When I try to shutdown or reboot out using the dbus interface, I'm just brought back to the login screen. If I try to use the Logout item in my Applications menu on the panel, things work properly. Here's the commands i'm using for shutdown and reboot: Shutdown: dbus-send --session --type=method_call --print-reply --dest=org.xfce.SessionManager /org/xfce/SessionManager org.xfce.Session.Manager.Shutdown uint32:2 boolean:false Reboot: dbus-send --session --type=method_call --print-reply --dest=org.xfce.SessionManager /org/xfce/SessionManager org.xfce.Session.Manager.Shutdown uint32:3 boolean:false
Even though it's not marked as such, please consider the dbus interface private. It'll probably be completely different for 4.8.
Why is it considered private? For both Gnome and KDE, there are interfaces available that are considered public and "work". This allows for nifty things like adding a third party applet such as indicator-applet in gnome which can manage your IM presence and shutdown/reboot/logout/lock the screen all in one place.
Because it's not stable. I'm not happy with the interface API, and I make no guarantees that it will continue to work in the future (or even in the present).