[xmonad] Xmonad 0.10, Xfce, Wheezy Stable

[Justin Bogner]

Alexander Genaud <alex at genaud.net> writes:
>> xfceConfig specifies Xfce's Terminal as the default terminal emulator in
>> place of xterm, and rebinds mod-p (dmenu_run) to Xfce's application run
>> dialog, mod-shift-p (gmrun) to xfce4-appfinder, and mod-shift-q (quit
>> xmonad) to Xfce's session logout dialog. The latter is somewhat important,
>> as the Xfce session manager would simply restart xmonad if it exited in the
>> usual way.
>
> Thanks. Incidentally, whether I use desktopConfig or xfceConfig, both
> produce the same error when I press mod-shift-Q and I don't seem to be
> able to logout:
>
>      Failed to receive a reply from the session manager
>      The name org.xfce.SessionManager was not provided by any .service files

It sounds like what you're doing is running a vanilla xmonad session
with a few xfce components (ie, the panel). The desktopConfig settings,
and the derivatives like xfceConfig and gnomeConfig, generally expect
you to be running the desktop environment with xmonad as a window
manager.

There is a subtle but important difference between these two models.
When you start gnome or xfce, but set the window manager to xmonad,
there are a number of services that are started for you. In your case,
the important one is probably xfce4-session, which many of the xfce
programs hook into in various ways. Your session starts xmonad, and then
runs subcomponents without the session manager, which is why you
see warnings.

I think that you want to do one of two things:

1. Don't use desktopConfig/xfceConfig, and start xmonad with the xmonad
   session as you are now. If you do this you will probably need to use
   ewmhDesktops to get the xfce panel to work properly.

2. Start an xfce session, but configure it to use xmonad as a window
   manager. I don't know how to set this setting in xfce, but it's the
   usual use case for the xfceConfig/gnomeConfig/etc modules. In this
   case, you would choose xfce at the login screen, and it would start
   xmonad for you.

I hope this is helpful,
-- 
Bogner