# Unable to start xfce desktop

**URL:** <https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/unable-to-start-xfce-desktop/2920>\
**Category:** Get Help\
**Created:** [August 24, 2023, 1:46am UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/unable-to-start-xfce-desktop/2920 "2023-08-24T01:46:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 3

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**Author:** ![sh\_hpc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@sh\_hpc](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/sh_hpc)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2023, 4:00pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/unable-to-start-xfce-desktop/2920/3 "2023-08-29T16:00:07Z")

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@jeff.ohrstrom Thank you for your suggestion!

Setting that variable indeed solves the second error (`dbus[166472]: Unable to set up transient service directory: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR "/run/user/10015" not available: No such file or directory`)

However, the first dbus error is still there (`Failed to init libxfconf: Error spawning command line ?dbus-launch --autolaunch=f0b48b7a638f47108c5dd1696e7d1e28 --binary-syntax --close-stderr?: Child process exited with code 1.`)

I noticed that this error results from running `xfconf-query` in two different lines, as seen in the output.log:

```auto
++ xfconf-query -c xfce4-session -p /startup/ssh-agent/enabled -n -t bool -s false
Failed to init libxfconf: Error spawning command line ?dbus-launch --autolaunch=f0b48b7a638f47108c5dd1696e7d1e28 --binary-syntax --close-stderr?: Child process exited with code 1.
++ xfconf-query -c xfce4-session -p /startup/gpg-agent/enabled -n -t bool -s false
Failed to init libxfconf: Error spawning command line ?dbus-launch --autolaunch=f0b48b7a638f47108c5dd1696e7d1e28 --binary-syntax --close-stderr?: Child process exited with code 1.

```

I manually went into the compute node and ran the exact same xfconf-query lines above. As root user, the command has exit status 0. But as the user, there is this error:

```auto
[testuser@c176 ~]$ xfconf-query -c xfce4-session -p /startup/ssh-agent/enabled -n -t bool -s false
Failed to init libxfconf: Cannot autolaunch D-Bus without X11 $DISPLAY.

```

So, the error message from the manual run vs. from xfce.sh slightly differ, but I wonder if they are caused by the same problem.

The error from the manual run says $DISPLAY is not set, which is similar to the error I see when I launched the Desktop in OOD, both referring to that variable:

```auto
xfce4-session: Cannot open display: .

```

I’m trying to find anything related to setting $DISPLAY in the OSC config repo, but I didn’t find anything. Any ideas?

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