Author: Micski
Micski lives in Copenhagen, which is the capitol city of Denmark, where he's a system administrator of information technology and a semi-professional poker player.
Blank screen and muted audio in XFCE.
The first issue, I noticed, when switching from GNOME to XFCE, was, how the HDMI output was cut-off after a few minutes in which there has been no user input, such as attending a video conference. Pressing a key would turn-on the screen, but the audio would never return again. The audio could not even be re-enabled with Pulse Audio controls.
Disabling power management from XFCE interface.
Using the settings dialog, I disabled any kind of power management. This includes any screen blank and suspend option. Despite of this, the video and audio is getting cut-off. I could not find any kind of screensaver, that should be causing this.
# ps aux | grep power
/usr/local/libexec/upowerd
xfce4-power-manager
# ps aux | grep saver
# ps aux | grep screen
Removing power manager from XFCE?
I assume, that this is related to power management, because a screen saver would probably not be so aggressive. Knowing, that I will not need power management, a simple approuch would be to remove it from the installation. However, XFCE went for a forced depedency on this one. What a piece of shit programming from XFCE. Power management should be optional – and not a plague!
Checking integrity... done (0 conflicting)
Deinstallation has been requested for the following 2 packages (of 0 packages in the universe):
Installed packages to be REMOVED:
xfce: 4.20
xfce4-power-manager: 4.20.0
Number of packages to be removed: 2
The operation will free 2 MiB.
Proceed with deinstalling packages? [y/N]: N
How does power managment in XFCE work?
A search for occurances indicates, that it could be started automatically as an unwanted service. It could even be started, if it was running in an earlier user session.
# find / -type f -name '*xfce4-power*'
/home/lightman/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-power-manager.xml
/usr/local/share/metainfo/xfce4-power-manager.appdata.xml
/usr/local/share/man/man1/xfce4-power-manager-settings.1.gz
/usr/local/share/man/man1/xfce4-power-manager.1.gz
/usr/local/share/applications/xfce4-power-manager-settings.desktop
/usr/local/etc/xdg/autostart/xfce4-power-manager.desktop
/usr/local/bin/xfce4-power-manager-settings
/usr/local/bin/xfce4-power-manager
Stopping power manager in XFCE.
To my surprice, XFCE did actually write a built-in help, which kindly lists a quit option. It also seemed to actually quit the unwanted service. However, this is probably just a shortlived pleasure. It might restart. Especially after a new session or a reboot.
$ xfce4-power-manager --help
Usage:
xfce4-power-manager [OPTION?]
Help Options:
-h, --help Show help options
--help-all Show all help options
--help-sm-client Show session management options
Application Options:
--daemon Daemonize
--debug Enable debugging
--dump Dump all information
--restart Restart the running instance of Xfce power manager
-c, --customize Show the configuration dialog
-q, --quit Quit any running xfce power manager
-V, --version Version information
$ xfce4-power-manager -q
Killing the XFCE power manager from cron as a work-around.
As it remains unclear, how the unwanted service is started, a work-around is to repeat killing it from cron, until I learn, how this service can be permanently disabled. This cron job kills it every minute, if running. I have tested this be working.
# pkg info -r xfce4-power-manager
xfce4-power-manager-4.20.0:
xfce-4.20
# pkg info -r upower
upower-1.90.7:
xfce4-settings-4.20.1
xfce4-power-manager-4.20.0
gnome-power-manager-3.32.0_3
gnome-control-center-43.2_4
mutter-42.4_3
gnome-settings-daemon-42.2_8
# nano /etc/crontab
* * * * * root pkill xfce4-power-manager
* * * * * root pkill upowerd
# service cron restart
Tips appreciated!
I appreciate any tips about this issue.
Configuring PulseAudio on FreeBSD.
In this example, the PulseAudio is configured to output to HDMI by default. If USB headphones are attached, then audio output is automatically switched to these. I tested this to be working.
$ pactl list sinks
Sink #3
State: RUNNING
Name: oss_output.dsp3
Description: 3 - Intel (0x2818) (HDMI/DP 8ch)
Mute: no
# nano /usr/local/etc/pulse/default.pa
set-default-sink oss_output.dsp3
load-module module-switch-on-connect
Switching audio output with pactl on FreeBSD.
pactl is a control interface for a running PulseAudio sound server. In this example, the audio output is switched to a pair of USB headphones. The listings indicate, that the headphones are associated with sink 4 and name oss_output.dsp5. The output is switched to to this and it is un-muted. Warning: The volume is optionally set to 100%. The volume setting is the same as the one, that is set on the headphones themselves.
$ pactl list sinks
Sink #4
State: RUNNING
Name: oss_output.dsp5
Description: 5 - Corsair CORSAIR HS80 RGB Wireless Gaming Receiver
muted: yes
Sample Specification: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
$ pactl list sinks short
4 oss_output.dsp5 module-oss.c s16le 2ch 44100Hz RUNNING
$ pactl set-default-sink oss_output.dsp5
$ pactl set-sink-mute oss_output.dsp5 0
$ pactl set-sink-volume oss_output.dsp5 100%
References.
- Chapter 9. Multimedia in the FreeBSD handbook.
- PulseAudio on Freshports.
I noticed, that my Poudriere build machine failed to compile net-im/signal-desktop for FreeBSD 14 with latest ports branch, because it require devel/esbuild 0.25.0, while build environment has 0.24.0. Tested 2025-03-07 and 2025-03-10.
✘ [ERROR] Cannot start service: Host version "0.24.0" does not match binary version "0.25.0"
1 error
Error: The service was stopped: write EPIPE
at /wrkdirs/usr/ports/net-im/signal-desktop/work/Signal-Desktop-7.44.0/node_modules/esbuild/lib/main.js:968:34
at responseCallbacks.<computed> (/wrkdirs/usr/ports/net-im/signal-desktop/work/Signal-Desktop-7.44.0/node_modules/esbuild/lib/main.js:622:9)
at afterClose (/wrkdirs/usr/ports/net-im/signal-desktop/work/Signal-Desktop-7.44.0/node_modules/esbuild/lib/main.js:613:28)
at /wrkdirs/usr/ports/net-im/signal-desktop/work/Signal-Desktop-7.44.0/node_modules/esbuild/lib/main.js:1988:18
at onwriteError (node:internal/streams/writable:605:3)
at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:84:21)
ERROR: "build:esbuild" exited with 1.
*** Error code 1
Stop.
make: stopped in /usr/ports/net-im/signal-desktop
=>> Cleaning up wrkdir
===> Cleaning for signal-desktop-7.44.0_1
build of net-im/signal-desktop | signal-desktop-7.44.0_1 ended at Mon Mar 10 05:13:34 CET 2025
build time: 00:00:47
!!! build failure encountered !!!
I notified the FreeBSD maintainer. He kindly replied, that he has notified devel/esbuild and the issue will be fixed.
Earlier this year, I noticed, that a similar issue happened. The required version was 0.21, while build environment had 0.24. I notified the maintainer. It was fixed.
Prevent Signal from being removed during update.
As a consequence of the failed build, I locked Signal. This prevents it from being deinstalled, while it fails to build.
# pkg lock signal-desktop
signal-desktop-7.42.0: lock this package? [y/N]:
It can later be unlocked.
# pkg unlock signal-desktop
Work-around for “Shared object “libFLAC.so.12″ not found”.
The update, while Signal being locked, resulted in a problem with a link to a FLAC library.
$ signal-desktop &
$ ld-elf.so.1: Shared object "libFLAC.so.12" not found, required by "signal-desktop"
I fixed this with a temporary link to the correct FLAC library. This should automatically be fixed, when Signal is fixed upstream.
# pkg info -l flac | grep libFLAC
/usr/local/lib/libFLAC++.a
/usr/local/lib/libFLAC++.so
/usr/local/lib/libFLAC++.so.11
/usr/local/lib/libFLAC++.so.11.0.0
/usr/local/lib/libFLAC.a
/usr/local/lib/libFLAC.so
/usr/local/lib/libFLAC.so.14
/usr/local/lib/libFLAC.so.14.0.0
/usr/local/share/aclocal/libFLAC++.m4
/usr/local/share/aclocal/libFLAC.m4
# pkg which /usr/local/lib/libFLAC.so.12
/usr/local/lib/libFLAC.so.12 was not found in the database
# ln -s /usr/local/lib/libFLAC.so.14 /usr/local/lib/libFLAC.so.12
# ldconfig -R
$ signal-desktop &
It can later be removed.
# rm /usr/local/lib/libFLAC.so.12
# ldconfig -R
Fixed.
The port compiled again 2025-03-21 and the package could be unlocked and the symbolic link removed.
References.
My Poudriere build machine suddently stopped at the following error, that seems to be caused by a problem with CMake or run-time dependency, which should be built automatically.
build started at Fri Mar 7 16:46:57 CET 2025
port directory: /usr/ports/graphics/evince
package name: evince-46.3.1
...
Poudriere version: poudriere-git-3.4.2
Host OSVERSION: 1402000
Jail OSVERSION: 1402000
...
Did not find CMake 'cmake'
Found CMake: NO
Run-time dependency gnome-desktop-3.0 found: NO (tried pkgconfig)
meson.build:237:20: ERROR: Dependency "gnome-desktop-3.0" not found, tried pkgconfig
Any tips for solutions are greatly appreciated.
References.
Pictures from my bike cycling round-trip on the fast Canyon gravel bike of daily life in suburbs of Nørrebro, Copenhagen city centre and Frederiksberg here in Denmark.
Tracker3 core dumps on FreeBSD with GNOME.
If you have a FreeBSD desktop computer with the GNOME desktop environment, or similar open source desktop computer, you might have noticed random Tracker3 core dumps on the file system.
$ find . -name '*.core'
./bin/tracker3.core
./projects/tracker3.core
You might also have noticed messages about Tracker3 error, exit and core dumps in system logs.
$ dmesg
pid 2416 (tracker3), jid 0, uid 1001: exited on signal 10 (no core dump - other error)
pid 2451 (tracker3), jid 0, uid 1001: exited on signal 10 (no core dump - other error)
pid 2848 (tracker3), jid 0, uid 1001: exited on signal 10 (core dumped)
What is Tracker3?
A first approach to learning, what Tracker3 is, would be to open its manual page. Unfortunately, as often seen with utilities like this, they do not include a manual by default.
$ man tracker3
No manual entry for "tracker3"
A search for “tracker3 official website” on search engines does not give a clean answer. The utility seems to not have a website nor a coding home listed on search engines. Again, a sign of poor coding and project management skills.
Thanks to Freshports, more about the utility can be learned. Here, it is described as a system utility, that index and harvest meta data for GNOME utilities, such as the file management utility Nautilus. A rather useless feature, in my oppinion. Its undocumented operation is a privacy concern. It might even scan files across datasets and partitions, which could be privacy concern.
Tracker is a powerful desktop-neutral first class object database, tag/metadata
database, search tool and indexer.
Tracker is also extremely fast and super efficient with your systems memory when
compared with some other competing frameworks and is by far the fastest and most
memory efficient Nautilus search and Deskbar backends currently availble.
It consists of a common object database that allows entities to have an almost
infinte number of properties, metadata (both embedded/harvested as well as user
definable), a comprehensive database of keywords/tags and links to other
entities.
Freshports does have a reference to a page, which seems to be about Tracker3 by GNOME, but aligned with their poor views on privacy and security, the site either does not work or blocks privacy VPNs.
<Code>AccessDenied</Code>
It does not come with a manual by default. However, according to FreeBSD Manual Pages, there are no known manual for it. I even tried compiling it with option for installing its manual pages. It was not installed.
===> The following configuration options are available for tracker3-3.5.3_3:
DOCS=on: Build and/or install documentation
MAN=off: Install manual pages
It is a dependency of Nautilus, which does not have an option for disabling this.
Removing Tracker3 from GNOME and FreeBSD.
If a system utility, that index and harvest the file system for filenames and metadata in the background, is not needed or unwanted, it might be a logic approach, that Tracker3 is removed with the package manager. However, as seen in the output, it does not seem, that GNOME wanted that to be an option.
# pkg remove tracker3
Checking integrity... done (0 conflicting)
Deinstallation has been requested for the following 7 packages (of 0 packages in the universe):
Installed packages to be REMOVED:
evince: 43.1_11
gnome-lite: 42_5
gnome-terminal: 3.44.2_3
gnome-tweaks: 40.10_4
nautilus: 42.2_3
sushi: 42.0_5
tracker3: 3.5.3_3
Number of packages to be removed: 7
The operation will free 38 MiB.
Proceed with deinstalling packages? [y/N]:
Tracker3 in GNOME is a privacy concern.
Tracker3 is deeply embedded in GNOME. Tracker3 comes enabled without consent from the user. It is a forced installation, that comes with no clear information, warning nor documentation. It is difficult or impossible to disable or deinstall. It scans file systems, datasets and partitions. It stores metadata from files, that has been downloaded temporary. It stores metadata for files, that has been deleted. It stores metadata in internal database and hidden files. It does not have an interface to manage data. This is not a utility, that fits well with the UNIX philosophy. Tracker3 is a privacy concern.
Disabling Search and Tracker3 in GNOME.
Tracker3 can to some degree be disabled from within GNOME by going to the Settings menu and Search and then disabling Application Search. This also seems to reduce the amount of core dumps. However, I have been able to find any documentation about this.
Switching from GNOME to XFCE.
Switching desktop environment from GNOME to XFCE, or similar more simple, resource friendly and privacy focused desktop environment, could be a better over-all solution. The switch to XFCE should be fairly straight forward, because it is also based on X. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee, that XFCE will not implement the same or similar kind of file system metadata scanner at some point. A reason is, that some users and project contributors believe, that a desktop search feature is more important than privacy and security.
References.
- Tracker3 on Freshports.
- TSPARQL.
- TinySPARQL on GNOME.
- Desktop Search on Wikipedia.
- XFCE desktop environment.