Xfce Proc Or Not In Xfce

[Geezer]

Just browsing the handbook section on DEs, and I notice that xfce (and all the other DEs too) should require proc mounted.

I have been running xfce your years, and on different machines. Never once mounted proc.

Would it actually make much of a difference, or any difference at all?

 

[Geezer]

I see. No one really knows.

 

[astyle]

I have been running xfce your years,

I see. No one really knows.

My years were spent running KDE

Mounting /proc (via /etc/fstab) is necessary for DBUS, the IPC mechanism that a lot of DE's use.

 

[Tieks]

Mounting /proc (via /etc/fstab) is necessary for DBUS

I've been running xfce4 for years without mounting /proc. My /etc/rc.conf contains a line dbus_enable="YES", so dbus is running. I know I do use dbus, for instance with /usr/local/bin/notify-send. It just works wthout /proc.

 

[Kai Burghardt]

Just browsing the handbook section on DEs, and I notice that xfce (and all the other DEs too) should require proc mounted. […]

Sergio Delgado introduced the § Configure XFCE in commit 8FEDF84E. Unfortunately, the commit message does not explain why XFCE now required /proc, too.

However, the /proc requirement was already present for KDE and Gnome before. If you hunt down when those statements, you’ll find a 2011 commit Note that procfs(5) is necessary for proper GDM functionality linking PR 154070 stating that GDM would not show any users (I suppose on the login screen). For KDE there is the less insightful commit A240146A.​

[…] Mounting /proc (via /etc/fstab) is necessary for DBUS, the IPC mechanism that a lot of DE's use.

It is unlikely that documentation authors described the dbus setup, but forgot mentioning /proc. Geezer and Tieks apparently do not experience any troubles anyway, so dbus itself seems to work.​

 

[astyle]

Well, nice and informative corrections. My own knowledge got updated here.

It's just that last time I had any trouble with this was so long ago, I forgot a lot of stuff, apparently...