As described in this StackOverflow question (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/54225932/xfdesktop-commands-returning-error-in-terminal), after the desktop has been open for some time (say, 30 minutes or so) xfdesktop seems to crash. After xfdesktop has crashed, any icons on the desktop are unresponsive (or disappear entirely) and any xfdesktop commands (xfdesktop -R, etc., except for xfdesktop -V) return the following error: > ** (xfdesktop:13267): CRITICAL **: 16:18:15.893: xfdesktop: already running, quitting. Behavior persists until the offending xfdesktop instance is manually killed and allowed to restart automatically, in which case the desktop works fine for some more time before repeating the behavior. Bug is apparently reproducible on other computers using 4.13.2, but not with 4.12.4.
Running watch -n 1 xfdesktop --reload for about 10 seconds is enough to get this bug. Then xfdesktop does not respond to any interaction, pkill xfdesktop, xfdesktop --quit or --reload won't work. Only pkill -9 xfdesktop is able to destroy the faulty instance.
Cannot reproduce this bug with 4.12.3-3 on Debian
(In reply to Julien [nodiscc] from comment #2) > Cannot reproduce this bug with 4.12.3-3 on Debian It seems to be a new bug for 4.13.2, StackExchange users couldn't reproduce it on earlier versions either
Still reproducible with xfdesktop from git.
Created attachment 8356 xfdesktop git master debug enabled I can reproduce the git master. I'm attaching the debug. Seems to be related to a gbus thing.
The problem only occurs when desktop Icons are displayed. If "Icons" Appareance is set to "None" in xfdesktop-settings, I can xfdesktop --reload dozens of time without triggering the bug.
For whatever reason, it fails on reload (after 8 reloads every time!) on xfdesktop_file_icon_manager_new, when it tries to run the xfconf_g_property_bind functions ((xfdesktop:2189): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 18:21:22.155: g_dbus_connection_call_sync_internal: assertion 'G_IS_DBUS_CONNECTION (connection)' failed) I don't understand why.
Created attachment 8359 Fix xfdesktop crashes after multiples --reload More a workaround than a real fix (why it crashes after *8* reload ?), the removal of icon view reload on --reload fix the problem and seems to not introduce any regressions. See patch description for more informations. Please test on top of 4.13.x release or git master !
But maybe a better alternative is to remove the "reload" functionnality of xfdesktop. I don't see what is it purpose since 4.10. Changing the background automatically can be done dynamically in settings or with xfconf-query
Romain B referenced this bugreport in commit 1455a1780a89ca2253c2deb457e49b78df0555d8 Bug #15060: Fix xfdesktop crashes after multiples --reload https://git.xfce.org/xfce/xfdesktop/commit?id=1455a1780a89ca2253c2deb457e49b78df0555d8