Newer Xfdesktop (4.10.1), Anyone? [SOLVED]

[MtnDewManiac]

I was searching for a way to fix Xfce's issue of only changing the desktop wallpaper occasionally, sporadically, when it feels like it even when I tried setting it to change it (from the list of selected wallpapers) every minute, and I came across this thread:

Code: Select all

http://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=7802

which stated that

Jérôme was kind enough to cherry pick some fixes and release a new stable version of xfdesktop which will fix the desktop slideshow bug. You can read the release notes here: http://archive.xfce.org/feeds/project/xfdesktop

One of the bugs that were squashed is #8962, which is the one about cycling of desktop wallpapers!

Has anyone updated their xfdesktop to version 4.10.1? If so, did you discover any new issues that were caused by updating? (IOW, is there any reason not to update?) And how did you do it? It looks like the file - at Xfce's homesite - is only available as a "tar.bz2," while our Mint systems use "deb" files for this kind of thing. Is there a PPA for this kind of thing, by chance? Or a thread on how to update xfdesktop? I looked in this sub-forum, but did not see one.

I am running Mint 14 32-bit Xfce, BtW, and am mostly happy with it other than the aforementioned bug and the one where my (top) panel gets stuck "on" sometimes and I end up having to log out and back in to get it to go back to auto-hiding (going to that panel's properties and playing with the auto-hide setting does nothing at that point). I have not noticed any other bugs (that affect me) with Xfce as of yet. So if this update is likely to lead to other issues (again, for me) then I will stay with the currently-installed version of xfdesktop until the newer one gets to our regular update channel.

Speaking of which, does anyone know if Clem is aware that this update exists? I really do not know how he decides when (/if) to include newer versions of apps in his repositories. I assume that some amount of testing of the newer versions is involved.

Thanks in advance,
MDM

[MtnDewManiac]

Yes, there is a PPA. That, of course, means that updating to the latest version of xfdesktop - which, at the time of this post, is 4.10.2 - is very easy.

There are other files that Update Manager will try to update. After looking at the list to see what they were, I let it update them all. I have found zero issues from doing so.

Several bugs were fixed. The ones that I noticed so far are:
xfdesktop, when you have it set to pick a random wallpaper from your list every n minutes, now seems to actually do so (and reliably).
Using the Places thing or starting to and then backing out of the list no longer "occasionally" causes the desktop panel that it is on to be permanently (until I log out and back in) displayed on my desktop even though I have autohide set to on. It appears that other things that used to often cause this behavior no longer cause it, either.

I also see new features. Right away I noticed that the weather applet has more themes and several new options (including being able to select inches of mercury for the barometric pressure and some new "apparent/feels like" temperature options).

So far I have observed no downsides to adding the Xfce PPA. As usual, YMMV, but I would suggest that you do so, too. With the usual disclaimers that apply whenever we add someone else's PPA to our soures list, of course.

[igor83]

Thanks for the head's up about a new version of Xfce. I checked their web site yesterday and didn't see any notice about .2, but will follow your tip and find that PPA tomorrow when I can access my htpc.

[MtnDewManiac]

Thanks for the head's up about a new version of Xfce. I checked their web site yesterday and didn't see any notice about .2, but will follow your tip and find that PPA tomorrow when I can access my htpc.

I just checked the sources listed in my Update Manager. I have the following Xfce ones:
http://ppa.launchpad.net/xubuntu-dev/xfce-4.10/ubuntu quantal main
http://ppa.launchpad.net/xubuntu-dev/xfce-4.10/ubuntu quantal main (Source Code)
http://ppa.launchpad.net/xubuntu-dev/xfce-4.12/ubuntu quantal main
http://ppa.launchpad.net/xubuntu-dev/xfce-4.12/ubuntu quantal main (Source Code)

I think that the 4.10.2 version of Xfdesktop was in the 4.10 ones. I honestly do not remember for sure. You can always add the 4.10 PPAs, then refresh Update Manager and look at the list of updates, then do the same with the 4.10 PPAs if you do not see the updates that you are looking for.

BtW, I have Update Manager set to display every update, even the level 4 and 5 ones (I just don't have it set up to automatically checkmark files with those two designations for installation). But I believe that this is not important for the Xfce stuff (that I have updated so far).

Hope this helps,
MDM