Beyond Linux® From Scratch - Version 7.7

Chapter 32. Xfce Desktop

xfce4-session-4.10.1

Introduction to Xfce4 Session

Xfce4 Session is a session manager for Xfce. Its task is to save the state of your desktop (opened applications and their location) and restore it during a next startup. You can create several different sessions and choose one of them on startup.

This package is known to build and work properly using an LFS-7.7 platform.

Package Information

Xfce4 Session Dependencies

Required

libwnck-2.30.7, libxfce4ui-4.10.0, Which-2.20, and Xorg Applications

Recommended

desktop-file-utils-0.22 and shared-mime-info-1.4

Required Runtime

Xfdesktop-4.10.3

User Notes: http://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/wiki/xfce4-session

Installation of Xfce4 Session

Install Xfce4 Session by running the following commands: 

./configure --prefix=/usr \
            --sysconfdir=/etc \
            --disable-legacy-sm &&
make

This package does not come with a test suite.

Now, as the root user: 

make install

Command Explanations

--disable-legacy-sm: This switch disables legacy session management which isn't necessary on modern system.

Configuring Xfce4 Session

There are several optional run time dependencies for Xfce4: ConsoleKit-0.4.6, D-Bus-1.8.16, GnuPG-2.0.26, hicolor-icon-theme-0.14 and OpenSSH-6.7p1

To launch Xfce4 use the command startxfce4. If you have ConsoleKit-0.4.6 installed, use startxfce4 --with-ck-launch. ConsoleKit is required to perform any task that requires administrative access, including shut down and reboot.

When building an Xfce4 package, some configuration files are installed in /usr/share/applications, /usr/share/icons, and /usr/share/mime. In order to use those files in your Xfce4 session, you need to update various databases. Do that by running, as the root user (you need to have the recommended dependencies installed): 

update-desktop-database &&
update-mime-database

Contents

Installed Programs: xfce4-session, xfce4-session-logout, xfce4-session-settings and xfce4-tips
Installed Library: libxfsm-4.6.so
Installed Directories: /usr/include/xfce4/xfce4-session-4.6, /usr/share/xfce4/tips and /usr/share/doc/xfce4-session-4.10.1

Short Descriptions

xfce4-session

starts up the Xfce Desktop Environment.

xfce4-session-logout

logs out from Xfce.

xfce4-session-settings

is a GTK+ 2 GUI which allows you to alter your preferences for your Xfce Session.

xfce4-tips

is a GTK+ 2 GUI which displays tips when you log in to an Xfce Session.

libxfsm-4.6.so

contains the Xfce Session API functions.

Last updated on 2015-03-01 04:31:16 -0800