Students/Faculty and Staff returning to CS courses from a previous semester (Spring 2026 or earlier) will likely need to upgrade their XFCE configuration using the fix_xfce script for a better user experience on Ubuntu 26.04 (Resolute Raccoon).

Students who first got accounts in Fall 2026 or later should not need to run this script.

XFCE issues

The fix_xfce script will fix the following issues:

  • Missing or broken application icons

  • Unable to xlock the screen

  • Spurious xfdesktop popups asking to assign a desktop icon layout to the current monitor

  • Missing clock in top panel

  • Missing user name, real name in top panel.

To run this script, you must be logged out of your XFCE session. You can either connect to the CS network remotely via SSH on you personal device or switch to a console session on the client machine using Ctrl-Alt-F1

Recommended method (ssh remote login)

This method requires you to ssh to the CS network from your personal device. You will need to know your CS username and password.

  1. Remotely connect to the CS network (ssh username@cslab.cs.swarthmore.edu)

  2. Run fix_xfce script and follow the prompts. It is OK to allow the script to remove and replace existing panels and icons it suggests.

Try logging in to the graphical session on a CS machine. You should see a Raccoon background, a clock in the upper right corner, and no broken icons in the bottom panel.

Alternate method (console session)

  1. At any CS client, press Ctrl-Alt-F1 to switch to a console/text session.

  2. Sign in using your CS login in password

  3. Run fix_xfce script and follow the prompts. It is OK to allow the script to remove and replace existing panels and icons it suggests.

  4. Once the script is finished, type exit to log out of the console session.

  5. Switch back to the graphical session using Ctrl-Alt-F7

  6. If F7 does not work, try Ctrl-Alt-F8 or Ctrl-Alt-F9.

Try logging in to the graphical session on a CS machine. You should see a Raccoon background, a clock in the upper right corner, and no broken icons in the bottom panel.

Still having issues?

If you are still having issues with your XFCE configuration, please contact the CS sysadmins at sysadmins @ cs.swarthmore.edu.

You can also try to run the script again. Using fix_xfce -e -y will answer yes to all prompts and will remove and replace your old config.

Admin options

Faculty and staff with sudo access can reset the XFCE configuration for any user by running sudo fix_xfce -u username where username is the CS username of the user whose configuration you want to reset. This command must be run on allspice, but you do not need to be in a console session to reset someone else’s configuration.