect the position of the home directory, rather than hard code paths.

If not meant to be supported, it would be great to have this documented somewhere in /usr/share/doc, maybe README.Debian?

You can read more about the issue here: http://rabexc.blogspot.com/2013/06/an-unwilling-dive-in-xfce4-internals.html

Thanks,
Carlo


-- System Information:
Debian Release: jessie/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (995, 'testing'), (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'stable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 3.6-trunk-686-pae (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages xfce4-session depends on:
ii  libatk1.0-0         2.8.0-2
ii  libc6               2.17-3
ii  libcairo2           1.12.14-4
ii  libdbus-1-3         1.6.10-1
ii  libdbus-glib-1-2    0.100.2-1
ii  libfontconfig1      2.9.0-7.1
ii  libfreetype6        2.4.9-1.1
ii  libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0  2.28.1-1
ii  libglib2.0-0        2.36.1-2build1
ii  libgtk2.0-0         2.24.18-1
ii  libice6             2:1.0.8-2
ii  libpango1.0-0       1.32.5-5+b1
ii  libsm6              2:1.2.1-2
ii  libwnck22           2.30.7-1
ii  libx11-6            2:1.5.0-1+deb7u1
ii  libxfce4ui-1-0      4.10.0-3
ii  libxfce4util6       4.10.1-1
ii  libxfconf-0-2       4.10.0-2
ii  multiarch-support   2.17-3
ii  xfce4-settings      4.10.1-1
ii  xfconf              4.10.0-2

Versions of packages xfce4-session recommends:
ii  consolekit         0.4.5-3.1
ii  dbus-x11           1.6.10-1
ii  upower             0.9.17-1
ii  x11-xserver-utils  7.7~3
ii  xfdesktop4         4.10.2-3
ii  xfwm4              4.10.1-1
ii  xscreensaver       5.15-3

Versions of packages xfce4-session suggests:
pn  fortunes-mod  <none>
ii  sudo          1.8.5p2-1+nmu1

-- no debconf information