is `$HOME/.xinitrc` file sourced/executed/needed in `workspace-full-vnc`?

[wahabshah]

Bug description

• May be it is my wrong understanding of how xfce4 starts the desktop but i dont see the $HOME/.xinitrc X11 dotfile being executed/needed at all in the workspace-full-vnc image. Therefore the question, is it even needed? or is it an artifact from some older setup before?
• As far as i see /usr/bin/gp-vncsession in $HOME/.bashrc starts the following sequence of processes to start Xfce4 desktop:-
  • $HOME/.bashrc starts /usr/bin/vncserver -> /etc/alternatives/vncserver -> /usr/bin/tigervncserver
  • /usr/bin/tigervncserver starts /etc/X11/Xvnc-session
  • /etc/X11/Xvnc-session starts /etc/X11/Xsession
  • /etc/X11/Xsession then :-
  • writes to $HOME/.xsession-errors
  • loops and source in folder /etc/X11/Xsession.d the following files:-
    • 20dbus_xdg-runtime
    • 20x11-common_process-args
    • 30x11-common_xresources
    • 35x11-common_xhost-local
    • 40x11-common_xsessionrc
    • 50x11-common_determine-startup
    • 55xfce4-session
    • 60x11-common_localhost
    • 60x11-common_xdg_path
    • 75dbus_dbus-launch
      • starts /usr/bin/dbus-launch --exit-with-session --sh-syntax
    • 90gpg-agent
    • 90x11-common_ssh-agent
    • 95dbus_update-activation-env
    • 99x11-common_start
      • /etc/alternatives/x-session-manager -> /usr/bin/startxfce4 read /etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc to start xfce4-session
      • xfce4-session reads /etc/xdg/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-session.xml starts the following :-
      • xfwm4
      • xfsettingsd
      • xfce4-panel
      • Thunar --daemon
      • xfdesktop
• The whole XFCE4 desktop is loaded without sourcing or symbolic linking to $HOME/.xinitrc
• According to startxfce4 documentation, if user config is to be used then it need to be put under ~/.config/xfce4/xinitrc, which is also not the case
• Yes $HOME/.xinitrc can be used by xinit program to start X server but it is also not the case here as there is no such package xorg-xinit installed to contain xinit

Steps to reproduce

• 
  • Dockerfile for the repo simply bases from workspace-full-vnc and removes the .xinitrc

    FROM gitpod/workspace-full-vnc:latest
    RUN rm -rf $HOME/.xinitrc                 \
    && sudo sed -i.bkp -e 's|chmod 755 "$HOME/.xinitrc"|# chmod 755 "$HOME/.xinitrc"|g' /usr/bin/gp-vncsession

• gp-vncsession works even (without .xinitrc) after it opens in gitpod :-

  info[gp-vncsession]: Increased shmem to 4GB
  info[gp-vncsession]: * Starting system message bus dbus ...done.
  info[gp-vncsession]: Starting tigerVNC server on port 5900
  info[gp-vncsession]: Waiting for the desktop to be fully loaded ...
  info[gp-vncsession]: Starting noVNC web client on port 6080

• Proof that no $HOME/.xinitrc exists after it opens in gitpod:-

  gitpod /workspace $ ls -alh ~/.xinitrc
  ls: cannot access '/home/gitpod/.xinitrc': No such file or directory

• Xfce4 Desktop loads (without .xinitrc) :-

Expected behavior

• chunks/tool-vnc/.xinitrc is removed
• workspace-full-vnc works as before even without chunks/tool-vnc/.xinitrc

Example repository

• https://gitpod.io/#https://github.com/wahabshah/dev-env-debian/tree/gitpod-vnc-without-xinitrc

Anything else?

No response

[axonasif]

Hi @wahabshah, that is not used. But kept as a reference.

And xfce4 or other modern DEs don't normally inherit the modifications made to the display server through .xinitrc shell commands but instead overwrite them.