Appearance settings do not work in Xubuntu 10.10 RC

Just wanted to add that the Nvidia restricted driver is not to blame (bug still exists if i remove it).

I have updated to the nvidia 260.19.06 drivers (Bug #629910) which seems to have solved the desktop sluggines issue, however any changes to the xfce appearance settings still do not take effect. The actual xfce component involved is xfce4-appearance-settings (not xfce-settings-manager as mentioned in my original post).

This doesn't sound at all like a graphics driver bug, but rather a communication problem between the various XFCE components. The driver does not control the appearance of fonts or icons, but simply processes the drawing requests sent to it by applications. Does the problem still occur with the "vesa" driver?

If uninstall the 260.19.06 driver, i'm really not sure what i revert to (nouveau?) but I still have the bug. If i boot directly from the xubuntu installation cd, everything works fine.

I've attached my /var/log/Xorg.0.log (as it appears after removing the non-free driver) - the way I read it, the vesa driver is being used.

Crap, I didn't mean to add this. Marking invalid.

A little update:

Yesterday uninstalled python (apt-get remove python) which turned out to remove tons of other stuff as well.
After reboot, I now invariably get the "ubuntu running in low graphics mode" error. But when I do a login in via console, and then run startx, my desktop is perfecly normal and my "apperance settings" bug is gone! I even get the hibernate/suspend option back when i logout which was also missing before.

So in effect, it seems I have traded one problem for another, but this is certainly much better. It's only a minor
nuisance to do the console login + startx myself.

Currently I'm manually reinstalling packages (using "apt-cache rdepends python") so hopefully I will encounter the package that is the cause of these problems.

The low graphics mode issues was due to GDM missing (somehow removed by the python uninstall although i see no dependencies) Anyway, this issue is now fixed so i'm a happy camper. The bug is still unsolved, but uninstalling python works!

I notice now I have something called 'xsettingsd' running in the background, and if i kill it, the original problem returns i.e. changes made through xfce4-appearance-settings have no effect. The only remaning question is why 'xsettingsd' wasn't running beforel but somehow recovered after I did the python removal thing.

Same problem here after a fresh MM install yesterday. On two other machines (on of which also uses the nvidia driver but was installed with the Alpha version and updated from there) I haven't seen this issue. Will try if reinstalling gnome-settings-daemon fixes it.

I just did a fresh reinstall of Xubuntu 10.10 RC, and yes the problem is that 'xfsettingsd' is not running for some reason. You can fix this by adding 'xfsettingsd' to your "Application Autostart" group in the xfce 4 settings manager.

I filed Bug #658967 for ubuntu 10.10 standard and I think this might actually be the same problem. I have almost the exact same problems except mine only occur when my nvidia driver is enabled. I noticed you posted on the nvidia Bug #629910 which I was also looking at as a possible solution as enabling nvidia proprietary drivers started my issues. Do you have a 200 series nvidia card, and are you running a core i7 processor by any chance?

Yes i have a core i7 (930) and Nvidia GTX 470.

I wonder if this is a concurrency issue of some sort, eg. xfsettingsd being loaded too early? This would at least explain why the (slow booting) live cd does not have this bug on my PC. Anyway the solution described in #11 has solved the problem for my part.

Alot of people with Core i-7 processors and Nvidia card combinations have been reporting performance issues with their systems including system lagging and sluggishness, poor graphics rendering, desktop glitches, and long boot and installation times. I've had many of these issues. Including and extremely slow boot with the start up disk, a slow installation, and a sluggish system that fails to render some things properly. XFCE and Gnome both use similar process management systems and in some cases have the same back end systems running. I wonder if their is a common process that isn't playing nice with the x58 boards using nvidia drivers. I wonder if anyone can think of a process or program that could cause all of these different bugs?

I'm going to try and download the MM 10.10 disk again and reinstall once again to see if I'm just getting my disk from a bad mirror, but if this fails again, I'm probably going to just go back to 10.04 as it has worked well on my machine with only some minor crashes here and there, and i currently cannot do my home work or manage my business because I never know if my fonts will be correct when I boot my machine. I really hope someone will deal with this soon. I've been using Ubuntu since Dapper Drake, and have really loved it seeing it just get better and better every time. However, this is a major regression, it won't shake my faith in the project or conical but, i can't help but be a bit miffed that this was their finished product. The x58 mother board and Nvidia 200 series card I bought, I bought because they were supposed to be well supported in Linux and common enough in the market that I figured they'd be well tested and well supported by the linux community. I'm sad to see this issue not addressed in the beta testing process for 10.10, especially with how well this same hardware worked with 10.04. I hope it's all sorted out by 11.04.

It appears Bug #649809 is a related bug from the gnome world, except in my case I have the issue with and without the non-free nvidia drivers.

Good eye. My bug is indeed a duplicate of Bug #649809. They also have core i-7 processors running with Nvidia 200 series cards. I think this is hardware specific.

Did a reinstall and my own solution from #11 did not work this time :-(

However I removed gnome-settings-deamon (sudo apt-get remove gnome-settings-daemon) inspired by comments from bug #649809 and that has solved the problem!

Not sure why that deamon is needed on XFCE anyway?

This bug no longer affects me in Ubuntu 12.04. Can anyone else confirm it is resolved for them?

No I don't have the problem either

I'm going to mark it fixed. Feel free to chime in if this is still an issue for you.

Hi,
I have the same problem now. That is no settings in "xfce4-appearance-settings" have any effect. I also have the Nvidia restricted driver, and maybe the problem started after I had made some changes in nvidia-settings. I had before that made changes to the appearences settings, and after a new boot my dual screens were overlapping then I had to correct it in nvidia-settings. I usually use Ubuntu but I also is testing Xubuntu on the same machine.

I'm having this problem on raring 13.04. x86_64, core-i7.

Specifically:

This machine actually has an nvidia gpu (GT520) and is using nvidia drivers. HOWEVER, on its actual screen, which is a real TV, I'm running XBMC. I'm trying to run the xubuntu desktop in a vncserver completely independently of the real screen, for convenient working on that machine from another one actually equipped with a monitor, keyboard, etc. (I'd actually rather be running unity, but that's such a total failure i don't even know what to start reporting; with this at least, it's usable with one specific thing that's not working that I can report on.)

And while the xubuntu desktop generally seems to be working, again, appearance settings have no effect. xfsettingsd is not running, although it is in the application autostart lists. If I try to invoke it manually (from inside a terminal running on the xubuntu desktop) I get:

(xfsettingsd:14174): xfsettingsd-CRITICAL **: RANDR extension is too old, version 1.1. Display settings won't be applied.
Xlib: extension "XInputExtension" missing on display ":1.0".

(xfsettingsd:14174): xfsettingsd-CRITICAL **: XI is not present.

(xfsettingsd:14174): xfsettingsd-CRITICAL **: Failed to initialize the Xkb extension.

(xfsettingsd:14174): xfsettingsd-CRITICAL **: Failed to initialize the Accessibility extension.

... and afterwards, xfsettingsd is not running.

BTW with respect to the above errors

libxi6 is installed
libxkbfile1 is installed plus various other xkb packages,
These look like stuff you'd want to set up in xorg.conf, but of course, running in a vncserver rather than on the screen, I don't think /etc/X11/xorg.conf should apply (being as it is set up optimally for XBMC-on-a-TV purposes, so not sure where this is supposed to go.

If I log into xubuntu on the actual main screen, it all works as it should; but sadly (or I'd be satisfied now) the appearance settings I set while there are *still* not applied when I start a session in vnc. So presumably even pre-saved, configured appearance settings need xfsettingsd running to be applied. (Yes, checking by logging back into it on the real screen showed the settings had been remembered, and were restored properly there.)

The ~/.vnc/xstartup file btw (comments show remains of past failures with other desktop environments...)

#!/bin/sh

# Uncomment the following two lines for normal desktop:
#unset SESSION_MANAGER
#unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
#exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
vncconfig -iconic &
#/usr/bin/gnome-session --session=ubuntu &
#/usr/bin/unity &
#/usr/bin/startlubuntu &
/usr/bin/startxfce4 &
#x-terminal-emulator -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &
#x-window-manager &

The last thing I tried was *re*commenting the SESSION_MANAGER and DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS lines near the top; which had been uncommented earlier following the advice of the line above it; but that made no apparent difference.