Task bar missing in XFCE

General Help
#1

I installed XFCE again on my Zorin 16 Pro and it was fine but I only used it for about 1/2 hour .... yesterday when I fired it up again (after using Gnome for that day) my task bar (which I left at the top of XFCE) was MIA .... so I tried to work it out myself but could find no reason for it to be missing ....

I did make several changes to my Gnome task bar like making it invisible until I hover over it with my mouse .... I know the two desktops are not supposed to be tied together but it does seem strange that the taskbar just disappeared ...

Desktop 11-18-21
Desktop 11-18-211920×1080 73.8 KB

#2

alt+F2

xfce4-panel --restart

Does it appear?

1 Like
#3

Can't take a screen shot as it says no such file in directory ...
alt+f2 says failure to launch shortcut .... Failed to execute child process "xfce-appfinder" (no such file pr directory

#4

wow.

Are you able to open a terminal?
OR access tty? (ctrl+alt+F3 to enter TTY, ctrl+alt+F6 to return to desktop )

2 Likes
#5

yes I can open a terminal

#6

sudo apt install --reinstall xfce4

Frog, I recommend some thorough checking. Test your Hard drive for bad sectors. Or put monitoring device on computer... Because some of your consistent troubleshooting smacks of impossibilities.
It may be impolitic of me to say. But the reality is, the desktop does not uninstall itself...

1 Like
#7

mike@mike-ROG-Strix-G731GT-G731GT:~/Desktop$ sudo apt install --reinstall xfce4
[sudo] password for mike:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra gsfonts libgimp2.0 libgmic1
libgraphicsmagick++-q16-12 libgraphicsmagick-q16-3 libheif1 liblqr-1-0
libmng2 libmypaint-1.5-1 libmypaint-common libtiff-tools
pepperflashplugin-nonfree
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following additional packages will be installed:
libkeybinder-3.0-0 libxfce4ui-utils tango-icon-theme thunar thunar-volman
xfce4-appfinder xfce4-panel xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin
Suggested packages:
gnome-icon-theme kdelibs-data thunar-archive-plugin thunar-media-tags-plugin
xfce4-goodies xfce4-power-manager
The following NEW packages will be installed:
libkeybinder-3.0-0 libxfce4ui-utils tango-icon-theme thunar thunar-volman
xfce4 xfce4-appfinder xfce4-panel xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin
0 upgraded, 9 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
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After this operation, 18.5 MB of additional disk space will be used.
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Get:1 Index of /ubuntu focal/universe amd64 libkeybinder-3.0-0 amd64 0.3.2-1ubuntu1 [7,996 B]
Get:2 Index of /ubuntu focal/universe amd64 libxfce4ui-utils amd64 4.14.1-1ubuntu1 [35.2 kB]
Get:3 Index of /ubuntu focal/universe amd64 tango-icon-theme all 0.8.90-7 [1,161 kB]
Get:4 Index of /ubuntu focal/universe amd64 thunar amd64 1.8.14-0ubuntu1 [303 kB]
Get:5 Index of /ubuntu focal/universe amd64 thunar-volman amd64 0.9.5-1 [124 kB]
Get:6 Index of /ubuntu focal/universe amd64 xfce4-appfinder amd64 4.14.0-1 [121 kB]
Get:7 Index of /ubuntu focal/universe amd64 xfce4-panel amd64 4.14.3-1 [624 kB]
Get:8 Index of /ubuntu focal/universe amd64 xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin amd64 0.4.3-0ubuntu1 [86.5 kB]
Get:9 Index of /ubuntu focal/universe amd64 xfce4 all 4.14 [4,980 B]
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Selecting previously unselected package libkeybinder-3.0-0:amd64.
(Reading database ... 302932 files and directories currently installed.)
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Unpacking libkeybinder-3.0-0:amd64 (0.3.2-1ubuntu1) ...
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Unpacking libxfce4ui-utils (4.14.1-1ubuntu1) ...
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Unpacking tango-icon-theme (0.8.90-7) ...
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Preparing to unpack .../8-xfce4_4.14_all.deb ...
Unpacking xfce4 (4.14) ...
Setting up libxfce4ui-utils (4.14.1-1ubuntu1) ...
Setting up libkeybinder-3.0-0:amd64 (0.3.2-1ubuntu1) ...
Setting up thunar (1.8.14-0ubuntu1) ...
Setting up xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin:amd64 (0.4.3-0ubuntu1) ...
Setting up xfce4-appfinder (4.14.0-1) ...
Setting up xfce4-panel (4.14.3-1) ...
Setting up tango-icon-theme (0.8.90-7) ...
Setting up xfce4 (4.14) ...
Setting up thunar-volman (0.9.5-1) ...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.64ubuntu1) ...
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mike@mike-ROG-Strix-G731GT-G731GT:~/Desktop$

#8

Fascinating... your Desktop was indeed removed. And even autoremove would not have done that since you specifically stated you manually installed the XFCE D.E.

1 Like
#9

Ooooops I uninstalled thunar

#10

Whenever you remove a package, always Read The Terminal. Always.
See what it is taking with it.
Some Desktop Components are inter-dependent on each other.

2 Likes
#11

Actually I removed it using a different way not through the terminal ...

#12

If you used the Software store, I am banning you here and now... :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

Hopefully this has your Desktop Restored...
But it's ok to have multiple File Managers - just select your default.
I have Caja, Nautilus, Thunar and Nemo all installed.
And that is not including Enlightenment.

2 Likes
#13

Sounds like you are missing the most important element of life.

2 Likes
#14

:sob: :sob: :sob: I can not tell a lie but I learned a lesson not to be forgotten .... I did it because we had problems with the file manager before when I want to use my single click on the mouse so I figured that I would just delete it before I got to far into the desktop ....

And I learned you can have more than one file manager installed ....

Thank you sir the only reason I use the software store is I don't know how to search for apps using the Sympact (sp) manager because if I don't know the name of an app I'm looking for how can I find it .... like if I want an app on say video players how do I know which apps are video players ????

#15

You can use Software store to look up the name of the app, then install it in any manner you wish.:wink:

(Synaptic)

In Synaptic, you can launch the Package Manager, then look under Sections on the Left Pane.
You can narrow the list to just those categories. The Right Pane shows all packages in that category currently available. It opens by default to all software. But you can choose a category on the left to reduce that to only Music or Video or Graphical or Web, etc.
So, for your example, clicking Video software (universe), I get a list of all players and their peripheral packages.

3 Likes
#16

Thank you sir .... that is what I wanted

#17

I use software sometimes to look things up or check packages, too. I just do not use it for installation or removal. Too buggy, too easy to remove a package without warnings letting you know not to.
Most of the time, I do a net-search to find a package or program I want.

4 Likes
#18

I use it to remove files. Then I also check in synaptic and terminal if it did the job right. hahaahhahaha. Just like before, I uninstall Wine from there, still there are wine components leave behind make it look uninstall. Check in synaptic for other things that is link to it that might not be uninstall and needed to be deleted. When cleared, will go to terminal to do auto remove to see if there are left. Hahahahahah. Quite crazy right? Hahahaaha. Though I admit that software manager is quite confusing for removal cause even it was just uninstalling the program, the program will leave the list already.

2 Likes
#19

WOW .... that is sure a lot of checking but I'm sure it is needed ....

#20

I may be an animal but... Sounds easier to just remove from synaptic the first time.:neutral_face:

1 Like