Whonix XFCE Development

Development
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Rich source of XFCE settings manipulation:

https://www.linuxsecrets.com/archlinux-wiki/wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xfce.html

Anything useful for us there?

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It’s not clear to me yet how folder /etc/xdg/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml (or more generally folder /etc/xdg/xfce4/) works. It may be a superior solution to folder /etc/skel/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml.

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Progress on disable removable drives auto-mounting - XFCE only (⚓ T902 disable removable drives auto-mounting - XFCE only) was made.

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/etc/xdg/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml looks better in any case. Going to port to it.

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Debian /etc/xdg/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-session.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<channel name="xfce4-session" version="1.0">
  <property name="general" type="empty">
    <property name="FailsafeSessionName" type="string" value="Failsafe"/>
  </property>
  <property name="sessions" type="empty">
    <property name="Failsafe" type="empty">
      <property name="IsFailsafe" type="bool" value="true"/>
      <property name="Count" type="int" value="5"/>
      <property name="Client0_Command" type="array">
        <value type="string" value="xfwm4"/>
      </property>
      <property name="Client0_PerScreen" type="bool" value="false"/>
      <property name="Client1_Command" type="array">
        <value type="string" value="xfsettingsd"/>
      </property>
      <property name="Client1_PerScreen" type="bool" value="false"/>
      <property name="Client2_Command" type="array">
        <value type="string" value="xfce4-panel"/>
      </property>
      <property name="Client2_PerScreen" type="bool" value="false"/>
      <property name="Client3_Command" type="array">
        <value type="string" value="Thunar"/>
        <value type="string" value="--daemon"/>
      </property>
      <property name="Client3_PerScreen" type="bool" value="false"/>
      <property name="Client4_Command" type="array">
        <value type="string" value="xfdesktop"/>
      </property>
      <property name="Client4_PerScreen" type="bool" value="false"/>
    </property>
  </property>
  <property name="splash" type="empty">
    <property name="Engine" type="string" value=""/>
  </property>
</channel>

Whonix:

https://github.com/Whonix/whonix-xfce-desktop-config/blob/master/etc/xdg/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-session.xml

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Preparing to unpack .../whonix-xfce-desktop-config_1.4-1_all.deb ...
Unpacking whonix-xfce-desktop-config (3:1.4-1) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /mnt/initialdeb/pool/main/w/whonix-xfce-desktop-config/whonix-xfce-desktop-config_1.4-1_all.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite '\''/etc/xdg/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-session.xml'\'', which is also in package xfce4-session 4.12.1-6
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /mnt/initialdeb/pool/main/w/whonix-xfce-desktop-config/whonix-xfce-desktop-config_1.4-1_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)       '
+ apt_get_exit_code=100
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After removing the xfce4 meta package:

The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
gtk2-engines-xfce libkeybinder-3.0-0 libwnck-common libwnck22
libxfce4ui-utils xfce4-appfinder xfce4-panel xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin
xfce4-session xfce4-settings xfdesktop4 xfdesktop4-data xfwm4

The following packages were not installed by default anyhow:

  • tango-icon-theme
  • gtk3-engines-xfce
  • xfce4-power-manager
  • xfce4-goodies

System would work well without the following packages:

  • gtk2-engines-xfce

List of packages we depend on from other packages anyhow:

  • thunar

List of packages we would keep for sure (manually add Depends:):

  • thunar-volman
  • xfce4-appfinder
  • xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin
  • xfconf
  • xfce4-settings
  • xfconf
  • xfce4-panel
  • xfwm4
  • xfdesktop4
  • xfce4-session

In conclusion, dependencies by Debian -- Details of package xfce4 in buster by look very good. At most package Debian -- Details of package gtk2-engines-xfce in buster and Debian -- Details of package libxfce4ui-utils in buster would be avoidable. Really not worth the effort. Keeping meta package xfce4.

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Any suggestions for the background image? Any background image available from any packages sourced from packages.debian.org?

The only two backgrounds images installed currently (non-removable [as long as we want to use XFCE] dependency package xfdesktop4-data)

  • /usr/share/backgrounds/xfce/xfce-blue.jpg
  • /usr/share/backgrounds/xfce/xfce-teal.jpg

Could be changed here:
xfce-desktop-config-dist/xfce4-desktop.xml at master · Kicksecure/xfce-desktop-config-dist · GitHub

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2 posts were split to a new topic: Whonix XFCE Background Image

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Without thunar-volman, there is a non-helpful error in thunar settings when clicking on volume management.

thunar → edit → preferences → advanced → shows missing dependencies, links to:

Say trash won’t work but trash is functional. The other features described above actually do not look important to Whonix.

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Related to livecheck:

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More livecheck improvements:

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sudoers exception for livecheck /etc/sudoers.d/whonix-xfce-desktop-config is insufficient. Currently only works for user user. Does not work for any other user account such as user2.

Would it be an issue if we allowed ALL, i.e.

ALL ALL=NOPASSWD: /bin/lsblk --noheadings --all --raw --output RO

?

%sudo would be safe, but that doesn’t help in all cases. I.e.

%sudo ALL=NOPASSWD: /bin/lsblk --noheadings --all --raw --output RO

What other alternatives are there to permit desktop login users too?

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1 Like