# Issues with RedHat8 and XDG settings for desktop applications

**URL:** <https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/issues-with-redhat8-and-xdg-settings-for-desktop-applications/2703>\
**Category:** Get Help\
**Created:** [May 17, 2023, 5:22pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/issues-with-redhat8-and-xdg-settings-for-desktop-applications/2703 "2023-05-17T17:22:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![groucho64738](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/groucho64738/32/721_2.png) [@groucho64738](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/groucho64738)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2023, 5:22pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/issues-with-redhat8-and-xdg-settings-for-desktop-applications/2703/1 "2023-05-17T17:22:37Z")

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Hi. I’m wondering if anyone has had a similar issue in getting VNC sessions started properly when using RedHat 8 cluster nodes.

I’m trying to launch the ‘fiji’ application (though it doesn’t really matter what the end application is), and I’m basing this on the bc\_desktop launcher. The main issue is that while the application starts, there’s no window manager and ‘marco’ isn’t launching.

If I ssh into the cluster node, then launch the vnc app through ondemand, it does work with window decorations and all. I had this problem a long time ago with RedHat 7 systems and it came down to the unsetting of these environment variables in script.sh.erb:

unset XDG\_RUNTIME\_DIR  
unset XDG\_SESSION\_ID  
unset XDG\_DATA\_DIRS

This works fine for RH7 but doesn’t seem to work on RH8 in the same way. Has anyone encountered this?

Thanks.

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**Author:** ![groucho64738](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/groucho64738/32/721_2.png) [@groucho64738](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/groucho64738)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2023, 5:45pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/issues-with-redhat8-and-xdg-settings-for-desktop-applications/2703/2 "2023-05-17T17:45:02Z")

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wondering…does this have anything to do with the systemd --user stuff that might need to be in place for a user on RH8 that wasn’t there on redhat7.

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**Author:** ![groucho64738](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/groucho64738/32/721_2.png) [@groucho64738](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/groucho64738)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2023, 11:48am UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/issues-with-redhat8-and-xdg-settings-for-desktop-applications/2703/3 "2023-05-22T11:48:42Z")

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I think I made progress on this issue. I made sure that my RedHat8 system had the ‘dbus-x11’ package installed. Then in my script.sh.erb file, I had this:

```auto
dbus-launch /usr/bin/marco --no-composite --no-force-fullscreen --sm-disable &

# mate-panel blocks, but does not work reliably when launched in the same subshell as marco
dbus-launch mate-panel &

```

So I just stuck the dbus-launch in front of the window manager commands and it seemed happy. Just putting it in front of mate-panel wasn’t enough (looks like marco went away). If I just put the dbus launch in front of marco and not mate-panel, the panel doesn’t come up. So, it seems like putting it in front of both was the way to go.

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**Author:** ![jeff.ohrstrom](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/jeff.ohrstrom/32/136_2.png) [@jeff.ohrstrom](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/jeff.ohrstrom)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2023, 4:54pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/issues-with-redhat8-and-xdg-settings-for-desktop-applications/2703/4 "2023-05-22T16:54:58Z")

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Yea there are a couple of other topics related to RHEL 8 and these xfce scripts we launch (though I see you’re launching MATE instead).

In any case - the gist of them is that becuase of updates from RHEL 7 to 8 some commands don’t work the same anymore. They block and need to be backgrounded or they have different CLI options.

Do you need me to pull those topics for reference?

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**Author:** ![groucho64738](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/groucho64738/32/721_2.png) [@groucho64738](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/groucho64738)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2023, 5:34pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/issues-with-redhat8-and-xdg-settings-for-desktop-applications/2703/6 "2023-05-22T17:34:23Z")

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I had looked at the docs online with the configuration you have for matlab, and tried that as well, but generally had the same issue until I did the dbus-launch. If you can find those topics, it might be helpful as well.

Thanks.

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**Author:** ![jeff.ohrstrom](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/jeff.ohrstrom/32/136_2.png) [@jeff.ohrstrom](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/jeff.ohrstrom)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2023, 5:40pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/issues-with-redhat8-and-xdg-settings-for-desktop-applications/2703/7 "2023-05-22T17:40:09Z")

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Here are a couple I found off the top of my head. Again though, they deal with XFCE, not MATE, but could be a similar issue as they are also RHEL 7 → 8 migrations.

> [@Matlab Interactive App with Xfce and Rocky 8 RHEL/8](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/matlab-interactive-app-with-xfce-and-rocky-8-rhel-8/2652):
>
> Hello, I am using OnDemand version: 2.0.31 and I’m halfway to getting the Interactive Matlab App working. With the usual script.sh.erb it doesn’t worked and i always got an Connection refused Error. I worked it around with help of other Discourse Topics where @JeffOhrstorm mentioned to put sleep in between the script. Now i get a Launch Button on the Interactive App Session page but when i start the VNC Session i cant see Matlab, but i can see the desktop. So when i start a Terminal from the de…

> [@XFCE Windowing Issue With Interactive Apps](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/xfce-windowing-issue-with-interactive-apps/2647/2):
>
> There is some issue in the way we wrote our apps and RHEL/8. Your OOD version has no affect on this issue. From the looks of your before.sh.erb you may have already seen these topics. I had to sprinkle in some sleep commands here and there. The last post on the MATLAB topic may be of interest too, it doesn’t have sleeps but also has eval $(dbus-launch --sh-syntax) which may be important in this context.

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**Author:** ![groucho64738](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/groucho64738/32/721_2.png) [@groucho64738](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/groucho64738)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2023, 10:37am UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/issues-with-redhat8-and-xdg-settings-for-desktop-applications/2703/8 "2023-05-25T10:37:54Z")

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Yeah, these both are essentially the same solution (dbus-launch), guess my searching wasn’t particularly good.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/osc/original/2X/b/bae70bd0ed39a3ae769c2108155f4cb3e9da8385.png) [@system](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 10:38am UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/issues-with-redhat8-and-xdg-settings-for-desktop-applications/2703/9 "2023-11-21T10:38:43Z")

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Closed on November 21, 2023, 10:38am UTC

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