I've been using XFCE since before I used Mint, back to about 2008. This is the first time I've experienced this problem. I am on Mint 18.3 and my system is up to date as of this post.
Backstory... I just picked up a new-to-me Dell Optiplex 7010, swapped in my drives and video card, and was up and running. Faced a couple of very minor things, but transition was smooth. Was running for a couple of days. I decided to troubleshoot this persistent issue of very slow shutdown/reboot, which I had on my old machine too and suspected to be systemd related. So instead of doing a "shutdown" via the menu as I normally do, I did a systemctl poweroff. It went down immediately. Powered back up, and that's when the craziness started.
My previous saved session didn't come up correctly. I usually have 3 xfce4-terminals, browser (palemoon), and gkrellm running. The terminals didn't come up, and I couldn't start them. I got the error: Failed to execute default terminal - input/output error. Also had a PulseAudio plugin error, which is usually in my panel. Plugin "PulseAudio Plugin" unexpectedly left the panel, do you want to restart it?. It never restarted, and I can't add it back in manually. I was able to do alt-f2 and launch xterm. From there I can see that pulseaudio is running.
Disabled Save Session, logged out and back in. Same issues. Rebooted as well to no avail.
Not an exhaustive list, but what I can and can't do below.
Can launch:
Settings Manager, some sub-settings... but can't launch the following items: Driver Manager, Software Manager, Software Sources, Update Manager, Languages, Input method, Firewall Configuration, Bluetooth, Notifications. No error given.
File Managers (default and Xfe)
Pale Moon and Midori browsers (sites run fine... youtube videos play w/sound)
Gimp
Geeqie
Unreal Tournament
UXterm
LibreOffice
Gkrellm
From command line, can't launch:
- VLC (VLC media player 2.2.2 Weatherwax (revision 2.2.2-0-g6259d80) [00000000010a1148] core libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface. QMutex: destroying locked mutex. I can launching cvlc and it will play mp3 files and mp4 videos fine.
- gnome-terminal, xfce4-terminal - no error
- evince - no error
- handbrake-gtk - no error
- Firefox, Chromium
I tail /var/log/syslog while failing to launch these things, and there is nothing getting logged there.
System info from inxi:
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System: Host: heimlich18 Kernel: 4.4.0-112-generic x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3
Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Machine: System: Dell product: OptiPlex 7010 v: 01
Mobo: Dell model: 0GY6Y8 v: A02 Bios: Dell v: A28 date: 02/22/2018
CPU: Quad core Intel Core i5-3570 (-MCP-) cache: 6144 KB
clock speeds: max: 3800 MHz 1: 1599 MHz 2: 1599 MHz 3: 1601 MHz 4: 1600 MHz
Graphics: Card: NVIDIA GT215 [GeForce GT 240]
Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: nvidia (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,nouveau)
Resolution: 1920x1080@60.00hz, 1920x1080@60.00hz
GLX Renderer: N/A GLX Version: N/A
Audio: Card-1 Intel 7 Series/C210 Series Family High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel
Card-2 NVIDIA High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-112-generic
Network: Card: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection driver: e1000e
IF: eno1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex
Drives: HDD Total Size: 4000.8GB (74.2% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST1000DM003 size: 1000.2GB
ID-2: /dev/sdb model: WDC_WD30EFRX size: 3000.6GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 55G used: 20G (37%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
ID-2: /boot size: 232M used: 113M (53%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
ID-3: /home size: 55G used: 30G (57%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda3
ID-4: swap-1 size: 16.38GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda7
RAID: No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 29.8C mobo: 27.8C
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 191 Uptime: 1:32 Memory: 1323.8/7938.3MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.2.35
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 29.8C mobo: 27.8C
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 191 Uptime: 1:33 Memory: 1324.7/7938.3MB
Init: systemd v: 229 runlevel: 5 default: 2 Gcc sys: 5.4.0 alt: 4.7/4.8
Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481 running in xterm) inxi: 2.2.35