Solved XFCE4 - /usr/local/bin/startxfce4 crashes without --with-ck-launch

tanis · Jul 17, 2025

I just upgraded all my packages to the latest available binary release and was unable to launch my XFCE4 desktop on 14.2-p2. I use XDM, if that matters somehow.

So far I used the following .xinitrc for my user, which worked without any issue at all.

Code:

#~/.xinitrc
xscreensaver &
startxfce4

After the upgrade I was unable to login anymore and tried to fix that by executing the following commands without any success:

 

mv ~/.cache/sessions ~/.cache/sessions-`date +%s`

mv ~/.config/xfce4 ~/.config/xfce4-`date +%s`

rm ~/.ICEauthority

Just by accident, I figured out, that using '--with-ck-launch' fixed that issue for me.

Code:

#~/.xinitrc
xscreensaver &
startxfce4 --with-ck-launch

So I did a little research and have been a little surprised by the fact, that this option has been available since 2012.

I have been using startxfce4 like that for years now, did I miss an important aspect in my configuration ?

fjdlr · Jul 17, 2025

tanis said:
I just upgraded all my packages to the latest available binary release and was unable to launch my XFCE4 desktop on 14.2-p2. I use XDM, if that matters somehow.

So far I used the following .xinitrc for my user, which worked without any issue at all.

Code:

#~/.xinitrc xscreensaver & startxfce4

After the upgrade I was unable to login anymore and tried to fix that by executing the following commands without any success:

mv ~/.cache/sessions ~/.cache/sessions-`date +%s` mv ~/.config/xfce4 ~/.config/xfce4-`date +%s` rm ~/.ICEauthority

Just by accident, I figured out, that using '--with-ck-launch' fixed that issue for me.

Code:

#~/.xinitrc xscreensaver & startxfce4 --with-ck-launch

So I did a little research and have been a little surprised by the fact, that this option has been available since 2012.

I have been using startxfce4 like that for years now, did I miss an important aspect in my configuration ?

Maybe try :

% ln -s ~/.xinitrc ~/.xsession

tanis · Jul 17, 2025

fjdlr said:
Maybe try :

I already had that in place, when it crashed.

T-Aoki · Jul 17, 2025

Maybe just lacking the description in pkg-message.
I think all metaport (in case of Xfce4, x11-wm/xfce4) of desctop environments, window managers and Wayland compositors should have description how to start it including mandatory services.

fjdlr · Jul 17, 2025

tanis said:
I already had that in place, when it crashed.

exec /usr/local/bin/startxfce4 --with-ck-launch > ~/.xsession-errors 2>&1

tanis · Jul 17, 2025

T-Aoki said:
Maybe just lacking the description in pkg-message.
I think all metaport (in case of Xfce4, x11-wm/xfce4) of desctop environments, window managers and Wayland compositors should have description how to start it including mandatory services.

Just checked the handbook, and it turns out, it's documented as well. Looks like I missed something here.

tanis · Jul 17, 2025

fjdlr said:
exec /usr/local/bin/startxfce4 --with-ck-launch > ~/.xsession-errors 2>&1

Thx, it's working now, --with-ck-launch did the trick, although it might be better to use the way described in the handbook to prevent any future harm.

T-Aoki · Jul 17, 2025

tanis said:
Just checked the handbook, and it turns out, it's documented as well. Looks like I missed something here.

The handbook is a good source of information, but usually a bit gets behind from something actually changed and need some time (days to, at worst, years).
So pkg-message should have the latest info, as the ports itself has the exact info internally, at least upstream is providing. With the info, docs maintainers can get information of changes easier, IMHO.

tanis · Jul 19, 2025

T-Aoki said:
The handbook is a good source of information, but usually a bit gets behind from something actually changed and need some time (days to, at worst, years).
So pkg-message should have the latest info, as the ports itself has the exact info internally, at least upstream is providing. With the info, docs maintainers can get information of changes easier, IMHO.

That sounds great, but it also increases the work load just by a tiny bit, but it's a bit. So I would argue the responsebility is with the user who actually wants to use the package to keep up with the documentation using the official project web page, hence with me, not the maintainer. Put more workload and pressure on maintainer to keep up with the latest documentation in package information is not the right way to go, I would argue.

T-Aoki · Jul 19, 2025

Hm, maintainers basically know more about the port as users.
And things written in pkg-message does not change so often.

Example: What I've written in pkg-message as one of the de-facto maintainer.
And its corresponding review.

As I'm not a committer, my patches submitted need to be reviewed and committed by any of the committers. Thankfully, current de-facto maintainer group of nvidia things except me are committers, so things goes far more quicker than before.

And writing how to start DE (for example, Xfce4) would be something like this. Much simpler than the example above, and not so often change, once created.

Code:

To start Xfce4 from command line, you should enter below.

startxfce4 --with-ck-launch

Note that the example above (x11/nvidia-driver case) needs to be updated when some improvements/changes are done upstream. The earlier, the better for users, but it's on nvidia, not on us, the pors maintainers but should be required to do ASAP once upstream fixes.

tanis · Jul 22, 2025

Just for the record, if someone else stumbles on this thread, the following is according to handbook the recommended way to launch Xfce4 from a command line using startx:

Code:

% echo '. /usr/local/etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc' > ~/.xinitrc