Several days back, after a late night session when I was asleep at the keyboard by the time I logged at, xfwm4 quit starting up after logging in from lightdm (which is my default dm).
There were no title bars and no trim. I could right-click on the desktop and get the applications menu and start applications from that, but I couldn't get keyboard focus into a terminal window to run any commands from the command line. Logging in on a virtual console (ctl-alt-Fn), I could check ps wwaux | grep xf and see that the window manager, xfwm4, did not show up. I could startx from there and the window manager and panels would be in place, without memory of any of my session state. Logging out of x11 there, and logging back out and back in through lightdm, there was no change for the lightdm managed login. No title bars, no panels, most of my session stuff still gone. >From the application menu's "Run Program" (or whatever it is in English) item, I was able to use the xfwm4 --replace & command and get the window manager and title bars back. Logging out and in, my window manage was back, but not my panels. Running xfce4-panel from a terminal window, I got my panels back and those persisted through logging out and in, as well. Still missing most of my workspace session state, and what is left is all collected into a single workspace. Well, all my workspaces were way cluttered, and it was probably time to clean up anyway. :-P Would be interested in any suggestions about why that might have happened (ergo, about what my fingers might have typed/moused while I was not at home upstairs). -- Joel Rees Be careful when you look at conspiracy. Arm yourself with knowledge of yourself, as well: http://reiisi.blogspot.jp/2011/10/conspiracy-theories.html